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Why don't we just ban frogs from the board altogether?

JustA"Friend" -- after thoroughly reading and re-reading my post, I found nothing that you should get upset about. Calm down, check your blood pressure. Deep breaths...

Anyway, I wasn't calling all of Froggie Nation morons. I was referring to those two or three people on the board that were trashing SMU.

[This message has been edited by UNFMustang06 (edited 06-16-2003).]

Old Pony: I've always felt that the cities of Dallas and Houston have had a 'rivalry' that extends to its schools as well as professional sports teams. You can't tell me that when the Dallas Cowboys take on the Houston Texans (and before them the Houston Oilers) there's not a 'rivalry' involved. SELLOUT GAMES! And when the Houston Rockets take on the Dallas Mavericks. Or the Texas Rangers take on the Houston Astros. I could go on and on. So, doesn't it make sense that SMU (the ONLY major university in Dallas!) should develop rivalries with the University of Houston and/or Rice University? Your thoughts...?

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"Winning ain't everything...but it's a lot more fun than the alternative!" S.M.U. SPIRIT: IT STARTS NOW!

[This message has been edited by MrMustang1965 (edited 06-16-2003).]

I am not upset at all. I am also not a moron and I happen to be a "froggie." Thank you for the clarification of who is and isn't a moron. In fact, I happen to think some TCU football fans are morons. Just not this one.

[This message has been edited by JustAFriend (edited 06-16-2003).]

"Can't we all just 'get along'?"

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"Winning ain't everything...but it's a lot more fun than the alternative!" S.M.U. SPIRIT: IT STARTS NOW!

I think any way you spin it, it would be in the best interest of the old SWC schools to partner after the dominos fall. Certainly, the four of us on a united front could help prevent these national conferences that are a financial disaster, and act in the best interest of the Southwest (we could learn a lot from the union of the four ACC North Carolina schools).

Clearly, a "Texas-4 partnership" would also be appealing to the CUSA and WAC schools who are in financial trouble... the ability to play two opponents with only one airline ticket is the reason SMU/Rice have been mentioned for CUSA expansion and TCU/Houston have been mentioned for WAC expansion.

Regardless, I think what you can't deny is that the last 10 years of conference expansion and launches have taught us that non-football or football-only members does not work... their are too many conflicting interests. You could say the same for these national conferences that not only have regional differences of opinion, but also put a huge strain the athletic budget.

Mr. Mustang- I was really just wondering out loud why all the Houston mentions. They have been rivals only for a fairly short time (although their lack of class one year heated things up). No one I know in Houston gives a cr*p about U of H. athletic programs or anything else about the school. Maybe it is just the people I know but I thought that they had extreme problems in attendance, facilities etc. I like having rivals in Houston but is U of Houston well enough thought of to be a rival? At least with Rice, there is a very long tradition and Rice's academics are second to none. U of H just seems to be there. I can't remember any particular successes they have had in the past 10 years either.

This is funny.

On a related but tangential note, I was flying to Houston on Friday and could not help but overhear the conversation going on in the face to face rows in front of me. One of the guys was a Houston grad and was [deleted] about how Houston got left out of the SWC shake up because of Ann Richards' Baylor ties and essentially saying that they should have been in the "Big 4" that left instead of Baylor. This somewhat shocked me, though I don't know why it should have. I, of course, had always thought of it as Baylor or SMU, and Baylor because of politics. It never occurred to me that Houston thought of itself as second in line (behind Baylor) for the move to the Big XII. In my mind, Cougar High was always somewhat of a misfit given its late arrival to the SWC, its commuter school status, etc. But apparently they had and have the same delusions of grandeur we had.

SMU with its Ken Pye Model of athletics would have probably been the last school in the SWC leftovers to be considered for the Big 12 with the possible exception of Rice. TCU, Houston, BYU, Colorado St, and just about any school in a connecting state would have choosen over SMU. The Big 12 wanted no part of the Ken Pye mentality. Ken Pye as President of the SWC President's commission did more to [deleted] UT and A&M off that in single person in the conference. If you remember he was strongly pushing even stronger academic handicaps for UT and A&M to endure that the Big 8 schools did not face. Ken Pye was a huge stimulus to the disenchantment of UT and A&M.

I was living in Durham at the time, where Pye was head of the law school (I think) and served as faculty liason to athletics. The tennis coach (forget his name...might have been Steve Stom?) told me when Pye took the SMU job that we just got something WORSE than the death penalty. Apparently, Pye did more in his brief tenure at Duke (at least from some of their coaches' perspective in that athletics capacity) to run down the programs than anyone could have imagined. I remember how he was advocating no special admissions for the SWC.

It pleases me to have Dr Turner in charge...his time at Ole Miss taught him the value of "The Grove" and I expect "The Boulevard" was one of his 1st priorities for the revival of SMU athletics. There are simply too many people who still care to let this thing die.