Schedule is terrible next season!!!

[PonySnob]

What idiot planned the 2003 football schedule? No home games until September 20?? Sounds like there is a good chance we will have not won a game heading into our first home game. Nothing like having 5,000 fans at your first home game as the team is 0-3 before having a game at Ford Stadium. Doesn't the athletic department remember the sellout for the Kansas game to open Ford and then losing 3 in a row before the next home game and only having 6,000 in attendance? What a long slow death our athletic programs are having!

[Mustangs35SMU]

Actually we only play 2 games before our first home game! right after the Texas Tech game we get a week off

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The Red and Blue Is Back! God Bless SMU Football!

[Charleston Pony]

Don't worry about the home opener. Okie State will draw a good crowd. I would expect 25-30,000 for that one. Let's just hope we compete better than we did last year. If you want to worry about attendance, then worry about how many we might draw for UTEP in our 2nd home game if we start out 0-4 with losses at TTech, Baylor & Nevada and lose to Okie State at home. The home schedule is going to be tough with OSU, Boise, Fresno & TCU. Better win those games with UTEP & Rice and hope to win one of the other four. We really do have some good teams visiting Ford next year.

[gostangs]

This is exactly the point I have been trying to make - to climb out of the cellar we need to stack the deck better our way in our OC schedule - only for a year or two and THEN schedule OSU and Tech - we are trying to run before we walk - if we had 2-3 wins going into our WAC schedule we would have attendence mo through the rest of the year and a good shot at a bowl - pray for a Big 12 knock off - the Baylor game is huge for us.

[football_fan]

we get enough cupcakes in the wac, we need the tough out of conf. teams on our schedule.

as for a bowl bid, there is no way smu will ever go to a bowl with the current setup in the wac. our 3 bowls (hawaii, boise, and silicon valley, which i think will be gone next year) would probley cancel their games if they had to give smu a bid. it would be tough for any of these bowls to take place without their local schools in them, and if they did they would want a large state school with lots of fans.

[Otto]

And we miss two weeks of 100-plus degree Dallas heat. Not that it will be cooler for the team as it hits the road, but as fans, we miss a couple of scorchers.

And that also means we have a lot of home games at the end of the season. More nice fall afternoons at Ford Stadium!

[DiamondM]

Yes, it is a tough schedule. But I disagree that it is a mistake. In order to get home and homes ASAP against traditional SWC schools that people will actually come see, we needed to go on the road at Tech and Baylor. We could not afford to wait a couple more years of Cal State Fullerton and other non-drawing cupcakes in our OOC schedule. We had to, and must continue to, schedule Big XII opponents. Our close loss against Tech last year probably did 100 times more good in recruiting and confidence building and attendance boosting than a W on the schedule against a no name would have done. The same is true the coming season.

And Okie State will be well attended even if we lose the 1st 2 games. And if we beat Baylor, which is doable, then at worst we'll be 1-2 in the Big XII, which is more than Baylor will probably be able to say.

[Nacho]

If Baylor loses upwards of 20 players due to academics then I like our chances. In fact I would like them a lot. What was going on down there?

[NavyCrimson]

WELL SAID!

FURTHERMORE........once we start beating these little-12 (rivals), they probably wont be playing us anymore.....so we need to get our hits in now for the good of recruiting, exposure & the crowds!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DiamondM:
<B>Yes, it is a tough schedule. But I disagree that it is a mistake. In order to get home and homes ASAP against traditional SWC schools that people will actually come see, we needed to go on the road at Tech and Baylor. We could not afford to wait a couple more years of Cal State Fullerton and other non-drawing cupcakes in our OOC schedule. We had to, and must continue to, schedule Big XII opponents. Our close loss against Tech last year probably did 100 times more good in recruiting and confidence building and attendance boosting than a W on the schedule against a no name would have done. The same is true the coming season.

And Okie State will be well attended even if we lose the 1st 2 games. And if we beat Baylor, which is doable, then at worst we'll be 1-2 in the Big XII, which is more than Baylor will probably be able to say.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



[This message has been edited by Navy&Crimson (edited 02-10-2003).]