Clemson Spring Game on ESPNU

[Big12Mustang]

Looks more packed than an SMU conference game. Easily more than 30,000 people there

[East Coast Mustang]

Another terrible thread

[Big12Mustang]

Another terrible thread

Come on man, Really?

[Charleston Pony]

and South Carolina has 37,000 at their spring game yesterday...but football matters at both Clemson and South Carolina. Plenty of big time programs draw more than Ford can seat for exhibition games

[ojaipony]

I know. It's sad. SMU bball is killing it and football has an even HIGHER upside if we could just ever get our [Deleted] together. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that we should not have a sold out Ford for every game with "bigger games" needing to go to Jerry World or somewhere and it be a HOME game for us! With all the talent in Dallas alone, it's just crazy we are where we are. With all the kids growing up Cowboy fans and with Romo/Witten/Aikman/Deion/Jerry, etc coming to our BASKETBALL! games, don't tell me that if you were a stud at SMU you wouldn't get on their radar real quick and get a great look (heck even a half pint "nobody" like Beasley is becoming a starter and fan favorite for them - my guess is they wouldn't have ever even known who he was if he didn't play at SMU . . . in Dallas).

Anyway, I'll stop now -- thinking about our football program just gets my blood pressure up. So much potential . . . being squandered . . . just sad.

[SMU2007]

disagree that football has a higher upside.

[Big12Mustang]

I know. It's sad. SMU bball is killing it and football has an even HIGHER upside if we could just ever get our [Deleted] together. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that we should not have a sold out Ford for every game with "bigger games" needing to go to Jerry World or somewhere and it be a HOME game for us! With all the talent in Dallas alone, it's just crazy we are where we are. With all the kids growing up Cowboy fans and with Romo/Witten/Aikman/Deion/Jerry, etc coming to our BASKETBALL! games, don't tell me that if you were a stud at SMU you wouldn't get on their radar real quick and get a great look (heck even a half pint "nobody" like Beasley is becoming a starter and fan favorite for them - my guess is they wouldn't have ever even known who he was if he didn't play at SMU . . . in Dallas).

Anyway, I'll stop now -- thinking about our football program just gets my blood pressure up. So much potential . . . being squandered . . . just sad.

Definitely agree, Basketball is getting our brand out there, but Elite Football will be what gives us legendary status in Dallas.

[SMU2007]

Football doesn't have a higher upside. We will never ever ever have 100k fill our stadium like they do at ut, a&m, ou and all the sec schools.

Basketball is a different story. We will hopefully be able to compete for a title year in and year out. Moody has the ability to be on par with any place in the country.

Hoops is our ticket here. I hope football picks it up, but ceiling is much higher for basketball.

[Big12Mustang]

Football doesn't have a higher upside. We will never ever ever have 100k fill our stadium like they do at ut, a&m, ou and all the sec schools.

Basketball is a different story. We will hopefully be able to compete for a title year in and year out. Moody has the ability to be on par with any place in the country.

Hoops is our ticket here. I hope football picks it up, but ceiling is much higher for basketball.

Those are public schools, hard to compete against them period. You need to be a Notre Dame or USC level to compete. But we can compete with the other private schools in the country and of course in the state. We can strive to be the best private school in the state...better than BU, TCU and Rice...like we always were historically in both Basketball and Football.

And in this state, you get respect for Football, not Basketball. So does football have a higher upside? I think so.
Packing Ford for a single home game probably generates as much revenue as Moody could do in 4 or 5 home games. 32,000 is a great and doable target to reach and there is a ton of money in beer, concessions, tickets, parking and merchandise sales we can make from those 32,000 (36,000 if we sell out standing room)

[SMU2007]

So you're saying we can be the best of the 2nd tier? Hooray

[Big12Mustang]

So you're saying we can be the best of the 2nd tier? Hooray

It's better than having a dead football program, permanent G5 status and only basketball to carry us through midmajor land...

I don't get it. A lot of you are frustrated with our football and want to get rid of it because we currently suck/aren't competitive with elite schools from elite conferences...but when one of our fans believes in the potential of the school, and gives ideas on how to become elite in both sports, they are automatically delusional?

You said it yourself, the "ceiling is higher in basketball". Therefore don't complain if our football sucks arse as a consequence.

[East Coast Mustang]

Anyone who thinks football has a higher upside needs to check our attendance numbers from the early 80s when we were one of the most successful programs in the nation...still couldnt sell out unless there were a lot of visiting fans (Texas, Arkansas, A&M, etc)

[blackoutpony]

Anyone who thinks football has a higher upside needs to check our attendance numbers from the early 80s when we were one of the most successful programs in the nation...still couldnt sell out unless there were a lot of visiting fans (Texas, Arkansas, A&M, etc)

Stop using facts. It makes it a lot harder for people to make ridiculous arguments

[Big12Mustang]

Anyone who thinks football has a higher upside needs to check our attendance numbers from the early 80s when we were one of the most successful programs in the nation...still couldnt sell out unless there were a lot of visiting fans (Texas, Arkansas, A&M, etc)

Help me understand, ECM...where did we play our home games?

- Cotton Bowl (capacity 92,000)
- Texas Stadium (65,675)

Both of them off campus locations, while our rivals which were public flagship state universities, UT, Aggie and Arkansas played in gargantuan stadiums on campus.
We still managed a baseline of 30,000 to games where we played nobodies.
True, our ability to sell out a large 65k people stadium is harder than what it would be for public schools, let's not lose perspective here. We are a small school of 10k students in the middle of a major metropolitan area dominated by pro sports.

With Ford being on campus, and now with boulevarding and the other amenities on campus, setting a goal of 30,000 average attendance within 5 years is doable. TCU has around 10k students as well and they manage to pack 40k in their stadium, I don't see why we can't put 30k in Ford.

[East Coast Mustang]

Anyone who thinks football has a higher upside needs to check our attendance numbers from the early 80s when we were one of the most successful programs in the nation...still couldnt sell out unless there were a lot of visiting fans (Texas, Arkansas, A&M, etc)

Help me understand, ECM...where did we play our home games?

- Cotton Bowl (capacity 92,000)
- Texas Stadium (65,675)

Both of them off campus locations, while our rivals which were public flagship state universities, UT, Aggie and Arkansas played in gargantuan stadiums on campus.
We still managed a baseline of 30,000 to games where we played nobodies.
True, our ability to sell out a large 65k people stadium is harder than what it would be for public schools, let's not lose perspective here. We are a small school of 10k students in the middle of a major metropolitan area dominated by pro sports.

With Ford being on campus, and now with boulevarding and the other amenities on campus, setting a goal of 30,000 average attendance within 5 years is doable. TCU has around 10k students as well and they manage to pack 40k in their stadium, I don't see why we can't put 30k in Ford.

Even when we were one of the best teams in the entire country, we couldn't draw much more than 30K unless we were playing a big name opponent. I don't know how else to explain it to you.