New IPF

[Rebel10]

The real difference when recruiting these 10+ offer 3 & 4 star kids is the game day experience. 10,000 fans in a 32,000 seat stadium vs. 50-80,000 in a packed house P5 alternative.

Bingo! That's the biggest factor inhibiting SMU's recruiting. Doherty didn't do much right during his time at SMU, but one thing he was correct about was that the MBB program needed to draw at least 4,500 each game to attract solid recruits. The same applies to football. When SMU can legitimately get 25K+ BIS each home game, then 4* recruits will be interested.

SMU recruited solidly because the Crum was already in place when coach Brown got here. Attendance helps but not as much as facilities especially in football. While we can't insure attendance goes up immediately we can immediately do something about facilities. It is somewhat of a chicken and egg argument. They are doing what things they can do tangibility now. If you have attendance improvement suggestion you should probably send them to Hart. We have to get a better weight room that is totally devoted to football and not shared. It all helps. But did you notice that most of the recruits were talking about the plans for the new facilities and that was really exciting to them.

[blackoutpony]

The real difference when recruiting these 10+ offer 3 & 4 star kids is the game day experience. 10,000 fans in a 32,000 seat stadium vs. 50-80,000 in a packed house P5 alternative.

Bingo! That's the biggest factor inhibiting SMU's recruiting. Doherty didn't do much right during his time at SMU, but one thing he was correct about was that the MBB program needed to draw at least 4,500 each game to attract solid recruits. The same applies to football. When SMU can legitimately get 25K+ BIS each home game, then 4* recruits will be interested.

SMU recruited solidly because the Crum was already in place when coach Brown got here. Attendance helps but not as much as facilities especially in football. While we can't insure attendance goes up immediately we can immediately do something about facilities. It is somewhat of a chicken and egg argument. They are doing what things they can do tangibility now. If you have attendance improvement suggestion you should probably send them to Hart. We have to get a better weight room that is totally devoted to football and not shared. It all helps. But did you notice that most of the recruits were talking about the plans for the new facilities and that was really exciting to them.

Bingo. Most of them also talked about how much they like all the UNIFORMS and CHROME helmets.

[Rebel10]

We have to do what we can do right now which is facilities upgrade.

[couch 'em]

Note Morris' interview noted that the $500k was a much needed spruce up and that more significant upgrades were coming later

[Rebel10]

Georgia is another place with pretty similar to weather as us that does not have one. I read something about the coaches complaining about it.
I think IPF's make more economic sense in some ways when you baseball, lacrosse, etc, so multiple sports are using it. I wonder if it helps to get out of the heat for some practices in August as well.

Georgia building new IPF.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/ ... ion/nkC6Y/

And whoever said Florida did not have one is incorrect as well.

[Digetydog]

Georgia is another place with pretty similar to weather as us that does not have one. I read something about the coaches complaining about it.
I think IPF's make more economic sense in some ways when you baseball, lacrosse, etc, so multiple sports are using it. I wonder if it helps to get out of the heat for some practices in August as well.

Georgia building new IPF.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/ ... ion/nkC6Y/

And whoever said Florida did not have one is incorrect as well.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... e-facility

The Florida picture is a painting. They are building one.

[Rebel10]

Georgia is another place with pretty similar to weather as us that does not have one. I read something about the coaches complaining about it.
I think IPF's make more economic sense in some ways when you baseball, lacrosse, etc, so multiple sports are using it. I wonder if it helps to get out of the heat for some practices in August as well.

Georgia building new IPF.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/ ... ion/nkC6Y/

And whoever said Florida did not have one is incorrect as well.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... e-facility

The Florida picture is a painting. They are building one.

You're right. They said that 30 practices last year were effected by weather. Going to be a nice one.
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... -facility/

Georgia putting 30 million dollars into the facility.

[Terry Webster]

Here is UC's Bearcat Bubble, and inflatable ipf.

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/H6y-D5 ... rge.0.jpeg

[coloradoStang]

How much money has been pumped into athletics in the last 4 years? I think we are showing a huge commitment to athletics and that is a very positive sign. Have we ever spent money like this since the DP?

Just since I've been at SMU....Moody renovation, Larry Brown (and staff), Chad Morris, IPF, new renovations for coaches offices. (not including when we broke the payscale getting JJ when we first hired him)

[footballdad]

The real difference when recruiting these 10+ offer 3 & 4 star kids is the game day experience. 10,000 fans in a 32,000 seat stadium vs. 50-80,000 in a packed house P5 alternative.

Bingo! That's the biggest factor inhibiting SMU's recruiting. Doherty didn't do much right during his time at SMU, but one thing he was correct about was that the MBB program needed to draw at least 4,500 each game to attract solid recruits. The same applies to football. When SMU can legitimately get 25K+ BIS each home game, then 4* recruits will be interested.

SMU recruited solidly because the Crum was already in place when coach Brown got here. Attendance helps but not as much as facilities especially in football. While we can't insure attendance goes up immediately we can immediately do something about facilities. It is somewhat of a chicken and egg argument. They are doing what things they can do tangibility now. If you have attendance improvement suggestion you should probably send them to Hart. We have to get a better weight room that is totally devoted to football and not shared. It all helps. But did you notice that most of the recruits were talking about the plans for the new facilities and that was really exciting to them.

"Attendance helps but not as much as facilities"....yeah right. Sounds like another 'we have more money so we can buy our way in' argument. We can only do so much with facilities and it will still never compare to the big boys. When the final P5 invites go out, success on the field and support for the program will be much more important than the facilities.

Morris should provide the success on the field, the facilities will be as good as any of our AAC peers (still not nearly as good as our P5 competitors), support for the program will be the wild card.

[East Coast Mustang]

This is awesome. A great way to separate ourselves from the G5 have-nots and position ourselves as a program looking to make the next leap.

[CA Mustang]

SMU recruited solidly because the Crum was already in place when coach Brown got here.

The improvement started when Brown arrived and growing fan interest in the renovated Moody. Winning kept the fans there and allowed the school to raise prices significantly in Year 2. If Brown wasn't winning, fan support would fall back to 2,500 per game and no one would mention Crum at all.

Attendance helps but not as much as facilities especially in football.

That's a bunch of bull. What program has great facilities and wins yet draws poorly? Hell, what top 25 team draws poorly? Fan support drives facilities, not the other way around.

If you have attendance improvement suggestion you should probably send them to Hart.

Those have been beaten to death many times on this board. If Hart and the ticket folks still don't know, then they haven't been paying attention.

[CalallenStang]

Coming out of the June Jones era, I think a decent number of SMU fans are convinced that our facilities (including the lack of an IPF) are seriously substandard. Often, they point to IPF's at local high schools as evidence of how far we are behind.

Nevertheless, despite all of June's complaining to the Dallas Morning News, our facilities are not "that bad" and should have been sufficient to build a competitive program.

Note: I am not saying that improving our facilities is a bad idea.

So in other words, you cannot name anyone, other than maybe June himself, who had the idea that "all we needed was an IPF and June Jones would have succeeded."

Try reading the entire thread. You'll note how important, huge, etc some people believe the IPF will be. They think it will improve our record. I don't.

Don't EVER put words into my mouth.

[PK]

http://www.syracuse.com/orangelacrosse/index.ssf/2015/01/syracuse_mens_lacrosse_to_begin_using_indoor_practice_facility_on_tuesday.html

Nice facility. Kinda necessary when you get over 100" of snow per year.

I am obviously out it touch with what a dollar buys these days. Can someone explain how that place cost $13mil to construct? Seems like a lot of doll-hairs to build.

That works out to under $230/SF assuming full 100 yds long with a 20' buffer all around. there may be additional square footage and equipment involved. That's probably not too bad for commercial or industrial buildings of that size...plus artificial turf. A million here and a million there and before you know it you're talking real money.

[Rebel10]

We can only do so much with facilities and it will still never compare to the big boys.

Morris should provide the success on the field, the facilities will be as good as any of our AAC peers (still not nearly as good as our P5 competitors), support for the program will be the wild card.

We need the facilities now so that it can help attract good recruits so that it will help Morris provide the wins. You can't wave a magic wand and increase attendance but you can immediately upgrade facilities. TCU had P5 type facilities well before they entered a P5 conference so it can be done. We are trying get into a P5 conference and as you have said we do not have the facilities. Again, Morris is looking to get into a P5 conference so we need both facilities and attendance. Our new IPF will rival any P5 facility maybe even Geogia's. We can do both by not neglecting either. We can get the facilities built while doing what we can to improve attendance. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can work on both at the same time. Plus the schools that Coach Morris will be recruiting against have better facilities than SMU. Recruits have even recently said that they high schools have more up to date equipment than SMU. If you want the June Jones type of recruits with no P5 offers or no offers at all then yes stay where we are but we have to upgrade where we can. We are not recruiting against Temple or Tulane, we are recruiting against schools like Baylor, TCU, and Oklahoma St. If the donors are willing to upgrade the facilities only a fool would turn them down. Again, Morris is trying to upgrade facilities and improve attendance. I am pro facilities and pro attendance. No need to be pro attendance and anti facilities.