Has the whole P5/G5 thing dampered the mood?

[BRStang]

Not sure if it's that SMU is now officially a "Group of 5" member or what (and believe me, I HATE that term), but it feels like the excitement surrounding our coaching search is just not there as it has been in years past. At least for me it isn't, and it certainly isn't for the rest of the CFB world. It barely seems alive even on this board.

I remember the year we hired June Jones, the atmosphere here on this board was electric, sometimes with 300 people or so logged in during the search. When we hired Chad Morris, there also seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm, although we knew pretty quickly who we were getting and that it was going to be a GREAT hire for us. There just seemed to be more of an attitude of hope and excitement for us Mustang fans even just a few years ago.

I don't know if that's gone now b/c it somehow feels even less likely now that we can ever attain relevance again, or what. But something seems to have changed. Did the whole P5/G5 do this? Or is it something else? I don't know. Then again, maybe I'm wrong about the general mood and enthusiasm level.

Look, it is important to me that SMU lands a good coach and can somehow persevere in this age of CFB. But has the dim reality slowly now set in on us that we will be forever "on the outside looking in?" I know our descent did not just happen all of a sudden, but is it just now that our own fans are realizing the hopelessness of the situation--punctuated by the G5 labeling? And is that affecting even our own excitement level about who will be our next coach.?

[skyscraper]

It's because we all know the list of candidates out there publicly is INCREDIBLY underwhelming. Last two hires were signs the school wanted to win. No serious candidate so far gives me or my friends that feeling.

[redpony]

ditto. our candidate list is totally underwhelming and there seems to be no urgency in making a decision. i.e. we are still interviewing people today?? why?? have all the good potential coaches turned us down for some reason? our ad was fully aware that cm was looking and he should have proactive in getting the ball rolling much earlier.

[mustangxc]

Personally, I’m just as excited as when we hired PB, JJ, and CM. However, I do agree that there isn’t nearly the same buzz as there was for previous hires. I honestly sensed this lack of enthusiasm even mid-season, which is what makes it more worrisome i.e. even with a top notch coach our fan base was still very apathetic.

[BRStang]

Do you think the lack of enthusiasm is because of the G5 label, and if so, what do you think schools like SMU, and the AAC, can do about it?

[Phxfan]

The whole P5/G5 is hurting all G5 schools. It seems strange that a business like CFB would slowly exclude millions of fans that support G5 programs. For self interest they should expand not contract. But they won't expand. I'm sure Boise, SDSU, Houston all feel left out. I have no idea how to fix it. Maybe try the old NFC/AFC thing and the G5's just go their own way, own bowls, own playoffs etc. Then hope at some near point in time, the public wants to know if the G5's can compete with the P5's and the pubic demands it? It may be getting to a point that the G5's need to walk, forcing the issue. As it stands, the G5's will just continue to die a slow death.

[mustangxc]

I don’t think it is really about the G5 label, but conference affiliation has always affected our level of support. I think it has more to do with the lingering disappointment of the tail end of the JJ years. The same thing happened to the Marlins after their 1997 World Series. When a team starts to build something only to tear it up it takes time to regain trust. We just need to maintain and improve on our record for a few years so we can build it back up.

[leopold]

The mood of the coaching search when we hired Jones was dead in the water until we actually announced the hire. If I remember correctly we were the first school that year to fire our coach and the last to hire his replacement. We here on this board were almost in full panic mode until they announced June.

The lack of a clear cut favorite and qualified HC prospect, the fact that our steady just dumped us, the years of getting our head handed to us, and other issues are what's dampening the mood.

[Rebel10]

P5 and G5 are the same as BCS schools and non BCS schools just different names. It’s the have and have not’s. Or as Kirk Herbstreit seems to like to refer to it as the big guys and the little guys.

[DiamondM75]

We also need to build a regional set of OOC schools. We should playing North Texas, TCU, UT San Antonio, UT El Paso or Texas State, then throw in a FCS team like Stephen F Austin, Arkansas State or Sam Houston. This should be our standard group of OOC every year.

Plus, we should market how easy and inexpensive it is to attend SMU football games. $20 tickets and free parking.

[redpony]

IIRC we had a few false starts prior to tiki and that did generate some interest. Plus the 'purple hippo' was always keeping us up to date on things. Today, no such thing.

[Stallion]

We also need to build a regional set of OOC schools. We should playing North Texas, TCU, UT San Antonio, UT El Paso or Texas State, then throw in a FCS team like Stephen F Austin, Arkansas State or Sam Houston. This should be our standard group of OOC every year.

Plus, we should market how easy and inexpensive it is to attend SMU football games. $20 tickets and free parking.

Nope the only thing keeping us above the Rice/UTEP Mendoza Line is the positive, successful performance profile of the AAC-go see what relegation has meant for them. Southern Miss has had a pretty tough fall too although they have recovered a bit against lower competition The AAC is better than we could have hoped for in a conference -and probably our highest possible landing spot. It is the next best thing to P5 which helps us remain competitive in coaching hires and recruiting. Fans just need to get on board because right now its our only shot at a national profile

[PoconoPony]

Not sure if it's that SMU is now officially a "Group of 5" member or what (and believe me, I HATE that term), but it feels like the excitement surrounding our coaching search is just not there as it has been in years past. At least for me it isn't, and it certainly isn't for the rest of the CFB world. It barely seems alive even on this board.

I remember the year we hired June Jones, the atmosphere here on this board was electric, sometimes with 300 people or so logged in during the search. When we hired Chad Morris, there also seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm, although we knew pretty quickly who we were getting and that it was going to be a GREAT hire for us. There just seemed to be more of an attitude of hope and excitement for us Mustang fans even just a few years ago.

I don't know if that's gone now b/c it somehow feels even less likely now that we can ever attain relevance again, or what. But something seems to have changed. Did the whole P5/G5 do this? Or is it something else? I don't know. Then again, maybe I'm wrong about the general mood and enthusiasm level.

Look, it is important to me that SMU lands a good coach and can somehow persevere in this age of CFB. But has the dim reality slowly now set in on us that we will be forever "on the outside looking in?" I know our descent did not just happen all of a sudden, but is it just now that our own fans are realizing the hopelessness of the situation--punctuated by the G5 labeling? And is that affecting even our own excitement level about who will be our next coach.?

I have had these sentiments for a number of years. How much $$$ should be put into our football program when we are relegated to being on the out side? Why should we get excited when our non-conference schedule provides so little excitement and this is the only place we can elevate our profile and generate real interest? The AAC only provides us 2 natural regional rivalries and no one cares about the rest of the schedule with the exception of Navy. Is there any chance to compete for a national championship with the current play off situation? No. We will end up with SMU spending millions to supplement a program that can only play in 3d and 4th tier bowl games. Hence, we must re-assess our expectation and what our program realistically can achieve.

[BRStang]

Yeah, I guess the P5/G5 situation is very similar to the BCS/non-BCS scenario of old, although it seems like now there is NO hope of ever going to a P5 while back in during the BCS we still had some delusions of that.

I don't know. There is certainly less interest and excitement than the last two searches and I can't put my finger on why. Maybe even the last of us still standing are just about out of "give a [deleted]."

[Charleston Pony]

We also need to build a regional set of OOC schools. We should playing North Texas, TCU, UT San Antonio, UT El Paso or Texas State, then throw in a FCS team like Stephen F Austin, Arkansas State or Sam Houston. This should be our standard group of OOC every year.

Plus, we should market how easy and inexpensive it is to attend SMU football games. $20 tickets and free parking.

Admittedly we don't get the attendance boost from our AAC opponents that came with our old SWC mates, but let's just hope we can keep TCU on the schedule and add another P5 school (that will give us a home/home deal) to the schedule in future years. I'm O.K. with continuing the UNT series as those games have been reasonably well attended but the only reason we should be scheduling FCS opponents is to balance the home/away dates in a given year. Let's face it, schools like Michigan are not going to give SMU a return visit so in years we can go on the road to play name programs, we have to fill a home date with some FCS school that knows they won't get a return visit from us.