Worst Student Attendance for Football

[ALEX LIFESON]

Well, after reading all of these post, it may be time to shut it down boys.

[SMUer]

These posts should mos def be a determining factor.

[Nacho]

i wish I liked soccer but it bores me to tears.
as for dropping down to a lower division i'm pretty sure that would end it for me.
I go now with my old (and I do me old) college roommate, who doesn't follow smu football but enjoys going to the home games.

[mrydel]

What in the world good would it do to drop a level? It would only lower interest and lower attendance even more.

[SMU_Alum11]

I can't speak to anything pre 2000, but i have to guess it's also been bad marketing on the school's behalf. There is around 33,000 people when combining HP and UP into the equation. I'm assuming not even 10% of that population goes to our games. I think if we started a program where athletes/coaches/other personnel go out to the local neighborhoods and sell season tickets would be a great way to tie in the local community. I know this worked well for SLC football players going around Southlake selling tickets. While I get HS and College is different, I don't believe this strategy has ever been tried.


Also, It would be great if we could also add flair around campus and on Mockingbird and Hillcrest that would help make the community and university tied together. I remember when I was going through Clemson and there are those orange paw prints on the road and such that made it feel the town and college were tied together.

I feel there's no harm or abhorrent amount of expense for the two above strategies. It's always felt like UP/HP are divided from SMU rather than tied into together. I'm open to all criticism of why we shouldn't try the above.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

What in the world good would it do to drop a level? It would only lower interest and lower attendance even more.

mrydel I am not for dropping a level yet....

but what "interest"?....are we deluding ourselves?
look at the stadium in the 2nd half...it's pitiful.
And it's pitiful even if we are in a tight OT game with a 6-1 team.
It's pitiful the week after June Jones beats a nationally ranked TCU!

Again what interest?
when are we going to face reality?
are we going to continue pretending we can "play with the big boys"?
more "moral victories"? to keep hope alive?
"well we hung with Michigan"..."well we hung with Cincy"..."well we hung with TCU"
but LOST to all of them!

are we going to keep saying for another 25 years....
"oh just wait 2-3 more years until so and so has his players"
or "we better market to Dallas"

it's not me....it's the stark truth....I dont like it any more than you do.
but I see the student section....I see the stadium in 3rd and 4th quarter
I see what our players see running out of the tunnel...it's embarrassing
Usually less people than Allen HS players see coming out of their tunnel.
So many prefer the Blvd to watching our team...
Gosh darn...it's the truth and hell yes it hurts

but i'm not sure it would drastically lower interest/attendance
if say SMU was playing more local teams building more local rivals and winning.

I know many now say "I'm throwing in the towel if we drop down"...
But hell most have already thrown in the towel...look at our empty stadium!
would they?
if we are winning it would be some new fans, some old fans..

It's almost like "whatta we got to lose"?...we're already terrible and empty stadium.

Does a 2-10 SMU D1 team draws better than say a 11-1 SMU D2 team?
competing for titles with teams we can maybe compete with?
I dunno....

Sure we draw folks to the stadium when we convince a P5 team to come in
and whip on us...
but is that such a great strategy?...loading up our stands with the enemy.
Basically fill our home stadium with Aggies or Red Raiders,
take a beating, for a payday, and pretend we have better attendance than we do?
Sure we may longshot an upset every ten years...whoop-de-doo!

[mrydel]

Evidentially you believe we would get the same level recruits at a lower level. We can’t beat James Madison as a Div 1 FBS. Why would we improve on what we have now?Nothing would change other than we would have no TV revenue, and no reason for even the 15,000 to come. I guess we can rent out Ford to a junior high and play our games at the soccer venue.

[Topper]

The week after June's team beat TCU in Fort Worth we received votes for the top 25. If I remember correctly, UT received none that week. UCF came to town on the next Saturday, a beautiful weather day, and I was appalled at the lack of a crowd. I had four tickets that I used to try to give away every week but couldn't find anyone to take them. There were recruits in the stands that weekend and I could only imagine what they were thinking. Right now we have enough deep pocket support to keep us alive in D!, but I see that hard core base diminishing as the pre-death penalty alums age. I don't even know where to start when it comes to trying to get the younger alums on board with making commitments to this program. The death of the SWC and the growth of the special events at Jerryworld have staggered us.

[PonySnob]

Evidentially you believe we would get the same level recruits at a lower level. We can’t beat James Madison as a Div 1 FBS. Why would we improve on what we have now?Nothing would change other than we would have no TV revenue, and no reason for even the 15,000 to come. I guess we can rent out Ford to a junior high and play our games at the soccer venue.

As an FYI, James Madison is averaging 23.5K and had over 25K in attendance in their win against Stony Brook this past Saturday. Their 20 game conference winning streak and 19 game conference winning streak was snapped a earlier this month in front of over 25K. Their lowest attended game drew 18K in September.


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[Timothythegreat]

Evidentially you believe we would get the same level recruits at a lower level. We can’t beat James Madison as a Div 1 FBS. Why would we improve on what we have now?Nothing would change other than we would have no TV revenue, and no reason for even the 15,000 to come. I guess we can rent out Ford to a junior high and play our games at the soccer venue.

Being DIV 1 FBS is an arbitrary distinction when for all intents and purposes, you have an FCS roster. The JMU game was two FCS teams playing.

[mrydel]

But it all becomes relative.

We are the only Div 1 football team in Dallas with a top tv market. You do not back up, you figure out how to move forward. Do I have the answers? If I did I would not be sitting here typing on this thread.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

I hear ya mrydel....

I am as down on this program as I have been in 25 years....but I do really like Sonny

i told a friend this week that "Sonny may be our last coach"

I hope I am wrong, because I sure love our Mustangs

[mrydel]

I like Sonny very much also. I think we are seeing the difference in hiring an experienced head coach versus a coordinator. Sonny immediately saw the needs and is trying his best to fill them quickly. If he will stay a while and if we can keep Kane or an equivalent for a while I think the team will greatly improve. Still not sure if that helps the attendance much but it would get better.

[Charleston Pony]

All this talk of "dropping down a level" and Division 2 is ridiculous. As I said earlier, we have effectively already been dropped down as a member of Division I-FBS but relegated to a G5 conference. The AAC is a good place for us right now, regardless of our pathetic attendance. We are right there with the bottom half of our conference mates in terms of attendance and can only hope that an improved product on the field that can compete for conference championships might get us to a point that 20,000 people come out to support this program. That is absolutely a possibility for the future of SMU football and I'm hopeful Sonny Dykes will be the guy who can get us there. It might take 4-5 years, but for all of us who have stuck with the program since the death penalty, what's another 4-5 years? We might lose some of our conference mates along the way (referring to the larger public schools like UCF, USF and even Houston and/or Cincinnati) because they enjoy larger followings and have had some success in both football and bball, but we are at least at the lower rung of the top Division in college football.

When people talk about Division 2, I assume they are really talking about Division I-FCS which would mean the Southland with teams like SFA, SHSU & Houston Baptist. Division 2 (or Division II to be technically correct) would be the Lone Star Conference with the likes of Tarleton State, Midwestern State, Angelo State, Texas A&M Commerce, West Texas A&M, etc... I don't see that ever happening. Consider schools like Texas State and UTSA who have climbed out of DI-FCS and are so much happier in the SunBelt and UNT who is happy to have joined CUSA.

I will follow and support SMU athletics no matter what level we compete at, but I understand those who have bailed on what has become a 2nd rate product. I just hope the day comes soon that SMU can lure those bandwagon fans back and I will continue to believe it is possible. As we complain about the poor attendance in Ford, I'm just glad we have Ford and those "crowds" aren't coming out to watch us play in an empty Cotton Bowl or Jerry World. Now that would really be pathetic.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

It might take 4-5 years, what's another 4-5 years?

Please....I just can't stand that anymore!
Cringe...lol
it's always just around the corner

I understand those who have bailed on what has become a 2nd rate product.

yes it is stunning to look out at the stands in the 2nd half...we have lost a lot of people...and it appears to be getting worse...especially with the students....IMO the Stables has been a disaster that diluted an already weak student section