Worst Student Attendance for Football

[ALEX LIFESON]

Take a walk through Hughes Trigg Center, Meadows school of the Arts....or just a walk around campus. SMU is beginning to look like
Cal Berkeley or some other East Coast liberal school. The kids on campus now, could care less about American college football. Call it what you want.

[SMU_Alum11]

Sounds like we really need to market to different prospective students. Nobody wants uber liberal west or east coast kids!

[mrydel]

I’ve even reading this board since 2009 and one thing few people seem to realize or will accept is that smu football has not been a quality product. A few years over .500 with an above average offensive show against low level cusA opponents and you want the stands full? What about after that when the team had the worst defense in the NCAA for four years in a row and barely any d1 talent to speak of?

“Yeah let’s go to the SMU game and watch Baylor try to set the record for offensive yards in a single game!”

Hahaha. Sorry, I know there is school pride and all that Jazz, but football is entertainment. If it’s not entertaining, I’m going to find something else to do. Sorry, but it’s not fun to watch a team [deleted] the bed every week and people have better things to do with their Saturday and money.

Even at 5-1 in 2011, the team was still streaky on offense and quite frankly, not overly entertaining to watch.

No one should be saying “we should do _____ to get attendance up.” Unless the blank is filled with have a quality team on the field that scores points and has entertainment value. Any suggestion before taking care of that is pointless.

Quality product is certainly desired and the goal, but since when does the product define supporting your classmates and friends?

[PoconoPony]

Take a walk through Hughes Trigg Center, Meadows school of the Arts....or just a walk around campus. SMU is beginning to look like
Cal Berkeley or some other East Coast liberal school. The kids on campus now, could care less about American college football. Call it what you want.

You are absolutely right in your observation that the students today do not really care about sports. They are into themselves and things they want to do. Sports is not a high priority and only if it is entertaining and full of constant action. Four hours of TV time outs, video replays, little action, sitting in the sun and little interest in sports makes for attendance issues at most schools. Kids today have little attention span and are action driven junkies based on video games and their personal interests. In addition, ( my opinion) the higher academic students ( as SMU academic standards rise ) in general simply have never been interested in athletics from the youngest ages and nothing changes when they go to college. They would rather party or study. The only interest they have in sports is fantasy games where they might have great interest in designing their own teams based on drafted players, but have little interest in actually attending a game or winners/losers--just the stats. Just look at the vast numbers of empty seats on most TV games and that includes P5 teams especially the bottom half teams of those conferences. I am not sure if there is a real solution to include winning when the culture of the younger generation has so drastically changed.

[tristatecoog]

Tulane, Tulsa and Rice are just as bad, if not worse.
Kansas had more students at their game but fewer overall.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

students today do not really care about sports. They are into themselves and things they want to do. Sports is not a high priority....They would rather party or study.

you make valid points, but if "they don't care about sports" why do they show up at Moody for SMU basketball?

[Pony81]

Football is simply a tool to connect with alumni. Students in most universities gave up on sports as a general rule.
So we keep playing because we don’t know how to stop without damaging our relationship with our alums - who give money .

[AustinPerson]

Free cocaine and half time seminars on how to manage a trust fund. Those are the only two things that interest SMU students (and alumni).

[JasonB]

SMU has had a balanced student body for the last 30 years. Theater and Liberal Arts counterbalance business and frat.

Football and baseball are alumni sports for most colleges now. So few students play or are into those sports, they are the minority. And participation will continue to drop for those sports. Basketball and soccer have higher participation rates and are fixed, smaller time periods. That is where the shift will continue over time.

[SMU_Alum11]

SMU has had a balanced student body for the last 30 years. Theater and Liberal Arts counterbalance business and frat.

Football and baseball are alumni sports for most colleges now. So few students play or are into those sports, they are the minority. And participation will continue to drop for those sports. Basketball and soccer have higher participation rates and are fixed, smaller time periods. That is where the shift will continue over time.

If this is true, sports are over for me. Baseball and Football are as American as the constitution! Basketball is good but soccer is atrociously boring!

Honestly I say the strategy is getting locals involved. I wish we would do what I know at least Southlake did when I was in high school. Get the athletes out selling season tickets to highland park and university park. It’s so much more personable and feel like you are getting connected versus a call center kid asking. I dunno if it will work but to me it seems a better strategy then the one we are on.

[SoCal_Pony]

Sports is not a high priority and only if it is entertaining and full of constant action. Four hours of TV time outs, video replays, little action, sitting in the sun and little interest in sports makes for attendance issues at most schools. Kids today have little attention span and are action driven junkies based on video games and their personal interests. In addition, ( my opinion) the higher academic students ( as SMU academic standards rise ) in general simply have never been interested in athletics from the youngest ages and nothing changes when they go to college. They would rather party or study.

Pocono,

Kids today are simply a product of modern technology. One could argue they are more advanced. A typical college football game last 3 hours and 15 minutes, of which there are over 100 commercials and only 11 minutes of actual live action. That’s insane. Look how traditional TV is getting hammered because of wasted advertising time. Multiply that by 100 and you have American football. Good for the consumer, they are wising up. Strike 1.

Concussion issues are real and will get worse before it gets better. Exhibit A -Wes Hopkins & Andre Waters. Add to this is FB is costly & violent and schools are becoming more in debt and progressive. Strike 2.

70% of new immigrants to America are either Asian or Hispanic. Good Luck naming the Top 10 All-Time Asian or Hispanic football players. International students continue to make their mark on top US universities. Once again, schools are in debt and many of these students pay full pop so these kids from Asia are not going away. Strike 3.

On the other hand, Basketball is a true international sport that only lasts 2 hours, has far more action without the concussion/ injury issues of FB.

I saw part of the Cincy game. The crowd was depressing....yet thousands would have been turned away if it was a BB game at Moody.

That has to be the focus of this small private school that wants to improve its academic ranking and become more international going forward.

BASKETBALL

[ALEX LIFESON]

If it's a diverse student body SMU wanted; then mission accomplished. Like I said earlier, walk through some of these buildings, you will have to remind yourself, that you are still in Texas. Most of these kids haven't even heard of American football.

[horsemanx]

If it's a diverse student body SMU wanted; then mission accomplished. Like I said earlier, walk through some of these buildings, you will have to remind yourself, that you are still in Texas. Most of these kids haven't even heard of American football.

SMU cares more about test scores than football scores.

I would much rather have good student attendance at football and be ranked in the 80s academically.

[ALEX LIFESON]

If it's a diverse student body SMU wanted; then mission accomplished. Like I said earlier, walk through some of these buildings, you will have to remind yourself, that you are still in Texas. Most of these kids haven't even heard of American football.

SMU cares more about test scores than football scores.

I would much rather have good student attendance at football and be ranked in the 80s academically.

Well, RGT and the powers that be, don't agree with you.

[Jackets N Pones]

I dunno what happened to Mustang 11, but they are non existant this year, them plus their alums were the first 2 -3 rows and held down attendance. Many of my friends moved into shaded areas for the game yesturday.

Mustang 11 class of '06 here. I did not know there was alumni involvement with Mustang 11. How can I get connected?