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SMU needs to cut Men's swimming and bring back men's track. The way scholarships are given out in swimming makes it near impossible for us to be competitive while track was consistently top 25 in the country with a 3rd place finish in 2002. Also, Dave Wollman is back in Dallas and could easily revive the program with the top throwers in the world gravitating toward him.

Plus track helps football recruit.

Can someone please explain how swimming scholarships are distributed and why we are at a competitive disadvantage? Private universities USC, Stanford, Duke, and Harvard had successful seasons this year and in the past. Thanks.

Swimming is limited to 9.9 scholarships to be divided amongst all the swimmers. A swim team requires more than 10 swimmers so schools decide to either distribute full scholarships to 9.9 swimmers or can give partial scholarships to more swimmers. No matter how a school decides to distribute the scholarships they will need to find some swimmers willing to compete as walk-ons and as a result it puts private universities at a disadvantage when compared to in-state public universities due to the fact that SMU tuition is ridiculously high compared to public university tuition. This disparity is being exacerbated more and more as tuition gets more and mored out of hand. The same thing applies to track but thanks to Dave Wollman, we were attracting the top throwers in the world and as a result we were scoring big points at the NCAA championships and subsequently managed to have superior finishes as a team.

Y'all got me hooked on this... so latest 6/12 update. Only sport remaining to be scored is baseball:

151 Albany
152 SMU
153 Incarnate Word

It's simple. SMU cannot afford the athletics programs it runs. That is all on RGT. All the fund-raising, the stupid level of tuition (the education isn't remotely worth the cost) and we can't run an athletic department and end up with an uncomfortable situation where a small number of wealthy alum are supporting the programs but are unable to control their (mis)management.

RGT is a poison to athletics. Always has been.

Pony ^ wrote:RGT is a poison to athletics. Always has been.

He knows where his bread is buttered. Bottom line.

Bergermeister wrote:

Pony ^ wrote:RGT is a poison to athletics. Always has been.

He knows where his bread is buttered. Bottom line.

So you are saying or implying that the BOT wants our sports programs to be total failures? IIRC, most of the BOT was added due to being allies with RGT. Perhaps it is time for a complete house cleaning.

Or perhaps a thorough investigation proving that RGT is sabotaging our sports programs would be interesting info when posted publicly on MSM, twitter, fb etc.

All this RGT hate is a little misplaced. He is the top of the tree for sure but this is really a problem across all of college athletics where they are a drain on the vast majority of schools that run the programs. It's the natural result of all these administrators with jobs and salaries to justify. Add in the badly thought through Title IX policies and you have a noose around the neck of any university. I do not think that RGT is sabotaging anything, but he is failing to lead in a cohesive way. If he would just come out and say that athletics are secondary to the academic mission of the university and the funding must reflect that I'm AOK with that as I totally agree. But the way they spend on the campus and fail to fund and competently administer the athletics is an absolute disgrace.

m-abu- I tend to agree with you. I think RGT 's spending priorities' are a joke. However, my intense dislike of him is not just because of his 'ignoring' our athletic programs but also his complete failure to move our university standing/reputation higher. While we have had some improvement over the years our major in-state peer universities have moved up much more rapidly and closed in on us. UH and TCU have increased their rankings much more than we have over the past 5-7 years. IMO with great guidance from a president with who has a vision we should be in the top 30-35 universities instead of where we currently are. Instead we will likely remain the little university that never could

there are 2 things in common since 1995. RGT and miserable, horrid, pathetic athletics.

Pony ^ wrote:there are 2 things in common since 1995. RGT and miserable, horrid, pathetic athletics.

That pretty well covers it!!.

This is a post DP relic indicator where we took solace in an outstanding badminton team pushing us in the all-sports top 50. Fact is, the only two sports that matter are football and men’s basketball. I like where we are. Next subject please.

ponyboy wrote:This is a post DP relic indicator where we took solace in an outstanding badminton team pushing us in the all-sports top 50. Fact is, the only two sports that matter are football and men’s basketball. I like where we are. Next subject please.

You can't always get what you want