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We go 7-5 with the easiest schedule ever and Chad Morris gets poached by Arkansas. We have one 10-3 season where we really didn't accomplish anything and shortly after Sonny Dykes gets poached by TCU only to have them go undefeated his first regular season there and likely make the playoffs. We had an amazing team in basketball under Larry Brown and were the first team out of the tournament despite deserving to be solidly in. The UCLA phantom goaltending call. The epic collapse against USC. We get much more severe punishment than any other similar transgressors in basketball only to put our basketball program to sleep.

Meanwhile, TCU gets our coach and immediately finds national success with the same group of players SMU was handily beating the last few years. Additionally, Tulane, a member of our conference that has not invested nearly the same amount of resources goes 11-2 winning the conference championship and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl and will be holding on to their football coach. They grab a much better head basketball coach than us and will be better than us in basketball for the foreseeable future. UTSA has won back to back conference championships in football and managed to retain their head football coach and are primed for a nice run in our conference the next few years. UNT has a solid mens basketball coach that despite limited resources and a horrid conference affiliation has managed to lead his teams to NCAA and NIT appearances and managed to keep him.

So I ask the question are we more cursed or incompetent? I've listed examples of schools that have done more to put systems in place to continuously excel and some that have not. I'm sorry but I'm just tired of the mediocrity at SMU while all of our peers have managed to greatly exceed our results.

Incompetent spin doctors

As I said inbanother post, our administration is incompetent.

Yep. New AD & President please it is time!

Choices have consequences.

Pye...a generation of lax marketing...Firing The Mob Boss...Reseating...

All of these resulted in an acceptance of status quo rather than pursuing excellence in all things.

There needs to be a CHOICE of Excellence in everything that is done. That includes leadership from the top down...in sports as well as the University at large. Accountability in all things and review for all.

Oh, and a statue of Jerry LeVias and Hayden Fry...and Lance, Eric and Craig...and NO MORE FOUNTAINS.

I’ll give you the Cliff Note version

RGT - 27 years and counting

Rhonda Rompola - 25 years

Al Niemi - 20 years

All 3 below average in their respective fields, yet we retain them…there is no accountability

SMU….we don’t even strive for mediocrity

I've been singing this same tune for years and have gotten blasted for being negative. Actually I just wanted better results and the changes necessary to achieve them . Unfortunately nothing is going to happen. The 600-1000 of us on PF have no stroke to force changes. The BOT is owned by RGT so they just rubber stamp what he wants.
The AD- well most of you know my opinion so I won't bore you with more 'negative' comments.

Even if all of us refused to donate to SMU it would have no impact. IMO most of the big$$ guys are on the board. i.e. I think David Miller could have said he wanted a top level coach for bball and it might have had some influence but he agreed to a second level coach and we see the results.

Good coaches can make average players better but the reverse does not hold true.

SMU has arguably the most dis-interested administration in D-1 athletics , and fot sure the most incompetent AD !

I never knew Tulane was 1 vote from their Board to give up Football in the '80s. That was revealed on the broadcast yesterday. Wow, how stupid can these BOT people be? The BOT and Pye did us in or we might "have been a contender" as Brando states in On The Waterfront. So, both unlucky and incompetent. Maybe this time?

Insane_Pony_Posse wrote: I agree with a whole lot of what you guys are saying, but do you think the NIL could be a way around the Turner/Pye stranglehold of mediocrity in SMU football/hoops?

Our alleged auto NIL payments for football & basketball hasn't exactly catapulted us out of mediocrity. Hopefully it helps eventually.

Effective leaders not only create their own luck, but also they maneuver strategically to avoid bad luck (and minimize its impact, when so befallen). Acquiring and investing resources is a huge part of doing this.

Since the 1980s, SMU was held up the poster boy for schools with unlimited financial resources, and willingness to spend, being held back from exploiting that advantage by outside institutional forces.

In reality, there was never a cap on spending for anything buy player compensation, leadership just never created the urgency to invest and give SMU coaches the advantages larger programs enjoyed. Instead of leveling up, leadership throws out benchmarks to make things look good at existing levels of competition, which is self-defeating in the dynamic political economy that is NCAA athletics. IE, making stakeholders feel okay about NOT investing like you see at Houston and elsewhere.

Dykes left at least in part because of the lack of urgency to invest in program infrastructure/facilities. I've heard through the (offline) grapevine he felt his success was taken for granted, and that urgency actually dropped in some quarters.

Dykes' departure wasn't bad luck; Gary Patterson's demise was long obvious, and Dykes was always a likely target given his TX recruiting bona fides. Yet, no real strategic moves were made ahead of time to even give SMU a chance to retain him when the time came. Gerry Weber didn't make his fortune overnight after Dykes' departure, he just wasn't motivated to invest sooner.

Ole Miss told everyone who'd listen they'd ponied up $10MM in NIL funds to support Lane Kiffin, and counter the supposed $13MM Auburn assembled. SMU announced activity, but it's a 'best efforts and we'll see' in terms of the results. (And, before you say it, yes, SMU is competing for the same players as Ole Miss if it wants to dominate the new AAC, and be prepared to move up w/o being cannon fodder.)

My takeaway - as a guy who married into SMU fandom, and attended a couple other schools with analogous issues - is if you're going to hold up money as one of your key advantages, you have to actually open your wallet and put bills on the table.

Private schools and their alums often like to trade on their perceived ability spend in order to avoid having to actually do it. They can and should take lessons from places like Houston and Michigan State, which may be new money, but in reality are far more strategic than it seems SMU has been since the 1980s.

From what I was told... the boulevard nil collective does not start till next year.

Pony DTX is and was sponsoring some players for interviews and such.

Give this a season. We only have like 12 high school recruits.

That leaves room to upgrade at most positions.

As far as rjt and rh.... we need passion.

Doesn't start until next year? wth
Next year we'll do "better" but will it be because of the NIL or because UCF, Cincy, and Houston are gone?

Insane_Pony_Posse wrote: I agree with a whole lot of what you guys are saying, but do you think the NIL could be a way around the Turner/Pye stranglehold of mediocrity in SMU football/hoops?

IPP, i am more optimistic about SMU Athletics today than at any time in the past 30+ years.

Why????, because NIL takes power away from our incompetent leadership and puts it in the hands of our intelligent, successful, visionary alumni.