Re: Realignment Update
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2023 4:50 pm
Dukie wrote:giacfsp wrote:I know that's the perception of the school -- old folks will remember the t-shirts with the BMW logo with the letters "SMU" around it -- but is it accurate? Apart from a handful of very generous alums, how extensive are our resources?
What? Very extensive. And when engaged/motivated they dwarf Duke’s, for one. (Not enough of the Duke alums with serious money care about sports—think Melinda Gates, not Lamar Hunt.
It's a valid question why, if SMU's biggest stakeholders care about sports, they haven't been more engaged while their counterparts at TCU were upping the ante. There was never a salary cap on facilities or staff.
Seems to me that Turner has kept the throne for 30 years in large part because of his ability to maintain a balance of power among a handful of alpha egos with differing views of the relative importance of football, basketball, and academics (particularly arts & sciences). Each of the main dudes got their turn as board chair, but none was allowed too much runway to advance their view of athletics at the expense of another.
By contrast, the Bush presidential library happened because it was really important to one (or more) of those guys. The library and its parking took a huge bite out of SMU's available land for expanding both the athletics footprint and the student body/faculty. The process also consumed a decent chunk of Turner's goodwill with the faculty, and whether it's actually accretive to SMU's academic prestige is an open question.
It's funny to me to see comments about Duke, especially with the regular shots taken at Ken Pye. I dug into the history a bit during covid and learned Pye came to SMU because he believed it could grow into Duke (which at the time had recently won the ACC in football under Steve Spurrier, in addition to MBB success). I'm not sure how Duke got their stadium renovated or the basketball Disneyland built, but the money came from somewhere. I'd guess that Coach K himself got enough donors in the room and persuaded them to check their egos and stop worrying about whose name went where on the plaque. That's leadership.