Boneyard Death watch.....

[Charleston Pony]

UConn will go after Hurley at Rhode Island

or the other Hurley at Arizona State.

[mrydel]

I am pro Elizabeth Hurley

[mustangxc]

If the same cost-analysis pervades among the Basketball fund-raisers as our Football fund-raisers then yes it could be a consideration in the future. I think its so funny you guys get upset when I point out that SMU wasn't willing to pay the market rate in Football but you are so sure that it couldn't happen in Basketball. So no YOU GO [deleted] OFF. Its the same concept. the only difference is that in Basketball the fund-raisers implemented a comprehensive plan to transform the entire Basketball program and operations from Day 1 while the Football fund-raisers have not.

Larry Brown and now Tim Jankovich have actually accomplished something of significance at SMU. They each won regular season and tournament championships as head coach of SMU basketball. We actually sell out our home games in basketball. Tim Jankovich actually appears to be genuinely happy to be at SMU. There is no comparison between Jankovich and Morris! There may come a day when Kansas, Kentucky, or another very wealthy program with a very rich tradition comes in to take him from us but Jankovich and SMU basketball are nothing like Morris.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I am pro Elizabeth Hurley

She still has it

[Stallion]

If the same cost-analysis pervades among the Basketball fund-raisers as our Football fund-raisers then yes it could be a consideration in the future. I think its so funny you guys get upset when I point out that SMU wasn't willing to pay the market rate in Football but you are so sure that it couldn't happen in Basketball. So no YOU GO [deleted] OFF. Its the same concept. the only difference is that in Basketball the fund-raisers implemented a comprehensive plan to transform the entire Basketball program and operations from Day 1 while the Football fund-raisers have not.

Larry Brown and now Tim Jankovich have actually accomplished something of significance at SMU. They each won regular season and tournament championships as head coach of SMU basketball. We actually sell out our home games in basketball. Tim Jankovich actually appears to be genuinely happy to be at SMU. There is no comparison between Jankovich and Morris! There may come a day when Kansas, Kentucky, or another very wealthy program with a very rich tradition comes in to take him from us but Jankovich and SMU basketball are nothing like Morris.

You might want to check out what Saban and Dabo Swinney accomplished by their 3rd years at higher profile programs at Michigan St., LSU and Clemson-not to mention Ron Meyer-you guys have no vision and little understanding about how a program is built. You got to wait 4-5 years until you see the full results of improved recruiting. We saw 2.5 years of recruiting and improved our win total 700%. Well now we get to start over. Might also want to check out what Jankovich achieved during the first 3 years of both of his prior jobs.

[horsemanx]

Just today Rick Hart said the following on twitter:

Rick Hart @AD_RickHart 12h12 hours ago
Agree that our team is special, Coach! @SMUBasketball is not just one of the best teams in the country - we are among the best PROGRAMS in the country! Kudos to our student-athletes and coaches! #GetHereSMU #PonyUp

I agree! We are definitely the best program that hasn't won a tournament game since 1988 that's for sure!

[PonySnob]

If the same cost-analysis pervades among the Basketball fund-raisers as our Football fund-raisers then yes it could be a consideration in the future. I think its so funny you guys get upset when I point out that SMU wasn't willing to pay the market rate in Football but you are so sure that it couldn't happen in Basketball. So no YOU GO [deleted] OFF. Its the same concept. the only difference is that in Basketball the fund-raisers implemented a comprehensive plan to transform the entire Basketball program and operations from Day 1 while the Football fund-raisers have not.

Then open your wallet King Stallion and show us peasants the way!

Judging by his seats in Ford, he’s a big donor!

[mustangxc]

If the same cost-analysis pervades among the Basketball fund-raisers as our Football fund-raisers then yes it could be a consideration in the future. I think its so funny you guys get upset when I point out that SMU wasn't willing to pay the market rate in Football but you are so sure that it couldn't happen in Basketball. So no YOU GO [deleted] OFF. Its the same concept. the only difference is that in Basketball the fund-raisers implemented a comprehensive plan to transform the entire Basketball program and operations from Day 1 while the Football fund-raisers have not.

Larry Brown and now Tim Jankovich have actually accomplished something of significance at SMU. They each won regular season and tournament championships as head coach of SMU basketball. We actually sell out our home games in basketball. Tim Jankovich actually appears to be genuinely happy to be at SMU. There is no comparison between Jankovich and Morris! There may come a day when Kansas, Kentucky, or another very wealthy program with a very rich tradition comes in to take him from us but Jankovich and SMU basketball are nothing like Morris.

You might want to check out what Saban and Dabo Swinney accomplished by their 3rd years at higher profile programs at Michigan St., LSU and Clemson-not to mention Ron Meyer-you guys have no vision and little understanding about how a program is built. You got to wait 4-5 years until you see the full results of improved recruiting. We saw 2.5 years of recruiting and improved our win total 700%. Well now we get to start over. Might also want to check out what Jankovich achieved during the first 3 years of both of his prior jobs.

What Jankovich achieved/failed to achieve at UNT and Illionois State, and Saban, at Michigan State is irrelevant. In fact Using Jankovich for your argument is a point in my favor. Jankovich was clearly not ready to lead UNT when he was their head coach. He needed more seasoning and got it. He would not have been worth the money then. Now that he has had that experience along with ISU, tutelage under Brown and Self he is ready and is deserving of a top salary. Chad Morris may or may not be ready, he is still an unknown. I don't have $4 million lying around. Do you?

What I don't understand is that you are the biggest critic of SMU's attendance issues and insist that it is the single biggest factor holding us back in football and basically excuse Chad Morris for not achieving greater recruiting success because of it. I agree that attendance along with G5 status preclude us from recruiting at a higher level.

However, I disagree that we should pay P5 market rates for an unproven commodity that cannot produce P5 results due to our G5 affiliation and attendance issues. Chad Morris was going to continue to improve the talent at SMU, no question. However, he also had his flaws and at this point was not clearly better than many of the available replacements. In fact he did not exceed the results produced by June Jones. At this point 7 regular season wins at SMU is replacement level. I am confident that both Chad Morris and Sonny Dykes and a couple other possible replacements are capable of improving upon the 7 win total. Why would a cash-strapped program like SMU pay $4 million to keep a coach that was producing results that can be had for less than half the cost. If we have so much money available then why is the IPF not already built? Easy answer, we don't have money to throw away so we have to maximize our use of our limited resources. Thankfully we do have some wealthy philanthropic alums who have bankrolled our athletics programs enough to be in the American conference. Now we need to continue to make smart hires and improve the culture at SMU.

[Stallion]

Then the question becomes will SMU pay the market value of Tim Jankovich if he gets a top national job which might double or triple his salary? Or is the strategy to pay him the AAC market value rate--and rebuild with the next guy who will take an AAC market value salary? I know a lot of you guys don't want to answer that question--and its obvious why you don't.

And Chad Morris' recruiting is outstanding especially for a school with 8,000 real fans. He has the best class in the Country for schools with 8,000 real fans. Almost every kid he committed has had his 247 score go up 2+ points since September. If we had kept this Class together we had a shot to finish in the 40s. We were at 45 on Rivals on the day he left. And 247 is upgrading his entire class almost top to bottom. Same thing last year-he gets a commitment from the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and SMU's 8,000 fans played a huge role in that decommitment

[mustangxc]

I think we should pay Tim Jankovich the market rate in order to retain him. The American is a major conference in basketball so we legitimately have an opportunity to eventually win a national championship in basketball so we have to match our peers which will hopefully soon be Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, Gonzaga, etc. In football we are relegated to tier 2 status and we cannot afford to compete for coaches with Texas A&M and Alabama that are paying stupefying salaries.

Your love of Morris is mind-boggling! By your metrics you have eliminated 99% of the competition! Under that scenario even June Jones was killing it in recruiting! Give me a break! Morris was doing a good job recruiting at SMU but not great. The fact that he was unable to land Charlie Brewer is proof that he was not worth the pay increase. What good is it to have a coach that can identify talent if he is unable to get them to sign? If we have a first round draft pick on the roster that was recruited by Morris let me know who it is.

[StallionsModelT]

Don't sweat it. If blowhard would've gotten his way back in 2007 we would've hired Todd Dodge.

[PonyFan32]

It's amusing to watch someone conflate basketball and football as if they are even in the same universe at SMU. I think the willingness to pay for maintaining a top basketball program is far different than willingness to prop up a football program that may or may not ever get there.

Also maybe the IPF isn't a good example of limited resources given that our leaders ineptly waited until they had asked donors for 1 billion before going back and asking for more. Simply mind boggling stupidity to not include something like that in the Second Century campaign. Agree the fan issue is much bigger but 7-5 is not going to fix that. Would have been nice if Chad had stayed 2 more years

[RI Stang]

What's amusing to me is that it's logical to reason that paying Morris that market rate to try to keep him for one or two more years would have been money that we then wouldn't have to pay that market rate for Jankovich. Morris obviously wanted out and I don't blame him - he wants to compete at the highest level. Even if the stadium was full, we can't provide that in the current landscape of college football. Why try to match salaries with the SEC? That's a losing battle AND impacts (I'm assuming, don't know for a fact) the dollars you have available for basketball.

There is no question in my mind that dollars should be spent on basketball before football. I understand that football drives TV dollars, etc. but honestly getting in one of the major conferences at this point is a pipe dream. Embrace what we are - a basketball school - and pump money in there to keep it nationally relevant versus throwing it away on the potential to win eight football games against teams no one in Dallas cares about.

[SoCal_Pony]

Its still subject to market forces. Right now Jankovich is or was when hired being paid 1.75 Million per year according to the DMN. That's not Top 25 in the Country. June Jones actually was being paid Top 20 salary in Football a decade ago. The salary for the SMU Football Coach if anything has gone down in the last decade despite inflation and enormous salary escalations. There are coaches earning 6 and 7 Million a year already in College Basketball. The question arises when and if Jankovich gets an offer from a Top national program would we be willing to pay full market rate of perhaps 2 or 3 times his current salary or would we just pay him the AAC market rate he is being paid now--like in SMU Football. TCU Football chose to pay full market rate repeatedly.

If Jank did indeed turn down an Okie St offer this past season, maybe we already know the answer.

Wonder if this factored at all into paying Sonny potentially a lower rate than tiki or chad.

[mrydel]

You can win a national championship in basketball at SMU. You cannot win one in football at SMU. That allows the BB coach to consider other amenities in deciding whether or not he wants to stay or go. Jank has said he loves it at SMU and as long as he does and can continue to operate in the manner he is, there is no reason to leave. And he is still under recruiting restrictions. He knows things will get better from that aspect.

Now if one of the top 4 or 5 all time programs were to come calling, he may have some strong consideration with which to contend. But until then, as long as we give him the proper respect in both pay and leeway, I see no reason for him to leave.