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I know this could be an endless list, but I was thinking that in almost 65 years of being an SMU fan, I have seen some really remarkable screwups by the SMU administration that have inhibited our progress as an athletic power. My top five:
(1) Hiring Kenneth Pye
(2) Letting Larry Brown get away
(3) Letting Baylor beat us into the big 12
(4) Keeping our admission requirements for athletes higher than our competitors
(5) Having an administration that didn't see the value in having an outstanding athletic program.

I know I have missed some obvious ones, and some are closely related. But thats my 5.

Arkpony wrote:I know this could be an endless list, but I was thinking that in almost 65 years of being an SMU fan, I have seen some really remarkable screwups by the SMU administration that have inhibited our progress as an athletic power. My top five:
(1) Hiring Kenneth Pye
(2) Letting Larry Brown get away
(3) Letting Baylor beat us into the big 12
(4) Keeping our admission requirements for athletes higher than our competitors
(5) Having an administration that didn't see the value in having an outstanding athletic program.

I know I have missed some obvious ones, and some are closely related. But thats my 5.

A fair list, but was #3 truly under SMU's control? Even if the administration was aggressive, could it have changed that decision? As for #2, a 75 year old coach demanding a multi-year extension right after committing NCAA violations is a tough sell for any school.

My recollection on #3 is being told that then Gov. Ann Richards, a Baylor graduate, pressured the state schools to make Baylor a condition of their joining the Big 8. If Gov. Bill or W had been in the governor's office there might have been a different outcome.

I wasn't living in Texas at the time and this was pre-interwebs, so I hope someone who was around then can separate fact from urban legend.

Related story -- when the ACC was expanding, VA Tech supporters in the state legislature pressured UVA to push for adding Tech to the conference. Supposedly, when the SEC tried to lure VA Tech away from the the ACC, the UVA supporters in Richmond blocked it. Karma can be a b!#@%.

think we missed- failure to lawyer up versus the corrupt ncaa. in a couple of occasions.

Item number 1 impacted 3, 4, and 5.

1) Pye
2) Pye
3) Pye
4) Pye
5) Not having someone in charge of making sure that Larry and his crew didn't step too far over the line.

I don’t know that Larry did step too far over the line. Didn’t we self report a violation that any other school in the nation would have handled internally? We knew the NCAA would gleefully hammer us.

It was extremely poorly handled. Terrible legal representation for LB got us screwed over in the NCAA interview process.

All we needed to do is hire a compliance guy, someone LB liked and trusted, and have him/her at his side 24/7. It wasn’t difficult to handle the situation. We just didn’t do it the right way.