Wheels are in Motion - put up or shut up

[RGV Pony]

The TCU Formula was:
1. Hire Proven Division 1A Football Coach
2. Hire Proven Division 1A Basketball Coach
3. Lower Academic standards to legal but NCAA Minimum Standards-including plenty of JUCOs, Division 1A Transfers and late qualifiers
4. Broad range of curiculm that will allow them to sustain very high graduation rates
5. Fund their athletic program at the Top of Non-BCS schools
6. Seek to distinguish and disassociate itself from schools that do not share a desire to compete at the Highest level of Division 1A-see SMU, Rice and Tulane

TCU 6 SMU 0

I wouldn't call Franchione a 'proven' D1 coach when he got to TCU. Actually, Franchione's resume when he went to TCU consisted of D1 experience at the following schools:

New Mexico.

Pittsburg St. and SWTxSt notwithstanding.
Not to say when he got to TCU he didn't lead his team to several wins, including thumpings of SMU, but at UNM his teams beat the teams they should've, won a couple of games that were toss-ups, and got crushed in the conf. championships/bowl games (WAC title game vs. Colo St; Copper Bowl vs. Arizona). I think Rocky Long has done a better job of developing and maintaining NM's program than Franchione. I would suggest that you're right on points 3) and 4) above, primarily because they asked Franchione what worked at UNM.

[SMU Football Blog]

I don't think people realize the commitment that hiring Fran showed. Other than Fran, name a coach that was hired away to another school in-conference? It is unheard of.

[tmustangp]

I hate to post here because my name on a post seems to kill a thread. But here's my 2 cents.

Start a Committtee of 100 really committed men and women.
Make SMU Dallas' HOME TEAM.
Use billboards and advertising.
Send players and cheerleaders to businesses for promotions.
Sell 2 for 1 coupon books for football and basketball games through company stores, etc.
Somehow get to a bowl game and win.
Have more wins than losses year after year.
Don't accept anything short of excellence.
Make it your goal to become a BCS member school, whatever it takes.
Does this sound like TCU's formula? That proves it works.

i agreed w/ all except (the one i cut out)

the other day i was thinking about what smu athletics could and me being in an advertising agency i immediately thought Adv Campaign..
So i talked to Shawn at the signing party and he was like "sure whenever we have the $$$ for a campaign"
thats where i agree w/ you SMUstang. we need a group of dedicated alumni to work together and raise $$ for the athletic program. We need the players and cheerleaders to get to know the community.

I would like to give credit to Cherri and the smu marketing for developing SMAC(a student based group) but we need an alumni fan group who will be able to get the attention of the decision makers... I was in SMAC for two years (from the beginning) and after every meeting i wanted to get in front of the decision makers, but never could get in front of them...

Also I want to give Shawn and the ticket sales department credit b/c they are great ambassadors to the program and work very hard.. But from the days of mustang mania (creator ??) an empty seat makes the school $0 dollars everytime.. why are we selling seats for full price when we know they won't be sold.(i do realize that if they cut the prices and the same amount of peeps come, then bad business, but atleast try and see what happens). could it really hurt to cut the prices or give family packages.. ( i realize there are some) but what about family alumni packages..

Hell my mom, dad, and I go to almost every game.. My dad graduated from smu, my mom grad from smu and I did.. for me alone we have given almost 100,000 to smu, yet we still have to pay 45 bucks to sit on the baseline at the bball game.. (so i buy the 7 seats and move to the empty baseline seats)

didn't mean to rant and rave.. just had a long day and wanted to rant and rave

[Charleston Pony]

I've been suggesting for years that SMU borrow a page from the Dallas Cowboys' history...offer a deal where one adult ticket for $5 gets a kid (or two) in free. In their 1st two years, the Cowboys offered an end zone seat for $5 that allowed my father to bring 5 kids free. That's just good business...building a future fan base rather than having your team play in front of 25,000 empty seats.

We need to do the same thing at Moody until there is enough interest in SMU sports to sell tickets at higher prices. Our most loyal fans will still pay premium prices for the best seats. They do it to support the program, but even they would appreciate an occasional "Thanks" by sending them extra tickets for games we know aren't going to draw well...encourage them to bring a friend.

[Hoop Fan]

CP, I think SMU is doing those very things all the time. Whether they have the resources to get word out is debatable I guess.

[SMUstang]

Whatever SMU is doing, it isn't working. The things I suggested did work at TCU. Look at the difference between our programs right now. Can you explain that?

[RE Tycoon]

Send players and cheerleaders to businesses for promotions.

Get hotter cheerleaders first. The quality has been going down hill for a while now. We are a school known around the world for our beautiful women, and this is what we put out there as the face of our female population? It also wouldn't hurt for them to actually care about cheering, i.e. showing up for games, I don't think the two have to be mutually exclusive.

[SMUstang]

That would probably help. Good suggestion. But I thought they were elected by the students.