BCS Buster?

[Stallion]

The difference is that all those teams except for probably Hawaii established themselves as national Giant-Killers BEFORE they made it to the BCS. Those programs get more respect and start higher in the polls. SMU would have to earn respect-beating A&M and TCU would earn the needed respect-but SMU wouldn't get higher than about No. 12-15 with a weak schedule of patsies. Probably be similiar to the problems Tulane and to lesser extent Ball St faced.

[CalallenStang]

The difference is that all those teams except for probably Hawaii established themselves as national Giant-Killers BEFORE they made it to the BCS. Those programs get more respect and start higher in the polls. SMU would have to earn respect-beating A&M and TCU would earn the needed respect-but SMU wouldn't get higher than about No. 12-15 with a weak schedule of patsies. Probably be similiar to the problems Tulane and to lesser extent Ball St faced.

See the analysis of Boise State who did not establish themselves as a giant killer until they beat OU in the Fiesta Bowl.

[Comet]

This team had a hard time against Navy, UTEP, and Houston (all games they should have won). To make matters worse this year's schedule is much tougher with A&M, another hell of an impressive class for TCU, UCF, and a Houston that got their star QB back. This team can be a BCS buster, but I don't see it happening. I'd love to be wrong. Maybe next year or the one after that. A consistent wave of good recruitment will get us where we want to be. It's a long process, but we're on the right path and on schedule (maybe a little ahead of it). I'll be happy with a 7-5 season, and a bit disappointed with 6-6 (though that still isn't all that bad with our current schedule).

[sbsmith]

SMU would have to earn respect-beating A&M and TCU would earn the needed respect-but SMU wouldn't get higher than about No. 12-15 with a weak schedule of patsies. Probably be similiar to the problems Tulane and to lesser extent Ball St faced.

Weak schedule of patsies? You must not be talking about this year. A&M, TCU, Navy, UCF, Houston, Tulsa, So Miss...

Most of the Big Eas(y)t won't play a schedule that hard. I'm just not sure how the fan-base (and recruits) will receive a 7-5 (or gulp, 6-6) record given the level of difficulty.

Depends on what that 7-5 record gets us, last year it went far despite the team's average play. Will it be good enough to win the division again? Probably not considering Houston has a schedule that sets them up nicely for a 12-0 reg season, this year 7-5 likely gets us a 3rd place finish in the West which probably won't be received well by anyone but diehards considering how much talent we brought back. With no division championship we'll really need a bowl win for the sake of momentum.

[westexSMU]

BCS Buster this year ? Lets beat a strong aTm team first before we can even consider that. However, even though the recruiting is getting better, all you guys that keep saying maybe "next year" need to remember that next year SMU will have to "rebuild" Both the offensive and defensive lines for 2012. To me its either this year, or maybe 2013, 2014 with better recruiting if we have a chance. Even if we beat aTm, we may not have the depth this year to go undefeated and probably will have too much inexperience next year.

[ponyinNC]

Beat TAMU, and people will literally jump on our bandwagon. If we go into the TCU game at 4-0, that would set up a pretty great matchup for the skillet, with huge national attention baby!!!