The American to push for NCAA Subdivision Inclusion

[blackoutpony]

This is honestly starting to make me sick.... It's the same feeling I got after Louisville and Rutgers got plucked and the C7 decided to bolt when we added Tulane. I hope we can stop the snowballing.

I'm glad Aresco wants to fight for inclusion and I hope we get there, but losing all of our major bowl tie-ins (even the damn Liberty Bowl) to P5 conferences tells me they don't care and are going to do what they want to do.

It doesn't make much sense to me since so many more of those teams will have losing records, but in the end, its all about money.

Anyone seen Sherwood lately?

[StallionsModelT]

If it happens I think it will be the beginning of the end of college football as we know it. So many legal and moral implications of doing this IMO that it would be quite risky on behalf of the Power 5. Maybe I'm wrong.

If it does happen and SMU is left out, we will quit football and I'd honestly have no problem with it. Pour all of our vast resources into becoming U of Chicago of the Southwest and being a national championship contending basketball program.

[ponyinNC]

If it happens I think it will be the beginning of the end of college football as we know it. So many legal and moral implications of doing this IMO that it would be quite risky on behalf of the Power 5. Maybe I'm wrong.

If it does happen and SMU is left out, we will quit football and I'd honestly have no problem with it. Pour all of our vast resources into becoming U of Chicago of the Southwest and being a national championship contending basketball program.

I'm sorry, but I am sick and tired of the U of Chicago reference.

I don't want to be the U of Chicago. If I did, I would have gone there. Or Emory. Or W&L. Or Sewanee.

Football is part of the lifeblood of SMU. It is part and parcel of our identity. Heisman trophy, Rose Bowls, Nat'l championships, covers of Time Magazine, Cotton Bowl, Bob Hope, Doak, Dandy Don, Rote, Gregg, SWC era, Pony Express, Dickerson/James, Lance, Death Penalty, Peruna, Miracle on Mockingbird, Payroll to Meet, Doak Walker Award, and now, June Jones.

There is way too much history here to simply quit football. Even if we get left out.

I'm sorry, but isn't this what the endowment is for?? To make improvements to our University?? Without football, I wouldn't likely come back to Dallas or campus and I sure as heck wouldn't donate $ for the science department (even though I'm sure they do great work). T Boone Pickens donated that $ to Ok St for athletics use only, mainly football. He didn't give them money for their academic programs.

I want SMU to be relevant. I want to be able to talk about my alma mater and my team while my friends and co-workers talk about theirs - Duke, UNC, Clemson, etc.

[couch 'em]

There will be enough to get all the schools who are trying to win. That means P5 plus some of MWC and AAC. Probably something like 80 schools. Cuts or the total dead weight but avoids anyone with power getting left out

[ponyinNC]

There will be enough to get all the schools who are trying to win. That means P5 plus some of MWC and AAC. Probably something like 80 schools. Cuts or the total dead weight but avoids anyone with power getting left out

hope you're right...and i hope someone wants us!

Pony up!

[DiamondM75]

There will be enough to get all the schools who are trying to win. That means P5 plus some of MWC and AAC. Probably something like 80 schools. Cuts or the total dead weight but avoids anyone with power getting left out

hope you're right...and i hope someone wants us!

Pony up!

Couch 'em is always right!

[ponyinNC]

There will be enough to get all the schools who are trying to win. That means P5 plus some of MWC and AAC. Probably something like 80 schools. Cuts or the total dead weight but avoids anyone with power getting left out

hope you're right...and i hope someone wants us!

Pony up!

Couch 'em is always right!

good point!

[StallionsModelT]

Yeah. Even as irrelevant as we may be locally, SMU is still a nationally recognized brand in one of the ten biggest cities in the country. SMU isn't skating by on razor thin athletic budgets like the dregs of the Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC, etc. In fact, of the schools that are currently in the AAC or MWC, SMU probably has made the largest financial commitment to its athletic programs.

We will make the cut IMO.

[East Coast Mustang]

If it happens I think it will be the beginning of the end of college football as we know it. So many legal and moral implications of doing this IMO that it would be quite risky on behalf of the Power 5. Maybe I'm wrong.

If it does happen and SMU is left out, we will quit football and I'd honestly have no problem with it. Pour all of our vast resources into becoming U of Chicago of the Southwest and being a national championship contending basketball program.

I'm sorry, but I am sick and tired of the U of Chicago reference.

I don't want to be the U of Chicago. If I did, I would have gone there. Or Emory. Or W&L. Or Sewanee.

Football is part of the lifeblood of SMU. It is part and parcel of our identity. Heisman trophy, Rose Bowls, Nat'l championships, covers of Time Magazine, Cotton Bowl, Bob Hope, Doak, Dandy Don, Rote, Gregg, SWC era, Pony Express, Dickerson/James, Lance, Death Penalty, Peruna, Miracle on Mockingbird, Payroll to Meet, Doak Walker Award, and now, June Jones.

There is way too much history here to simply quit football. Even if we get left out.

I'm sorry, but isn't this what the endowment is for?? To make improvements to our University?? Without football, I wouldn't likely come back to Dallas or campus and I sure as heck wouldn't donate $ for the science department (even though I'm sure they do great work). T Boone Pickens donated that $ to Ok St for athletics use only, mainly football. He didn't give them money for their academic programs.

I want SMU to be relevant. I want to be able to talk about my alma mater and my team while my friends and co-workers talk about theirs - Duke, UNC, Clemson, etc.

Bravo, bravo, bravo.

I never want to read the words "University of Chicago" on this board ever again.

I'd like to think that if there was some financial cutoff to get into the Div 4 or whatever, that we could write those checks, but hell, our rich alums didn't even care that we sucked at football from 1989-2007 so you have to wonder how much commitment is really there when the chips are down.

I don't think there will be a "financial cutoff," or de facto entry fee, though. The P5 conferences have ZERO incentive to add more schools as it stands now. Besides BYU (and maybe UConn for the ACC), I can't really think of a school outside the P5 that would bring substantial market value to a major conference and not just be another mouth to feed in terms of revenue sharing.

In my opinion, the only way more schools get added if Div 4 breaks away is if there is substantial government pressure forcing them to do so. Like was said before, numerous US Senators and House members from states like Wyoming, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Connecticut, etc will not be happy to see their states' flagship universities excluded from big time college football. It would also be nice if we could use some of our vast financial resources to lobby some in the Texas Legislature to put pressure on Texas, Baylor, Tech, etc. to make sure that SMU is included in any new college football alignment. That's probably pretty far-fetched though. We know Texas could give two rips about us.

But we cannot stand by and be complacent about this. We need to show a continued dedication to maintaining a first class athletic program. Let's keep winning and putting butts in the seats. Bring a friend or two to an SMU game this year. Up your Mustang Club donation by 15%. Pony Up.

[FoxRaider]

Pickens gave a LOT of money to OSU academic programs FYI.