why smu will never be BCS

[McClown27]

No where have I said we have recruited the best of the rest..I said that is what we need to be doing at this point. I have also no where said that we have in the past 17 years recruited on a level field with the other non-BCS traditional and natural rivals. What I said is we are as close to being on that level field as we have ever been since the dp.

We do not recruit the DFW area the way people like my Dad remember. There used to be a pipeline into SMU.

[Charleston Pony]

Magnolia: we are all for "natural rivals" playing each other, too. We have a pretty good situation in CUSA where we get to play Rice, Houston and Tulane every year and then you can throw in TCU, UNT & Baylor and SMU's schedule is pretty attractive. Quite frankly, games with Duke, Vandy or Furman won't iprove our situation. Smu can compete favorably with the group we currently play with, as proven this past year.

As for the idea that a top flight coaching staff can turn coal into diamonds, I agree to an extent...but if Bennett succeeds in wining a CUSA Championship of does the unspeakable and wins 2-3 consecutive west division championships, he and most of his staff will be off to work their magic at some BCS school.

The simple FACT of the matter is there is a HUGE discrepency in the economics of playing in a BCS conference versus the so called "mid-major" conferences. When the SWC broke up, it was all about TV revenue and because SMU, TCU, Rice & Houston had little fan support for our programs, we were easily left behind. The big boys simply grew tired of carrying us.

The BCS is all about $$$ and that is why Notre Dame and Ohio State round out this year's games rather than an arguably more deserving Oregon team. The fact is that only west coast people and PAC 10 fans care about Oregon whereas Notre Dame and Ohio State have a much braoder appeal.

SMU has an uphill challenge of 1st competing on the field and court with our former SWC/now Big XII mates AND demonstrating that enough people care that we can at least fill Ford and Moody on game days/nights.

[magnolialeague]

Charleston, you're right. C-USA is the closest thing there is to a Magnolia League on a comptitive level. The level of competition is perfect for the SMU's capbilities. The issue for SMU is working in some money games and increasing its national exposure amongst a certain demographic of students. The Magnolia League is a branding issue which if played only once every four years would create a novelty atmosphere. I agree that if this were to become permanent it has the potential to slide into oblivion like the Ivy League. Although, you really can't knock the marketing gimmick of the Ivy League which they proclaim themselves as most prestigious. This is where conference representation would play a role. Conferences generally support their baby brothers to go kick some butt.

In a Magnolia League schedule I'd see SMU playing a schedule like this:

1) at Miss St (BCS)
2) at Tulane
3) Wake Forest
4) BAMA (BCS)
5) North Texas (Local Rivalry)
6) at TCU
7) at Navy
Citadel
9) at Rice
10) Delaware
11) at Texas (BCS)
12) Baylor

Playoff
Champonship

There is a mix of 3 money games, winnable games, and 5 local games. If you win the West and due better than the South, you earn a playoff home playoff game. You drop from 6 Texas games to 5, but overall I think the schedule is attractive to alumni and fans willing to travel.

SMU, Vandy, Duke, Wake, etc need to agressively market and price to win the fans at home. Get SMU gear into the grammer schools and you'll see the fan base rise. SMU represents what is best in American universities, this needs to be emphasized.

[Dutch]

why does everyone continue to help this guy write his Sports Psychology thesis about the "magnolia league" that will never exist.

he's just studying reactions that fans have to his hypothetical situation.

go away magnolia league.

[magnolialeague]

Anger and disgust.....CHECK!

However, since you think this is a project to measure emotions (which I promise you it wasn't), I'll share my general findings.

Actually C-USA schools seem less emotional about the hypothesis. Not much changes in schedule level for them and they see an opportunity to schedule BCS schools for $.

Div 1AA schools can bear it as long as it is once every so many years. They have pride in playing Div1AA and see its benefits as opposed to being a bottom-dweller.

BCS schools seem as though their pride is wounded by the suggestion. A new coach, a new stadium, the defensive coordinator, and recruiting better stars are going to launch them to the top. They can all be like Notre Dame and USC if someone just listened to the fans. Greatest resistance at Baylor followed by Duke. Vanderbilt knows it is just about the money and Wake could go along with it as long as it was only once every so many years.

Tulane said they'd take Vanderbilt's BCS spot and accept losing. I have yet to find a Rice fan.

Wake, Furman, Delaware, and Navy seem to have the healthiest posters. I need more evidence, but I would lean towards putting SMU in the healthy mindset camp too.

Vanderbilt has taken a while to calm down, but they have accepted the fact that I am nuts.

[McClown27]

Tulane said they'd take Vanderbilt's BCS spot and accept losing. I have yet to find a Rice fan.

Rice has the highest % of alums giving to their school in the state of Texas. Their whole identity is based around academics, and football is fun there in the fall. Rice is the closest thing--outside Stanford--that you will ever come to an Ivy League school. I know from first-hand experience that Yale, Harvard, and Princeton draw better than SMU (sad, sad fact). These universities just don't care other than entertainment, and the academics running the universities playing IA (like Rice) will never go for changes similar to what Stallion suggests. WE NEED THESE CHANGES BECAUSE WE NEED FOOTBALL RELATED FUNDRAISING.

I am very apathetic to your league.

[magnolialeague]

McClown...exactly...Just because the Ivies don't compete nationally in football, they still draw plenty of fans, maintain good facilities, and draw huge contributions to their endowment. You raise great points as I once lived near Princeton and they do have a loyal fan base.

I think Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt (formerly of Brown) understands this and is trying to use football as a way to bring alumni into getting involved with the school. He has made great changes over the past few years to make the game atmosphere fun. He actually once suggested a Magnolia League, which I had not heard of until after I picked my name.

I am not knocking Rice. I just can't find them. In essense, I agree with the concept of getting back to having fun and getting out of the arms race. With internet and cable TV, the world can be a lot more decentralized for us niche fans and that is a good thing.

[Stallion]

the fact is you can find a Dudley-Do-Right fan on every board in the nation that thinks your idea is just Jim-Dandy but you can't find one BCS school official that wouldn't laugh in your face. Without those schools a conference of the remaining schools is financially ridiculous. So go find that one official of a BCS school or go away!

[magnolialeague]

Okay...I'll do that....thanks for the advice...Do I owe you anything for it?

[McClown27]

Just because the Ivies don't compete nationally in football, they still draw plenty of fans, maintain good facilities, and draw huge contributions to their endowment. You raise great points as I once lived near Princeton and they do have a loyal fan base.

Yale's stadium (oldest in the country) is falling apart and no one cares. Quite simply, they have crappy facilities compared to DI schools. The athletes work out the same places as the other students. Think that happens at SMU? I have seen that athlete gym.

People go to Ivy Gamesfor the same reason they like minor league baseball, there is some kind of kitsch involved in going to a sporting event that has no real stakes. With Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and even Rice, the quality of the football plays no role in alumni giving. Alumni give money to Yale, Harvard, and Princeton because their wealth and their opportunities have something to do with their alma mater, and they are thanking them for letting them in (and praying they take their kids).

[magnolialeague]

Last I checked, all of New Haven is falling apart. Yale has an endowment big enough that one day's interest could build them a stadium.

Princeton, on the other hand, has some great facilities.

[McClown27]

Princeton, on the other hand, has some great facilities.

They are not as nice as SMU. I have seen both.

Endowment income can only be used for the specified purposes of the donor. At the Ivies, athletic costs come from the general fund (of tuition). It is highly unlikely that Yale will build a new stadium instead of continuing their patchwork renovations.

[EastStang]

To reply to Stallion about TCU's success. Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't they signed about 16 non-qualifiers in the last four years. Some of them qualified before August, some didn't. But that clearly helped them. Is Stallion in favor of the gamble on non-qualifiers, or putting our bets on a player who is not as highly rated, but might develop? Both are gambles. The risk is that you can't give a scholarship to another player who will go elsewhere if you sign a non-qualifier. Yes, TCU has had some success in recruiting partly because they have been winning and partly because they could recruit players that until 2 years ago we couldn't talk to.

[Stallion]

First as I've said about a million times-there is no such thing as a non-qualifier before August.
Second to be fair to TCU I don't think they have admitted a single non-qualifier.
Third, SMU should admit EXACTLY the same players as TCU does today.
Fourth, TCU has a higher graduation rate than SMU during the last recorded period.

[SMU Football Blog]

Unless by transfer, the Mountain West doesn't allow nonqualifiers, so there you go. See, man. For TCU, it was all about the academics.