Someone answer me this question

[ponyte]

We can always blame the "Bush Library"

Speaking of Bush. Did everyone see this? haha i love how bush comes up smiling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovoTgUCf7_E

So what is your point? That the guy throwing the shoes once played for us or something (couldn't hit his target from less than 5 yards away)?

Good eye ponyte. He is clearly a former TE moved to QB.

Unfortunately, it takes one to know one. Gosh, it did look like one of our highlight films a few years back though.

[Longtime]

We've made a lot of bad decisions, but those decisions have been made by the wrong people. It's all about leadership, and we simply haven't had it all the way up to the top.

The SMU board of trustees, the people who really make the decisions, has for decades simply wanted athletics to not embarass the school. Winning and generating revenue and good PR for the school have never mattered to them, as long as we don't create another embarrassment like the death penalty.

It trickles down from there. Although well-intentioned, the lack of leadership has led to hiring people for the wrong reasons, which leads to lack of performance on the field, which leads to cutbacks in budgets...it's all a downward spiral. Then you get desperate and have to overpay people with any track record of success to work for you. But if the dollars are motivating them to come to SMU, then they're kind of in the wrong place. It's going to take people with real passion, which is different from work ethic, to turn this thing around and I'm not sure that can be bought.

Yes, getting left out of the Big 12 is a major blow. But Baylor got into the Big 12 and most of the time since the SWC Baylor football and men's basketball has been a joke. So it's not just about conference affiliation.

And the difference between us and TCU is that TCU's leadership realized the importance of a successful athletic program to its school's profile. It knew that without the Big 12, TCU could fall off the map. So it went out and hired sharp, up-and-coming ADs and coaches. Yes, all of TCU's football success could be traced back to that Sun Bowl win over USC. But they don't get there without hiring Franchione and AD Eric Hyman, who lobbied hard to get TCU into that bowl game.

Now, TCU is the "hot" school in Texas. The kind of high school seniors who used to flock to SMU back in the 1980s now think TCU is the cool place to go. The only thing different about TCU then and now is athletic success. SMU can deny that athletics doesn't make a difference to the academic side of campus, but it has been in complete denial. Soon after the death penalty, SMU had to close entire floors of freshman dorms because not enough kids were applying. TCU's applications, I'm sure, are off the charts, just like SMU's were in the 1980s.

Ultimately the biggest difference between TCU and SMU is that the TCU faculty supports athletics. SMU's faculty felt like they were trod upon when the school was having athletic success in the 1980s. When the death penatly scandal broke, a leadership vacuum opened up on campus and militant faculty were more than happy to fill the void.

SMU has failed to hire a president who can both make the faculty feel appreciated and provide athletics with the support and leadership it needs. I'm not sure such a person exists. We've tried running a squeaky-clean program with true scholar-athletes (at much cost to our win-loss record) and still certain segments of the faculty will loudly denounce any effort to improve athletics if it costs money - even if it's not money that would be earmarked for academics anyway.

Again, this all starts at the top - the board of trustees. Our current school president was hired because of his ability to raise money, which is a need even more vital than success in athletics. After he raised a ton of money in our first big capital campaign, he was allowed to turn his attention, and major donor funds, to athletics. He was able to pay good money for an AD known for his money-raising ability and knack for hiring name coaches. Well, now we have well-paid, name coaches in football and men's basketball. So far, the results haven't been any different, and in some ways they've been worse. It's too soon to pass judgement on the football hire. The basketball hire has gotten better athletes thanks to the Crum Center, etc. but needs to show improvement on the court ASAP.

In some ways I wish we didn't have so much money to throw around. It might make us smarter about our coaching hires. Being a wealthy school makes us attractive, but our peers are doing a lot more with a lot less.

At least we now have the ability to overpay coaches, so that's a step in the right direction. But SMU will never turn the corner on athletics until everyone - trustees, faculty, students, alumni - starts going in the same direction.

[RednBlue11]

i finished finals 3 days ago, i refuse to read all of that.

[Longtime]

Sorry, but there are no simple answers as to why SMU athletics (FB and MBB) has been so bad for so long.

And by the way, there are a lot of Longhorns and Aggies and Red Raiders in Fort Worth. And they are impacted by the major pro sports teams in Dallas/Arlington. Maybe not quite as much as SMU is in Dallas, but it's not like Fort Worth is 100 miles away.

TCU has always been more of a "hometown" team for Fort Worth. Part of that is there's no such thing as the Fort Worth Cowboys, but also TCU does not have the rich snob reputation that SMU embraced. Eventually that catches up to you.

SMU started becoming more elitist at the same time the Cowboys started becoming Dallas' darlings. Like the death penalty followed by the SWC breakup, we got it with both barrels in fan appeal, too.

[Charleston Pony]

the one thing we have truly excelled at over the past 20 years has been in creating and developing a culture of losing.

I heard Coach Jones say he wants to recruit kids from winning programs because they have not learned to accept losing. Looks to me like the majority of our football/basketball athletes over the past 20 years have learned to lose...either before or after they got here.

I like the fact that many of our football recruits advanced into the playoffs.

Winning is often a matter of who wants it more...as demonstrated at Moody last night.

I don't mean to just bash players. Many of our "fans" quit when SMU got the death penalty and have never been back. We just don't have enough loyalists willing to support the current product and become part of the rebuilding efforts.

It's one of those chicken/egg catch 22 things that requires our coaches to be incredible salesmen.

[ALEX LIFESON]

We've made a lot of bad decisions, but those decisions have been made by the wrong people. It's all about leadership, and we simply haven't had it all the way up to the top.

The SMU board of trustees, the people who really make the decisions, has for decades simply wanted athletics to not embarass the school. Winning and generating revenue and good PR for the school have never mattered to them, as long as we don't create another embarrassment like the death penalty.

It trickles down from there. Although well-intentioned, the lack of leadership has led to hiring people for the wrong reasons, which leads to lack of performance on the field, which leads to cutbacks in budgets...it's all a downward spiral. Then you get desperate and have to overpay people with any track record of success to work for you. But if the dollars are motivating them to come to SMU, then they're kind of in the wrong place. It's going to take people with real passion, which is different from work ethic, to turn this thing around and I'm not sure that can be bought.

Yes, getting left out of the Big 12 is a major blow. But Baylor got into the Big 12 and most of the time since the SWC Baylor football and men's basketball has been a joke. So it's not just about conference affiliation.

And the difference between us and TCU is that TCU's leadership realized the importance of a successful athletic program to its school's profile. It knew that without the Big 12, TCU could fall off the map. So it went out and hired sharp, up-and-coming ADs and coaches. Yes, all of TCU's football success could be traced back to that Sun Bowl win over USC. But they don't get there without hiring Franchione and AD Eric Hyman, who lobbied hard to get TCU into that bowl game.

Now, TCU is the "hot" school in Texas. The kind of high school seniors who used to flock to SMU back in the 1980s now think TCU is the cool place to go. The only thing different about TCU then and now is athletic success. SMU can deny that athletics doesn't make a difference to the academic side of campus, but it has been in complete denial. Soon after the death penalty, SMU had to close entire floors of freshman dorms because not enough kids were applying. TCU's applications, I'm sure, are off the charts, just like SMU's were in the 1980s.

Ultimately the biggest difference between TCU and SMU is that the TCU faculty supports athletics. SMU's faculty felt like they were trod upon when the school was having athletic success in the 1980s. When the death penatly scandal broke, a leadership vacuum opened up on campus and militant faculty were more than happy to fill the void.

SMU has failed to hire a president who can both make the faculty feel appreciated and provide athletics with the support and leadership it needs. I'm not sure such a person exists. We've tried running a squeaky-clean program with true scholar-athletes (at much cost to our win-loss record) and still certain segments of the faculty will loudly denounce any effort to improve athletics if it costs money - even if it's not money that would be earmarked for academics anyway.

Again, this all starts at the top - the board of trustees. Our current school president was hired because of his ability to raise money, which is a need even more vital than success in athletics. After he raised a ton of money in our first big capital campaign, he was allowed to turn his attention, and major donor funds, to athletics. He was able to pay good money for an AD known for his money-raising ability and knack for hiring name coaches. Well, now we have well-paid, name coaches in football and men's basketball. So far, the results haven't been any different, and in some ways they've been worse. It's too soon to pass judgement on the football hire. The basketball hire has gotten better athletes thanks to the Crum Center, etc. but needs to show improvement on the court ASAP.

In some ways I wish we didn't have so much money to throw around. It might make us smarter about our coaching hires. Being a wealthy school makes us attractive, but our peers are doing a lot more with a lot less.

At least we now have the ability to overpay coaches, so that's a step in the right direction. But SMU will never turn the corner on athletics until everyone - trustees, faculty, students, alumni - starts going in the same direction.

Ouch, that is way to much reading for a goober like me.

[SoCal_Pony]

2. We were left behind upon the breakup of the SWC, and that was directly related to the death penalty. Our conference affiation has sucked ever since. No good players want to play in a sucky conference.

I think this one is key. It's where TCU, a similar school and fan base, left us in the dust.

TCU is similar in size and alumni base, but they have one thing that SMU struggles with. SMU has to compete in Dallas, a major market with pro teams and college fans, most of whom went elsewhere. On the other hand, all 7 college graduates living in Fort Worth went to TCU.

Very good points JT, but it doesn't explain Miami...arguably the most successful FB program during the past 30 years whose undergraduate enrollment is under 9k...(ours is 6k).

Can we play at the level of UM...of course not, but we are arguably at the very bottom of D1-A athletics. You would think our location and academic reputation would account for something.

[papawasamustang]

if you win people will come...no matter their background

Winning sells, no doubt.
Winnng with local talent really sells.

Look @ the crowds @ local HS basketball events featuring Duncanville.They drew 3500 fans the other night when the Mavs had a home game.We have to tap into the local talent & the fan base will grow & continue to grow. Imagine if the Duncanville kids followed their coach, McNeely to SMU. You don't think other local talent both in football & especially basketball would follow?

Don't give me this crap about it doesn't matter where the players come from as long as u win. SMU should be joined @ the hip with local HS & JC's sending a tremendous amount of local talent to us. I'm not just talking about the old DISD argument. I'm talking about DISD, Plano,
Southlake, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Allen, Mansfield, etc. We are sitting on a gold mine of talent & don't seem to have any solutions how to develop this tremendous opportunity.

Our competition is not the Cowboys & Mavs.

Its the local HS's. We are the only D1 school in Dallas & we should be the face of college athletics in the metroplex. We have to tap into that market & that is the solution to the majority of the problems. SMU should not have to go out of this state to field competitive winning football & basketball teams. I have said in the past you can narrow that down to 150 miles either direction.

If we spent 99% of our time @ the local HS's things would begin to change & change in a good to great way. The other 1% of the time Doh & JJ can spend on the golf course. Hopefully with local HS & JC college coaches.

We have totally missed the boat !

[Charleston Pony]

when you look back at TCU's success, it started with hiring coach Fran who talked a lot about how he didn't really need to leave the Metroplex to find enough talent to field a competitive team.

I think we can all agree it would be great to compete with ANYONE for DFW area talent. Have we just given up after being shunned for years?

[papawasamustang]

when you look back at TCU's success, it started with hiring coach Fran who talked a lot about how he didn't really need to leave the Metroplex to find enough talent to field a competitive team.

I think we can all agree it would be great to compete with ANYONE for DFW area talent. Have we just given up after being shunned for years?

I am convinced we have taken the approach we can win without them & once we begin to win again they will start coming back to us. Terrible strategy & you can see where its gotten us.

We should have coaches @ as many local games as possible.
WE SHOULD BE EVERYWHERE IN THE METROPLEX HS SPORTS scene.
No excuses. Hire some more coaches/recruiters with all the money we would save from all these freakin recruiting trips to the west & east coasts.

[LA_Mustang]

Look @ the crowds @ local HS basketball events featuring Duncanville.They drew 3500 fans the other night when the Mavs had a home game.We have to tap into the local talent & the fan base will grow & continue to grow. Imagine if the Duncanville kids followed their coach, McNeely to SMU. You don't think other local talent both in football & especially basketball would follow?

Don't give me this crap about it doesn't matter where the players come from as long as u win. SMU should be joined @ the hip with local HS & JC's sending a tremendous amount of local talent to us. I'm not just talking about the old DISD argument. I'm talking about DISD, Plano,
Southlake, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Allen, Mansfield, etc. We are sitting on a gold mine of talent & don't seem to have any solutions how to develop this tremendous opportunity.

Our competition is not the Cowboys & Mavs.

Its the local HS's. We are the only D1 school in Dallas & we should be the face of college athletics in the metroplex. We have to tap into that market & that is the solution to the majority of the problems. SMU should not have to go out of this state to field competitive winning football & basketball teams. I have said in the past you can narrow that down to 150 miles either direction.

If we spent 99% of our time @ the local HS's things would begin to change & change in a good to great way. The other 1% of the time Doh & JJ can spend on the golf course. Hopefully with local HS & JC college coaches.

I've felt the same way since I was a student at SMU but I think the problem goes much deeper than athletics. SMU has never tried to be Dallas' school. I've never seen SMU involved in the Dallas community in any way......the disconnect is huge. That coupled with the pathetic performance of athletic teams, it should be no surprise that we don't get elite local athletes and no one shows up at our games.

[Longtime]

Agree completely - the disconnect with Dallas is huge. A lot of people who have lived here for years couldn't tell you where SMU is.

Not only have we not reached out to Dallas, over the years we've been sucked into becoming Highland Park's team - it's easy when HP has so many wealthy and influential people right in our backyard. But we have a 32,000-seat stadium to fill, and now not even HP thinks much of us.

Also, not only are we sitting on a goldmine of talent in DFW, we're sitting on two great facilities that hardly ever get used by the high schools. Moody gets more HS traffic than Ford, but when I've gone to a HS game at Moody, they don't even pull the bleachers out. Makes it look half-arse. And it's a crime that there isn't a HS game (or two or three) at Ford every week during the playoffs. An absolute crime. We hosted ONE playoff game this year.

[Longtime]

Very good points JT, but it doesn't explain Miami...arguably the most successful FB program during the past 30 years whose undergraduate enrollment is under 9k...(ours is 6k).

Can we play at the level of UM...of course not, but we are arguably at the very bottom of D1-A athletics. You would think our location and academic reputation would account for something.

We DID play at the level of Miami back in the early 1980s. SMU and Miami were identical programs then. The only difference is we were in a cutthroat conference and got hit with probation after probation. Miami was independent and didn't have any jealous rivals turning them in. We got the death penalty. They won a national championship.

Do you seriously think Michael Irvin didn't get paid at Miami? Or all the other gangsta players they've had through the years?