Kudos to Houston

[mrydel]

But not as talented as Florida st. Which was the point I think.

Yep. Talent based on recruiting classes/rankings/stars/offers.......however you want to slice it, not even close.

You never know for sure the reason one team out plays another in a bowl game. Look at TCU. Star player sent home. Some teams think they are too good to be in lower bowls.

I recall Texas losing to Notre Dame. Many said it was because Steve Wooster was out all night and was throwing up all game. He was vomiting on the sidelines.

Arkansas suspended their top 3 players for the Orange Bowl one year and then rallied to demolish highly rated Oklahoma.

You can argue coaching vs. athletes all you want, but I would not base it on bowl games below the 2 playoff and final championship.

[SMUstangs22]

Houston has football we have basketball. Top 5 markets pay us PAC 12

We will neee a lot more than just basketball, correct?

[mrydel]

Soccer, Women's Volleyball, men's and women's swimming and diving, women's track and field, equestrian, we pretty much are doing well in all of our sports except FB.

[SMUstangs22]

Doesn't football outweigh everything else? Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than Pac 12 or equivilant. Just try not to get my hopes up

[Puckhead48E]

Doesn't football outweigh everything else? Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than Pac 12 or equivilant. Just try not to get my hopes up

Football is a key element, but not the sole prime driver. There are so many tangibles and intangibles that go into an invite...just need to continue to grow the entire program and make the decision a no brainer when that time comes.

[LA_Mustang]

I'd say:

60% football
35% men's basketball
5% everything else

[orguy]

[deleted] Houston.

Nice win COUGAR HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

You guys don't need to be so salty.

Some of us remember a particular game in Houston circa late eighties. Classless behavior.

Admittedly, UH does have some good graduate programs including the Scienes/Law etc. As for UH undegrad.. ahem.. they have earned and subsequently maintained the moniker "cougar high school".

[CalallenStang]

I'd say:

60% football
35% men's basketball
5% everything else

Market is in there somewhere (bigger factor than "everything else"

[Charleston Pony]

I'd say:

60% football
35% men's basketball
5% everything else

college baseball is up and coming. That's one more thing that hurts SMU with our having given up baseball years ago. More and more televised games these days and the CWS keeps growing in popularity. Granted, it's nothing compared to king football and bball, but gets more air time than soccer or any other sport.

[Charleston Pony]

Doesn't football outweigh everything else? Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than Pac 12 or equivilant. Just try not to get my hopes up

Football is a key element, but not the sole prime driver. There are so many tangibles and intangibles that go into an invite...just need to continue to grow the entire program and make the decision a no brainer when that time comes.

Recent history has shown that the potential to deliver enough TV sets to enhance a conference's current contracts are as important as anything (see Rutgers invite to the BIG 10). That, more than anything else, is why SMU has fallen so far behind and remains behind our former peers (except for Rice, of course). Other schools "deliver" the DFW market more so than SMU and unless/until we can pack our venues, travel well and find a way to significantly grow our fan base, we have to acknowledge we are pretty far down on the list of candidates for P5 expansion. Our best bet is to improve the caliber of football (hopefully to the level we are playing bball) and to hope the rest of the AAC can do the same. The AAC has enough public schools with potential for large followings that it is really important for the future of this conference to have the small private schools like SMU, Tulsa and Tulane really step things up attendance wise. I'm embarrassed every time we play on TV and the camera shows a handful of fans sitting on the east side of Ford.