Student Attitude

[EastStang]

I was referring to the simpering undergrads who have the attitude "Why should I stay at a game?" When we are winning. Since we've had 17 years of torture, I do understand people leaving early when we're getting stomped. I don't leave, but I understand those that do when we are losing, you can only take so much torture. I do not understand people leaving when we are winning. That makes no sense at all. We haven't beaten Rice in 4 years, that's reason enough to stay right there. I rode 20 hours on a train to and from Huntington, WVa where we had all of 25 fans. And I stayed to the bitter end of that overtime loss.

[Stallion]

The "AVERAGE SMU fan" has given up. There are less than 5,000 season ticket holders. Ladies and Gentleman I rest my case.

[BarbaraAnn]

.... The average SMU fan has simply lost faith in this entire program ....

Speak for yourself. Some have jumped ship entirely, some complain all the time, and some are blindly loyal and encouraging. There is no "average" SMU fan.

Eeexactly. Either you're a wild, deranged SMU beats the hell out of everybody fan, or you just don't care.

Fortunately, I'm the first.

[Charleston Pony]

as the "Old Mustang" used to say, "Long live the 1500"

[ALEX LIFESON]

Not to mention our AD Jim Copeland, has a goal of winning 5 or 6 games a year? That really gets what is left of our fan base fired (yawn) up!

[NavyCrimson]

try 'winning' & we want have silly discussions like this -

[Spaz]

Hey genius. We were actually winning a game, that's cause to stay if for no other reason. Give me a break. Yes, go to the bathroom at half time or outside and get a brew, and get back to your seats in the middle of the third quarter. I'm sorry but leaving at the half is just wrong. I guess they should plan next year on announcing the Homecoming King and Queen at the end of the game. No wonder our teams lose, they get a great message that no one cares whether they win or lose.

Who exactly are you calling a jerk, sir?

[Spaz]

Hey genius. We were actually winning a game, that's cause to stay if for no other reason. Give me a break. Yes, go to the bathroom at half time or outside and get a brew, and get back to your seats in the middle of the third quarter. I'm sorry but leaving at the half is just wrong. I guess they should plan next year on announcing the Homecoming King and Queen at the end of the game. No wonder our teams lose, they get a great message that no one cares whether they win or lose.

Who exactly are you calling a jerk, sir?

[EastStang]

Those pampered silicon students who show up at the beginning of halftime and leave before the game starts again. When we're winning, those are the jerks, I'm talking about.

[jtstang]

Those pampered silicon students who show up at the beginning of halftime and leave before the game starts again. When we're winning, those are the jerks, I'm talking about.

Better they just not show up at all? Their appearance does help our attendance numbers.

[tex23bm]

I was at Homecoming. It was Sad, so I wrote an article in the DC to try and evoke some response from the student body. Quite frankly, I was really mad at the way the student body acted. I've sat through a lot of losses at SMU and I think it's time for change.

But I'm not just a whining little brat, I've got some very pro-active solutions.

1. First thing's first. We need to change are philosophy. Copeland has done nothing to impress me since I've arrived here. he's the guy who cut the track team for going to nationals 5 out of the last 7 years (without a track). Then he gave phil an extension for winning his sixth game. (in 3 years).

2. Sorry Phil, I've personally witnessed your handiwork for 3 years, and witnessed 6 wins. Nothing personal, Goodbye. (If you want to get personal, I said that any coach who goes 0-12 isn't a coach). I'd recommend a new coach, but that's really the AD's Job.

3. We need to make the stands feel closer. We need a crowd atmosphere that instigates noise and or chants. I say we close certain sections of the stadium (namely the upper levels). If we can force the fans to come to gether initially I think it will create a much better atmosphere.

4. Probably most important. Require attendance of an organization to run for homecoming. Mandate percentages, say 60% of your roster has to show up to the games. Have two sign in sheets, one in the first quarter, that goes away before the second quarter, and one that isn't brought out till 7:00 left in the game. if your name isn't on both, you don't count. Organizations are so obsessed with images that they will do what it takes. I know it's mean to force people, but I'm not. I dont' demand that you go, I just demand that if you want to participate in homecoming, you demonstrate that you deserve it.

I like feedback. So tell me what you think.

Bill Meehan.

[MustangSally]

Bill, I like what you've said.

Good point about the sign-in sheets, you're not requiring that anyone HAS to sign it, but to earn the "points", that's what it will take. Anyone that whines about that can watch the game video of Homecoming and explain why it was fair for their organization to just show up and leave.

Also, is there any way to get the floats into the stadium and have them drive around at halftime? Many students in those organizations see the float/parade as the bulk of their efforts, so when the parade is over at noon, many of them see it as time to move on to other things. Find a way to connect that effort and those people into a game atmosphere. Maybe if they paraded them and then had them make a loop around the field at halftime, and announcing the winner at the end of the game.

Maybe even have a contest, not just "winning homecoming" but give away a car or something. Once or twice a season, with donated or half-donated items, that can't cost TOO much, and it may be worth it to get all those people out there. Open it to anyone. That was a flaw I saw with the Mustang Apprentice thing they did at bball games last year. It involved a max of 16 contestants, and someone was cut each game. What's the average student's motivation to get out there for that promotion? To see if Jim or Bobby won the final big prize? If I'm not in the running, or best friends with someone that is, I really don't care about the contest. I understand why they dragged that thing out all season, but I think it may be better to have a big bang right at the beginning, to get the students there, win the game, and everyone realizes how fun bball can be, that's the whole point. Rice usually does an "operation sellout" game for their football season, and that usually boosts the crowd a lot but you can only do it so often. I bet if we did that, hyped ONE game, got 9000 loud fans in there, and then won a great game, people would want to return. Not just students, but anyone. I don't know, I'm just rambling now, I'll try and think of some more stuff.

[MustangSally]

My point in all that nonsense above: the whole idea is to get people TO the games and then hopefully they will realize that it's fun to cheer and watch the actual game being played. I realize that it will take cheap gimmicks until we are top 25 to get fans, but we've had nice crowds at times, but the problem comes with keeping it up after we lose a game.

[abezontar]

speaking of sign in sheets, i dated a theta at UGA for a while, and during basketball season they were required to attend a certain number of bball games a season, I don't remember what the competition was for, but if a BCS school has to do it to get students to the games of a revenue sport why can't we do it too?

[White Helmet]

UGA...that may have been part of the Jim Harrick days, they had plenty of interesting "policies" for bball then.