We are one of those teams

[SMU_Alumni11]

I used to really like Fresno State's - "Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere". They would play all OOC teams on the road and were always competitive (didn't win many, but they were always in the game). Every other year they would pull off a big upset. Because of that, the home team's fan base would show up for the game. (the players were also partial qualifiers and JUCO guys)

I could live with being the cupcake, if we could at least make them compelling games.

I would be curious if any of the coaches told/sold the players how great of an opportunity was there for them tonight - National TV, 80,000 screaming fans... "This is our opportunity, your opportunity, to shine and show everyone how special you can be as a player. Dig deep... Seize it."

Too much emotion, thought process and length for JJ and co. Please condense and with less emotion. Thanks, JJ.

[stc9]

I used to really like Fresno State's - "Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere". They would play all OOC teams on the road and were always competitive (didn't win many, but they were always in the game). Every other year they would pull off a big upset. Because of that, the home team's fan base would show up for the game. (the players were also partial qualifiers and JUCO guys)

I could live with being the cupcake, if we could at least make them compelling games.

I would be curious if any of the coaches told/sold the players how great of an opportunity was there for them tonight - National TV, 80,000 screaming fans... "This is our opportunity, your opportunity, to shine and show everyone how special you can be as a player. Dig deep... Seize it."

Too much emotion, thought process and length for JJ and co. Please condense and with less emotion. Thanks, JJ.

"We do what we do..."

Better?

[SMU_Alumni11]

JJ approves

[bodo]

Ok - enjoy being beat so bad that the other team plays their 3rd string QB early in the 3rd so as to not run up the score. Yes, you couldn't be more right - that's really competing and going hard...way to keep anyone interested in this program.

[SMUer]

We are bad because we have a Hawaiian zombie as a coach and a geriatric country-club for a staff. Get someone who can recruit, someone who wants to be here, someone who can move his player around to exploit their strengths (a la GP) and we'll be fine. Time is of the essence though guys.

[mrydel]

Ok - enjoy being beat so bad that the other team plays their 3rd string QB early in the 3rd so as to not run up the score. Yes, you couldn't be more right - that's really competing and going hard...way to keep anyone interested in this program.

Why don't you transfer your fandom to Eastern Washington then? That is historically where those who give up on SMU go. Then you can cheer for a winner rather than wanting your team to man up, coach up, recruit up and try to compete with the real teams of the nation.

[BRStang]

I used to think that way. But after 24 years of zero success against old SWC foes, what's the point? Again, I fear the window has closed on us ever being relevant again. I now think that Magnolia League guy had it right. Really.

EDIT: Let the big state schools play each other and let us have a league of the schools that actually give you an education. We'd get more respect ultimately in that scenario.[/quote]

If we joined an FCS league, then I will quit watching all together. There is nothing fun about watching a group of crappy football schools playing flag football with each other. Either go hard or shut it down together but don't destroy the legacy by joining a stupid education league, gag.[/quote]

Please don't attack me for stating the obvious, but we are practically FCS now. What is the difference between playing a bunch of Tulsas, Tulanes, ECUs (or even a Montana State) and squeaking out a win, if we even do win. For 24 years now we've been nothing short of blown out by teams like aTm, TT, OSU, and Baylor. We are thought of as FCS or at least a cupcake by everyone. I was listening to ESPN yesterday and they kept referring to us as a "stacked win" for aTm and treating us as a bye on their schedule. Guess what, they were right.

It's different now, too. We tried (too late) over the last few years to break into a conference that could help us out of oblivion. Well, those that could have given us respectability by association, got the frick out as fast as they could. What do we do? We do things like hire Hart, invite Tulane and Tulsa (yuck) to join us on our climb to nowhere, and allow JJ to visibly recruit us back into less than mediocre. But this time, the music has stopped. We have now become de facto FCS under the new ESPN world order. The poor FCS has pretty much been cast down to Div 2 status.

Now, I'm all for those who run our university to continue to try to improve SMU's lot in life from a football perspective, even though I think it is now futile. (The playoff could theoretically be the only foot in the door years down the road.) And, not that it would've happened, but I was just wondering if we might, in retrospect, have benefitted respect-wise from the schools like SMU, Duke, Vandy, Wake, Baylor, Rice, GT, etc. banding together under some kind of league that makes education a priority while leaving the semi-pro status to the big state schools.


,

[newshound]

No, we don't do paydays. The previous administrations weren't smart enough to do that. We play home and home and get our asses kicked in BOTH places and split the gate. Smart people like Rice go to places like Michigan and Ohio State for 6 and 7 figures and bank the money. We continue to play Texas Tech and Texas A&M and Baylor and continue to get blasted with marginal financial reward to reinvest in the program -- and the new coach.

[Oldmins]

You call this competing?

I continue to hate everything about June, but I'd rather line up and get whooped by A&M than play Texas State.

I used to think that way. But after 24 years of zero success against old SWC foes, what's the point? Again, I fear the window has closed on us ever being relevant again. I now think that Magnolia League guy had it right. Really.

EDIT: Let the big state schools play each other and let us have a league of the schools that actually give you an education. We'd get more respect ultimately in that scenario.

To whoever (whomever?) did the EDIT: I couldn't agree more. The NCAA shakeup should eventually accept the fact that there are some "universities" that pay big bucks, and earn big bucks, to produce training ground for the NFL. And then there are schools that like to have a football team to go along with their academic emphasis. Why not build a structure that accepts this fact?

[SMU_Alumni11]

I continue to hate everything about June, but I'd rather line up and get whooped by A&M than play Texas State.

I used to think that way. But after 24 years of zero success against old SWC foes, what's the point? Again, I fear the window has closed on us ever being relevant again. I now think that Magnolia League guy had it right. Really.

EDIT: Let the big state schools play each other and let us have a league of the schools that actually give you an education. We'd get more respect ultimately in that scenario.

To whoever (whomever?) did the EDIT: I couldn't agree more. The NCAA shakeup should eventually accept the fact that there are some "universities" that pay big bucks, and earn big bucks, to produce training ground for the NFL. And then there are schools that like to have a football team to go along with their academic emphasis. Why not build a structure that accepts this fact?

That sounds horrible. If such a terrible thing were to happen... Demolish ford stadium and play on the soccer field cause nobody would want to watch that.

[LHS81]

Actually, Ford Stadium would make a nice soccer stadium

[SMU_Alumni11]

EDIT: Let the big state schools play each other and let us have a league of the schools that actually give you an education. We'd get more respect ultimately in that scenario.[/quote]

If we joined an FCS league, then I will quit watching all together. There is nothing fun about watching a group of crappy football schools playing flag football with each other. Either go hard or shut it down together but don't destroy the legacy by joining a stupid education league, gag.[/quote]

Please don't attack me for stating the obvious, but we are practically FCS now. What is the difference between playing a bunch of Tulsas, Tulanes, ECUs (or even a Montana State) and squeaking out a win, if we even do win. For 24 years now we've been nothing short of blown out by teams like aTm, TT, OSU, and Baylor. We are thought of as FCS or at least a cupcake by everyone. I was listening to ESPN yesterday and they kept referring to us as a "stacked win" for aTm and treating us as a bye on their schedule. Guess what, they were right.

It's different now, too. We tried (too late) over the last few years to break into a conference that could help us out of oblivion. Well, those that could have given us respectability by association, got the frick out as fast as they could. What do we do? We do things like hire Hart, invite Tulane and Tulsa (yuck) to join us on our climb to nowhere, and allow JJ to visibly recruit us back into less than mediocre. But this time, the music has stopped. We have now become de facto FCS under the new ESPN world order. The poor FCS has pretty much been cast down to Div 2 status.

Now, I'm all for those who run our university to continue to try to improve SMU's lot in life from a football perspective, even though I think it is now futile. (The playoff could theoretically be the only foot in the door years down the road.) And, not that it would've happened, but I was just wondering if we might, in retrospect, have benefitted respect-wise from the schools like SMU, Duke, Vandy, Wake, Baylor, Rice, GT, etc. banding together under some kind of league that makes education a priority while leaving the semi-pro status to the big state schools.


Didn't mean to come across as attacking, I'm just saying as a fan I would lose all interest in watching SMU ever again if we demoted ourselves to an "academic" league. I'm already getting chills from the thought.

[Charleston Pony]

assuming the future of college football is a top division that pays players stipends in addition to tuition, room, board, books & fees...the question is: do you want SMU to compete at the highest level, or would you support the program if the administration decides to play at the "next level down"?

I'm actually torn on this and it depends on what everyone else does. My concern is that if we don't strive to play at the highest level in football, it will kill what is looking like a very strong hoops program at SMU in the near future ad we might as well become what Ken Pye envisioned (the next Emory University?) I would like to see SMU and Houston join the Big XII and play against our old SWC rivals and what's left of the former Big 8 Schools. While we might be a doormat in football, I think we could become the "Duke of Dallas" and at some point those SMU vs Kansas hoops games could become a pretty big deal.

There's another part of me that wishes we could play at the "next tier" in football, but only if we could play in a re-formed SWC that included TCU, Baylor, UNT, Houston, Rice and perhaps Tulsa, Tulane, La Tech, Arky State, etc... (very local/regional schools that choose to not join the arms race and compete against Texa$, A$M, Arkan$aS, OU, O$U, etc...). I would envision this being a level that utilized a 16 team playoff for a national champion or basically an upgraded FCS. That would allow a lot of teams currently competing at the Division I FCS level to drop to a lower level, all based on athletic budgets, number of scholarships, etc...

The problem is that ship has already sailed and Baylor and TCU are not coming back to our level. They already made the commitment to play at the highest level, so we need to do everything we can to earn the right to play with them again. I'm realistic enough to know that means we will be the Duke/Vanderbilt on everyone's schedule and in most years will be a doormat playing football at that level, but there is no reason we can't compete for championships in hoops. I think Coach Brown is showing us that CAN be done but to sustain a program at a high level it is going to be important to play with other top programs.

The American is not a bad place for us right now, but it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and it is pretty clear that football is driving the bus.

[mrydel]

I just find it interesting that the primary advocates of us stepping down are one that sports an LSU avatar and one that graduated fromTCU. Perhaps those of us without split loyalties would like for us to find a way to solve the problem rather than run from it.

[SMU_Alumni11]

I just find it interesting that the primary advocates of us stepping down are one that sports an LSU avatar and one that graduated fromTCU. Perhaps those of us without split loyalties would like for us to find a way to solve the problem rather than run from it.

Exactly. At this point it's go for it or close shop, don't accept infinite mediocrity against mediocre teams. We want more. Period. I don't have another college team to root for mainly because I hate all the other teams plus I hate the nfl and only watch certain ones with our players on it.