Sorry, a conference realignment thread

[East Coast Mustang]

Ford Stadium will never be expanded to 50k, ever. So please quit [deleted] talking about it. If anything stadiums are going to downsize with advances in TV technology that making watching the game at home more enjoyable. Even if we moved to Big12/SEC the most we'd ever need is 40k, like Vanderbilt. We could always play marquee games at Cotton Bowl or Jerryworld

50K is just a placeholder...I would say we get somewhere around 40K but make it look nice and modern. Kind of what we did with Moody, in which we reduced capacity but remodeled it into a state of the art modern arena. At least make Ford look bigger and like a real stadium, not a high school playground that looks smaller than Allen's football stadium.

It's a very nice stadium as it is today. When it's full for big games like Tech or TCU it's a great place to watch football. We are putting the cart WAY in front of the horse here, but if we ever expanded it would probably be seats in the south endzone and maybe more suites on the north and east sides of the stadium

[sbsmith]

True dat. Bruce Feldman says the big split between "major and mid-major college football" will occur "in the next decade." What I'm saying is that, if the above occurs, we could deliver ratings for long enough to justify a just-in-time inclusion. It's not outside the realm of possibility, is it? Would a newly expanded to 50K -- and consistently filled -- Ford Stadium be enough to do it?

We'd need an even greater financial commitment from the CoC (donor fatigue might be an issue there and if they opt out there's no one to fill that vacuum) to put together the kind of staff that can quickly raise the program up to a nationally relevant level. So it's not outside the realm of possibility but so much needs to go right in such a short period of time that it's an extreme longshot.

[StallionsModelT]

Expanding a stadium that is currently less than half full for games is stupid.

[Big12Mustang]

Ford Stadium will never be expanded to 50k, ever. So please quit [deleted] talking about it. If anything stadiums are going to downsize with advances in TV technology that making watching the game at home more enjoyable. Even if we moved to Big12/SEC the most we'd ever need is 40k, like Vanderbilt. We could always play marquee games at Cotton Bowl or Jerryworld

50K is just a placeholder...I would say we get somewhere around 40K but make it look nice and modern. Kind of what we did with Moody, in which we reduced capacity but remodeled it into a state of the art modern arena. At least make Ford look bigger and like a real stadium, not a high school playground that looks smaller than Allen's football stadium.

It's a very nice stadium as it is today. When it's full for big games like Tech or TCU it's a great place to watch football. We are putting the cart WAY in front of the horse here, but if we ever expanded it would probably be seats in the south endzone and maybe more suites on the north and east sides of the stadium

This is what we should aspire to:

Coog High, capacity 40,000


Nippert Stadium, Cincy, capacity 40,000


BU, capacity 45,000


Frog stadium, capacity 44,000


This is "the level we are":

Allen Stadium, capacity 20,000:


Mean Green stadium, capacity 30,000


Ford Stadium, capacity 32,000


Don't get me wrong...I like it, but it looks and feels small. That is what we mean by "expanding to 50k", just make the darn thing look bigger like the examples above.

[Big12Mustang]

True dat. Bruce Feldman says the big split between "major and mid-major college football" will occur "in the next decade." What I'm saying is that, if the above occurs, we could deliver ratings for long enough to justify a just-in-time inclusion. It's not outside the realm of possibility, is it? Would a newly expanded to 50K -- and consistently filled -- Ford Stadium be enough to do it?

We'd need an even greater financial commitment from the CoC (donor fatigue might be an issue there and if they opt out there's no one to fill that vacuum) to put together the kind of staff that can quickly raise the program up to a nationally relevant level. So it's not outside the realm of possibility but so much needs to go right in such a short period of time that it's an extreme longshot.

Fixable if we market it right and start lining up resources from alumni, local community

[Big12Mustang]

Expanding a stadium that is currently less than half full for games is stupid.

Expanding in terms of making the thing look bigger and modern. People like new things, they signal commitment to future success. I agree it is good for right now, but even Larry wasn't packing old moody last year...

[blackoutpony]

Expanding a stadium that is currently less than half full for games is stupid.

Expanding in terms of making the thing look bigger and modern. People like new things, they signal commitment to future success. I agree it is good for right now, but even Larry wasn't packing old moody last year...

Ford is always going to look the way it does now. The most that will change is adding 12,000 seats in the south end zone and then adding another 7,000 on the east side. It's not another deck though, it just makes what we have taller. I have the drawings, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to upload the PDF. If anything, they should add the 7,000 on the east side and leave the end zone open. But it's only half full so why you're even talking about this makes no sense. In fact, while looking back for the old drawings I came across a thread were you're alter ego, FTHP, was still spouting on about this same crap.

And Larry's first team went 15-17 and also doubled their attendance from the previous year. New Moody is cool, but as larry says over and over and over, it means nothing if they don't win.

[ponyinNC]

Basketball isn't a driver in any of this, so unfortunately I think that argument is out the window (see UConn/Kansas), even though we have shown that we can consistently sell out a 7k arena and capture the Dallas hoops scene....which is nice.

That being said, realignment is all about $$ - specifically, TV $. Example -- Rutgers hasn't done anything in revenue sports worth mentioning...maybe ever. Their athletic dept, like Maryland's, was in the red big time. Yet they have an invite to maybe the most profitable conference from a TV standpoint. Why? For that coveted NYC market. B1G execs want the B1G network on every provider in NY, so they went for Rutgers. Same with Maryland for DC market.

TCU was an outlier - they only got the call because B12 was in a serious pinch after losing teams left and right. Their recent success played a part, sure...but from a TV standpoint, B12 already had/has the DFW market. Only way that happens for us is if another conference gets raided again.

If we are to get a P5 invite, it will surely come from ACC/B1G/PAC, when those conferences have an opportunity or desire to penetrate the DFW market. And even then, only if they cannot acquire a better property like UT/OU et al.

my $.02

[Big12Mustang]

Expanding a stadium that is currently less than half full for games is stupid.

Expanding in terms of making the thing look bigger and modern. People like new things, they signal commitment to future success. I agree it is good for right now, but even Larry wasn't packing old moody last year...

Ford is always going to look the way it does now. The most that will change is adding 12,000 seats in the south end zone and then adding another 7,000 on the east side. It's not another deck though, it just makes what we have taller. I have the drawings, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to upload the PDF. If anything, they should add the 7,000 on the east side and leave the end zone open. But it's only half full so why you're even talking about this makes no sense. In fact, while looking back for the old drawings I came across a thread were you're alter ego, FTHP, was still spouting on about this same crap.

And Larry's first team went 15-17 and also doubled their attendance from the previous year. New Moody is cool, but as larry says over and over and over, it means nothing if they don't win.

Other people talk about renovating Ford too, but then again you keep insisting I am FTHP.

Whatever man, there's no way around you...for you we will always suck and we will never expand and we will never do this or that and we will always be worse than TCU and everyone else in the state...

[Big12Mustang]

Basketball isn't a driver in any of this, so unfortunately I think that argument is out the window (see UConn/Kansas), even though we have shown that we can consistently sell out a 7k arena and capture the Dallas hoops scene....which is nice.

That being said, realignment is all about $$ - specifically, TV $. Example -- Rutgers hasn't done anything in revenue sports worth mentioning...maybe ever. Their athletic dept, like Maryland's, was in the red big time. Yet they have an invite to maybe the most profitable conference from a TV standpoint. Why? For that coveted NYC market. B1G execs want the B1G network on every provider in NY, so they went for Rutgers. Same with Maryland for DC market.

TCU was an outlier - they only got the call because B12 was in a serious pinch after losing teams left and right. Their recent success played a part, sure...but from a TV standpoint, B12 already had/has the DFW market. Only way that happens for us is if another conference gets raided again.

If we are to get a P5 invite, it will surely come from ACC/B1G/PAC, when those conferences have an opportunity or desire to penetrate the DFW market. And even then, only if they cannot acquire a better property like UT/OU et al.

my $.02

This

[Grant Carter]

That is what we mean by "expanding to 50k", just make the darn thing look bigger like the examples above.

Who is "we" in this sentence? Does anyone besides you post about expanding to 50k? If so, I guess I missed it.

[Big12Mustang]

That is what we mean by "expanding to 50k", just make the darn thing look bigger like the examples above.

Who is "we" in this sentence? Does anyone besides you post about expanding to 50k? If so, I guess I missed it.

True dat. Bruce Feldman says the big split between "major and mid-major college football" will occur "in the next decade." What I'm saying is that, if the above occurs, we could deliver ratings for long enough to justify a just-in-time inclusion. It's not outside the realm of possibility, is it? Would a newly expanded to 50K -- and consistently filled -- Ford Stadium be enough to do it?

Ponyboy posted that.

[blackoutpony]

Other people talk about renovating Ford too, but then again you keep insisting I am FTHP.

Whatever man, there's no way around you...for you we will always suck and we will never expand and we will never do this or that and we will always be worse than TCU and everyone else in the state...

Nope, only you talk about expanding it. You just don't seem to have a fundamental understanding of reality. Have you actually been a game and seen what it's like? In my dream land, we would sell out Jerry World every week, back in the real world, I just hope that we actually have more fans in the stands than A&M when they come to town.

And I hope we don't always suck. That would [deleted] blow. Who the hell on here would want that? If we get a head coach that actually cares about the school he's working for and tries to recruit, we could be good. We'll never be OU or Texas or anything, and that's fine, but I certainly hope we can win championships and beat teams that actually matter, but it needs to happen now.

[Big12Mustang]

Other people talk about renovating Ford too, but then again you keep insisting I am FTHP.

Whatever man, there's no way around you...for you we will always suck and we will never expand and we will never do this or that and we will always be worse than TCU and everyone else in the state...

Nope, only you talk about expanding it. You just don't seem to have a fundamental understanding of reality. Have you actually been a game and seen what it's like? In my dream land, we would sell out Jerry World every week, back in the real world, I just hope that we actually have more fans in the stands than A&M when they come to town.

And I hope we don't always suck. That would [deleted] blow. Who the hell on here would want that? If we get a head coach that actually cares about the school he's working for and tries to recruit, we could be good. We'll never be OU or Texas or anything, and that's fine, but I certainly hope we can win championships and beat teams that actually matter, but it needs to happen now.

I think that my ambition and aspirations for what SMU sports can be are way too high and probably much higher than what many fans believe we can be.

I believe we can build teams that can win national championships in Football and Basketball

I believe that we can be part of a power conference and roll with the "big dogs"

I believe we can have facilities that rival anything the big programs have

I Believe we can come back and give UT a big F U by beating them multiple times in their stadium, making TCU our permanent beatch in everything and embarrasing the rest of the Big 12 conference in everything

I believe we can become a Stanford/USC type institution, catch up both academically and athletically.

You don't believe in any of that. You limit yourself and our school. Sadly, many fans think like you...and that is why all our sports will fail

[ponyboy]

It is a fact that if we were to play real teams every week, every week we would sell out the existing configuration at Ford. We can expand – but we have to play real teams


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