A ten-year plan for SMU Football competitiveness

[ponyboy]

I see nothing inherently superior in being a national versus a regional private university, as our very name suggests. It reminds me of the drive businesses have to grow ever larger and larger and larger. You should always ask, to what point? Do you better serve your customers, your stockholders by being ever larger? Not necessarily. Same goes for being a national versus a regional school. What you get with that arrangement is exactly what we have here at SMU: students from all corners of the country who flit in, take an education, and then flit out, caring nothing about the larger Dallas community of which SMU is properly a part. No wonder then that Dallas thinks very little about us if they think of us at all. That's the problem I'm trying to solve.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

I see nothing inherently superior in being a national versus a regional private university, as our very name suggests. It reminds me of the drive businesses have to grow ever larger and larger and larger. You should always ask, to what point? Do you better serve your customers, your stockholders by being ever larger? Not necessarily. Same goes for being a national versus a regional school. What you get with that arrangement is exactly what we have here at SMU: students from all corners of the country who flit in, take an education, and then flit out, caring nothing about the larger Dallas community of which SMU is properly a part. No wonder then that Dallas thinks very little about us if they think of us at all. That's the problem I'm trying to solve.

We have 50% of the UG student body from Texas! that is already a good amount, similar to Rice. If you want to increase it to 80%, then we might as well be a public university. And, yes, there are consequences to increasing that percentage to what you suggested, and it would imply a diminished student quality. We can get a good amount of top candidates from texas, but that starts to dissipate if we want that many from Texas, as many others would just rather go to UT-Austin, and we'd be left with those without many options. I grew up in Texas (almost left to go to school out of state) but decided to stay for college and am now in NYC, but that doesn't make me any less of an alum than if I were in DFW. The alumns that go to SMU for an education and then leave also benefit the university because we increase our presence. No top academic school is regional only. Not a single one.

[Pugilistic Pony]

You are quite the reader, pulling such an amazing amount of content from so few words.

I spent many years at SMU, and I learned well how to read between the Pony lines. Granted, I inferred. But, honestly, was I wrong? I would be most encouraged to hear that I was completely off base.

[ponyboy]

I share Allan Bloom's view of the proper role of the university. Though I am a very strong believer, the goal is decidely not to indoctrinate with any faith, liberal, progressive or otherwise. The goal is conversation about important things, to read deeply from the greats. I could not care less, by the way, about the trade schools. That's not education.

One more thing. I am ashamed at 19 year old girls driving Range Rovers. That's not the kind of school I want to be associated with.

[RebStang]

I share Allan Bloom's view of the proper role of the university. Though I am a very strong believer, the goal is decidely not to indoctrinate with any faith, liberal, progressive or otherwise. The goal is conversation about important things, to read deeply from the greats. I could not care less, by the way, about the trade schools. That's not education.

One more thing. I am ashamed at 19 year old girls driving Range Rovers. That's not the kind of school I want to be associated with.

Interesting... you just made a very compelling case for why SMU should be aiming at being a much more prominent national university.

You hit very correctly on the noble goal of higher education. Don't you think that goal is better achieved with a diverse student body from around the country and world who each bring their own set of perspectives based on their regional, ethnic, and religious backgrounds than it is by being an echo chamber of people who largely share the same ideals due to very similar regional experiences?

[ponyboy]

Though I see your point, I don't know why a conversation about great books couldn't be productive with a group of students who happened to be from Texas.

[Nacho]

how about from hp only?

[ponyboy]

Only those who went to Hyer.

[Pugilistic Pony]

I share Allan Bloom's view of the proper role of the university. Though I am a very strong believer, the goal is decidely not to indoctrinate with any faith, liberal, progressive or otherwise. The goal is conversation about important things, to read deeply from the greats. I could not care less, by the way, about the trade schools. That's not education.

One more thing. I am ashamed at 19 year old girls driving Range Rovers. That's not the kind of school I want to be associated with.

I appreciate your response. I apologize, if I inferred too much, and my tone was a bit cavalier.

Now, if the goal is conversation about important things, don't you think the conversation is more interesting and rewarding when it includes people from a very wide variety of perspectives and life experiences? To me, that's education, and one reason I came to Texas for college.

I am ashamed of what I want to do with 19 year old girls driving Range Rovers, and I think a bit of practical learning in order to earn one's way in life is fine (some of us have to acquire salable skills and practice a profession).

[deucetz]

Mandating that more of our student body be in-state would decrease the quality of the student body. Ain't happening, nor should it.

I'm not suggesting you mandate a result. There are other ways to achieve a goal than mandate. And why shouldn't it happen? What is the purpose of this school? What's the end goal? What does success look like? Is it an ever increasing national academic presence, a la Rice or the University of Chicago? Both of their football teams suck, one really badly since they cancelled football years ago.

I would be careful about what you say about Rice. Rice is in a better position to do well in football than SMU. Rice could use the same model that Stanford, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt has been using to get recruits.

We can't compare with those schools because we don't have a large endowment nor as much of a national presence. While we have a lot of successful SMU alums, these schools are better placed to say if you come here you will have good post-graduate outcomes than SMU.

Making the school regional will hurt SMU more than anything. You can't out compete the state schools or regional schools in recruiting. So you have to draw on other strengths of the university. SMU already has a crap load of Dallas alums. They just don't care. Why should they, when they students don't even care and we can't compete with schools that are nationally known in football.

SMU's problem is about facilities, it is about a coaching and recruiting problem.

And we should be looking more at using basketball as a way to propel ourselves to a P5 conference. Look at Memphis, they aren't good at football but they are in the same place as us. I am not saying we shouldn't put together a competitive program, but SMU's money should be spent on making the school better. If we can get a rich alum to donate specifically through football, then we should take that opportunity. Otherwise, we shouldn't promote football at the expense of the university.

[RebStang]

Making the school regional will hurt SMU more than anything. You can't out compete the state schools or regional schools in recruiting. So you have to draw on other strengths of the university. SMU already has a crap load of Dallas alums. They just don't care. Why should they, when they students don't even care and we can't compete with schools that are nationally known in football.

SMU's problem is about facilities, it is about a coaching and recruiting problem.

I think the reason a lot of DFW area SMU alumni don't care about SMU athletics is because they never were SMU fans in the first place. I'd guess that a large number of SMU's alumni in the DFW area are from Texas or the southeast originally and probably mostly grew up Texas, Aggy, other Big XII/SWC, or SEC fans.

To compound the problem, SMU has not done a good job of cultivating the Dallas area as a source of fans who buy season tickets, etc.

My humble opinion is that SMU has a better shot at converting out of state students into lifelong SMU fans if the product on the field is good enough to get them in the stands. The key to turning current students into SMU fans, drawing in the Dallas walkon fans, etc is to win football games.

I'd prefer to see future schedules where the only Texas team on the schedule is TCU. Stop playing Tech, Aggy, etc and play teams that give the Dallas community a chance to cheer FOR SMU instead of against us - play a Stanford, Northwestern, Virginia, etc instead of Texas teams who will fill our stadium with their fans.

[Johnny Utah]

Everyone on this page is wrong. June actually had it right some time back when he mentioned the adavantage he had at Hawaii wherein because tuition was so low he had an influx of 200-300 walk-ons. It was in that group that he found 20 kids that could play to compliment the scholarship guys. It gave depth and helped out big on special teams and made the team durable. SMU cost too much to have the walk-ons the state schools have. Therefore, for SMU to ever be a contender in this business called college football, they must triple enrollment and drop tuition to state school levels.... And I wish it would happen, but it won't. Maybe at least they will just increase enrollment to USC levels.

You can point to TCU to counter everything I have laid out, but I trully believe TCU was lucky when they needed to be, but reality is starting to set in for them. Plus, they were never trully dominant. Check out how many C-USA titles/ Mountain West Titles they scooped up??

I have finally hit rock bottom with SMU Football. I am now convinced winning will never happen. 10 year plan??? Any plan that takes 10 years in this day an age is code for "never gonna happen".

[SoCal_Pony]

Well, this could have been a good thread but it got derailed.

You know Ponyboy, I disagree with most of what you post, but this is taking it to a new level.

The world is becoming more global. SMU, to its credit, is expanding its base, not only nationally but internationally as well, and your bright idea is to limit our student body to mostly Dallasites and Texans? What complete rubbish. That is idiot thinking. At my company we have a name for it, 'df**ry'.

That this is your idea of 'strategic' thinking, which you continually defend over numerous posts, is simply amazing.

I travel SE Asia extensively. Whether one likes it or not, they are going to be a more dominant player on the world stage this century, possibly THE dominant player. Everyone I speak to knows of the UC system (best in the world), Stanford and USC. As for Texas, only Rice and UT are recognized. SMU should aspire to be that 3rd Texas school known internationally for its educational excellence. I believe that is the goal of our Administration as well and I applaud them.

We recently were ranked #81 by Forbes, which was quite an accomplishment. Your 'strategy' would reverse that. Very small thinking on your part.

[SoCal_Pony]

10 year plan??? Any plan that takes 10 years in this day an age is code for "never gonna happen".

Well stated.

[jpe747]

I think we can grow the fan base and still remain a national university. Dallas is one of the best sports minded cities in the world. But, Dallas fans (like fans everywhere) support winning teams. Send this plan to those who call the shots. I'm all for that. It is a great starting point. It sparks interest. But, no matter what is done off the field winning games is where its at. Had we beaten A&M we would be the talk on national sports radio. We need to win 8 games a year minimum.

On the other hand, a good sound fan recruiting plan should be put in place as well. In Dallas, Texas we should fill Ford Stadium no matter who we play.