What conference are we moving to?

[Nacho]

http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets

as the #5 tv market and located in the middle of the country we may be appealing to a number of conferences in a few years.

[CoxMustangFan]

Just win and win big in both football and basketball. Grow the endowment and the school. Attend events and support the teams. It will all work out in the end.

[SoCal_Pony]

Never forget Rutgers in this conversation.

You mean the Rutgers that is an AAU state flagship and 40 miles away from this country's largest media market?

Yep, that Rutgers.


The one that was passed over not once, but twice in conference realignment, before ending up in the freaking Big10.

The one that carries their TV market about as well as we do. BTW, Dallas is the 5th largest TV market and the only one in the Top 7 located in 'football country'.

The one that has/had the same attendance issues we have and relied on ticket giveaway schemes for years.

And while AAU membership is ideal, we are ranked higher nationally as an academic institution + we have a somewhat larger endowment (important in the context of $$$ will be no issue for us to make required facilities improvements).

Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

[PonyKris89]

Fact of the matter is, I have heard numerous times from various SEC people - they want more of Texas. They'd love an SMU type of school that would get them into Dallas every other year while also providing Vandy type of competitiveness (i.e. conference win, but still a tougher than OoC games). We would have to play our cards perfectly for years to make something like this a possibility. If we were to have a handful of years of true success in both basketball and football, forget the Big XII, the SEC wants to be in north Texas.

I hate to break it to you guys (especially in my first post on here), but SMU will never be invited to the SEC. As someone who grew up in SEC country (Baton Rouge) before moving to Dallas to go to SMU, I read and hear plenty about the SEC and SEC West. Also, Clay Travis and his website (Outkick the Coverage), have covered this topic extensively. Conference expansion is all about $$$, and for the SEC that means only inviting schools that offer new media markets. .

While Aggie significantly expanded their exposure in Texas, the DFW media market dwarfs the markets you pointed to. If they really want to move "all in" into Texas, alternating Aggie games with a "Dallas" team would give them a game in Texas every week. In addition to garnering attention from the DMN's of the world, SMU would help them offer counter programing options by the B12.

Examples: SMU plays Arkansas in JerryWorld every Thanksgiving weekend instead of Tech/Baylor. S

Was about to reply to our new poster with pretty much the same. You beat me to it!
An even stronger foothold in the DFW area makes great business sense for SEC.

I do agree with FreibergerForHeisman too, SMU is so ACC.

Welcome to PonyFans PeauxnyUp

[SoCal_Pony]

This is silly but if you made me choose which scenario is most likely I still say some sort of package deal of SMU/UH to the PAC. Even with that there are so many holes such as our religious affiliation, Bush Center and UH as an academic dumpster fire. All of the SEC/Big 12/Big 10 stuff is virtually a zero percent chance.

Is our Methodist affiliation that much greater than USC's

Good trivia question: Before being called Trojans, what was USC called. Answer : Methodists!!!

Stanford has Hoover Institute and UT wanted the Bush library. Given the amount of history that occurred during his term, having the Bush library is a plus for this school.

Won't argue on the Coog dumpster fire

[sbsmith]

Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

Better knock that attendance increase up to 40k, this is the SEC we're talking about.

[CoxMustangFan]

My 10 years guess-timate (assuming post Big12 GoR expiration):

1) ACC - 45%
2) SEC - 25%
3) A UT-less Big 12 - 20%
4) AAC - 9.94%
5) PAC - 0.03%
6) Big 10 - 0.02%
7) Big 12 (with UT) - 0.01%

[SoCal_Pony]

Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

Better knock that attendance increase up to 40k, this is the SEC we're talking about.

SoCal_Pony math:

Existing fan base - 10,000
Fans needed to earn SEC interest - 20,000
Incremental fans due to SEC brand - 15,000 (conservative)
SEC opposing fans attending - 10,000 (conservative)

You now have 55,000 fans - Doable

[SoCal_Pony]

Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

Better knock that attendance increase up to 40k, this is the SEC we're talking about.

SoCal_Pony math:

Existing fan base - 10,000
Fans needed to earn SEC interest - 20,000
Incremental fans due to SEC brand - 15,000 (conservative)
SEC opposing fans attending - 10,000 (conservative)

You now have 55,000 fans - Doable

[sbsmith]

SoCal_Pony math:

Existing fan base - 10,000
Fans needed to earn SEC interest - 20,000
Incremental fans due to SEC brand - 15,000 (conservative)
SEC opposing fans attending - 10,000 (conservative)

You now have 55,000 fans - Doable

We'd need more like 50K fans to earn SEC interest. Aggy and Missouri were doing even more than that before they got in.

[CoxMustangFan]

Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

Better knock that attendance increase up to 40k, this is the SEC we're talking about.

SoCal_Pony math:

Existing fan base - 10,000
Fans needed to earn SEC interest - 20,000
Incremental fans due to SEC brand - 15,000 (conservative)
SEC opposing fans attending - 10,000 (conservative)

You now have 55,000 fans - Doable

Shouldn't that be 35,000?

[floridianstang]

[quote="SoCal_Pony"]
Don't think we are headed to the SEC, but I don't buy this argument either:

SEC - "Sorry, SMU, we would have given you this $50M+ annuity for life if you had only increased FB attendance by 20k.

SMU's response - "Give us $50M and we'll solve that attendance issue".

Better knock that attendance increase up to 40k, this is the SEC we're talking about.

SoCal_Pony math:

Existing fan base - 10,000
Fans needed to earn SEC interest - 20,000
Incremental fans due to SEC brand - 15,000 (conservative)
SEC opposing fans attending - 10,000 (conservative)

You now have 55,000 fans - Doable

Shouldn't that be 35,000?[/quote]

He probably means we need 20,000 extra fans/30k total

[SoCal_Pony]

15k on top of the 20k needed to earn SEC interest = 55k

BTW, 4 SEC schools averaged under 60k and new addition Mizzou averaged 63k.

Given the disparity between us and Mizzou in terms of TV markets, an 8k variance in attendance is not insurmountable IMO.

Not saying its going to happen, but our end-game absolutely must be P5 so I for one enjoy these occasional threads about realignment.

[CoxMustangFan]

15k on top of the 20k needed to earn SEC interest = 55k

BTW, 4 SEC schools averaged under 60k and new addition Mizzou averaged 63k.

Given the disparity between us and Mizzou in terms of TV markets, an 8k variance in attendance is not insurmountable IMO.

Not saying its going to happen, but our end-game absolutely must be P5 so I for one enjoy these occasional threads about realignment.

I see!

[Johnny Utah]

Question....Hypothetically, let's pretend SMU goes undefeated and gets an invite to the college football playoff and does respectable against an P-5 power house like Alabama. Fast forward to the the next season where we are undefeated 5 games into the season. Then comes the six game at home against Tulane. Do you all really believe that's a sell out? I just don't see it. I mean, pretend every student, all 10,000 worth, show up.... add also the 15K of diehards in terms of showing up. Where do we get the rest of people to fill up the empty Tulane seats?....Is that supposed to come from the Dallas football enthusiast with no connection to SMU? Again, don't see it. I love football, but if I got relocated to Birmingham and the the same scenario above was applied to UAB, I would have not interest going to watch UAB play Flordia Atlantic. And that's especially true if there are good college football games on TV that day which is regularly the case. Which leads me to my next point/question, if we can't ever fill up a 30K capacity stadium 100% for a full season or very close to it, how do we get the invite to the P-5?