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Wow. Some things that caught my eye:

"Nike’s slogan “Winning is everything”" -- I thought it was "Just do it"

"If there was some good entertainment, like a concert during half-time " -- If only we could find some sort of "band" or something that would come to every football game and entertain us at halftime. And then maybe the rest of the game they could help the students cheer and add to the atmosphere that way. Why hasn't someone thought of this before?! We could even call them the "Mustang Band!" Pure genius.

"SMU is not the only college football team suspected of cheating" -- You're kidding. Other schools are suspected of cheating. And nobody else has ever been caught?

"The committee has launched programs such as “Move-In Day,” " -- Whereas before, everybody just magically appeared inside their dorms on the first day of classes.

Here's my favorite quote...

"There’s no way a tiny private school like SMU can beat up on big state schools. I think a lot of UT and A&M alums were angry with SMU beating up on their schools."

Has Chris Anderson never heard of the University of Miami? University of Southern California?

Phil_Bennett's_Mustache wrote:Here's my favorite quote...

"There’s no way a tiny private school like SMU can beat up on big state schools. I think a lot of UT and A&M alums were angry with SMU beating up on their schools."

Has Chris Anderson never heard of the University of Miami? University of Southern California?

Add Notre Dame to the list. Same undergrad size as SMU.

Diehard Pony wrote:

Phil_Bennett's_Mustache wrote:Here's my favorite quote...

"There’s no way a tiny private school like SMU can beat up on big state schools. I think a lot of UT and A&M alums were angry with SMU beating up on their schools."

Has Chris Anderson never heard of the University of Miami? University of Southern California?

Add Notre Dame to the list. Same undergrad size as SMU.

The difference is that those three schools are all 100% committed to their athletic departments. The faculty senate probably does not get much say when it comes to what goes on with regards to athletics.

Being a student, I think there are steps being taken to re-establish some sort of pride and spirit on this campus. With the new organization SMAC, a student led sports marketing group, there are those who are dedicated to making efforts to this. It is so hard to convince students to go to a game and there needs to be some alternative incentives to going to games. Students are trying and a few wins would change everything....

The problem is every 'solution' to the student attendance problem seems to either start with 'new tradition:" or is some bonehead idea that doesn't appeal to most students. (didn't they have a post game christian rock concert at Moody last year?) Neither of which have or will ever help.

This article is frustrating...argh

Hey parents, welcome to SMU, here's some info on how little spirit SMU has ever had ever...

I love the references to the 'bittersweet years' of the early 80's as the only time SMU had any spirit, and marginal fan support. Um, what about the House that Doak Built, 70,000 people each week cramming in to watch SMU beat up on everybody. Or maybe a NATIONAL TITLE in 1935, and playing in the Rose Bowl.

As far as current students go, the sentiment among most of them is this extremely spoiled 'i wanna be spirited, but oh darn we suck...' attitude. These kids just like whining about 'why cant i have this' or 'why cant the school just do _____, then hmmm, maybe i'd go to a game.' Until then, they dont want to go to games they 'know we're going to lose.' Oh really? I bet if you polled 100 students on campus right now, maybe 20 would know who we were even playing this week, and maybe 5 would know that we are favored to WIN.

We could replace the Mustang Band with the alt rock band "submerged"

I KNOW!!! we could start a new tradition and be like A&M except instead of kissing after every touchdown (or whatever the heck they do) we could you know have relations......that would do the trick.

Seriously though, how many of these new student organizations have they had over the years? It seems like they develop a new one every year or two, come up with a bunch of the same ideas that never work. I say we make it a requirement. If you are a freshman you are required to take a course in SMU history (including athletic history) and one of your "assignments" every week is to bring at least one torn ticket stub from a football game (if there is a home game that week).

MustangSally wrote:I love the references to the 'bittersweet years' of the early 80's as the only time SMU had any spirit, and marginal fan support. Um, what about the House that Doak Built, 70,000 people each week cramming in to watch SMU beat up on everybody. Or maybe a NATIONAL TITLE in 1935, and playing in the Rose Bowl.

As far as current students go, the sentiment among most of them is this extremely spoiled 'i wanna be spirited, but oh darn we suck...' attitude. These kids just like whining about 'why cant i have this' or 'why cant the school just do _____, then hmmm, maybe i'd go to a game.' Until then, they dont want to go to games they 'know we're going to lose.' Oh really? I bet if you polled 100 students on campus right now, maybe 20 would know who we were even playing this week, and maybe 5 would know that we are favored to WIN.

How many alumni are even still around that remember that 1935 National Title? Not sure what it really matters that SMU football did almost 70 years ago. Even the Doak days don't hold much water today. Certainly one can hear stories about it, but lets face it, that was still a long time ago. In the more recent years, SMU football has been absolutely pitiful - and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. The 1989 team at least one two games - while one of them was against UConn which was not Div 1, we are not depending on that Div 1 Uconn team to beat Army tomorrow so that we don't possibly have the longest losing streak in the country. Hopefully, Bennett will have this team prepared and the Mustangs leave Ford stadium with a W and some of the benefits of these so called "improved" recruiting classes will start to pay off and the team can continue to show improvement. Look at other schools that a perennial losers in football, do their students have any better attendance at football games? If the program can ever start winning again, it will help build more interest in what goes on at Ford. Take a look at the alumni at the game tomorrow and see how many even look like they attended SMU in the past 15 years. The majority of those that are there are from the 60's and 70's back when the program was more competitive.

abezontar wrote:Seriously though, how many of these new student organizations have they had over the years? It seems like they develop a new one every year or two, come up with a bunch of the same ideas that never work. I say we make it a requirement. If you are a freshman you are required to take a course in SMU history (including athletic history) and one of your "assignments" every week is to bring at least one torn ticket stub from a football game (if there is a home game that week).

So it's democracy for America, and fascism for SMU huh?

exactly, although I suppose if you seriously wanted to consider it you could always make it an elective of some kind, and just hope that enough students will want to take it for the easy grade and because it is fun.

Actually I have a better idea. Let's hire some mercenaries, and have them beat the snot out of every student that doesn't go. That will get them to the games, cause who wants to get the everloving stuffing beat out of them, and improve our attendance! It will be cheaper than trying to change our admission policies for athletes, adding more juco friendly majors and programs, and consequently winning!

both NTSU and UConn were Division 1-AA in 1989