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Watched Baylor get trounced by Missouri, 30-10, last night on Fox Sports. (Game began at 9 p.m.!) Floyd Casey Stadium looked like a ghost town. The cameramen were doing everything possible not to show all the empty seats.

now is the time for SMU officials to attempt to tie down a long term series with the Bears. Its a game that is close enough to pump up attendance for both school, there is a tradition and natural rivalry to the game, Baylor would receive the advantage of a game they should win(with the recruiting advantage of the Big 12), Baylor could start the reestablish connections for DFW recruiting and it could build its vital Dallas alumni relations. Plus SMU is a cupcake which Baylor desperately needs playing a Big 12 schedule. Why hasn't this game been made a permanent rivalry game? Is it a goal of the SMU athletic department. If not? Why not? If not then I think we got some people running the department that need to go.

Why give them more of recruits that we desperately need? Why would anyone good at football go to either school anyway? Because of the poor coaching or the losing over 80% of your games every year?

I agree that a series with Baylor should be a high priority for SMU and I will throw UNT into the equation. SMU/TCU should continue playing EVERY year, but we should get Baylor and UNT into a round-robin type schedule where we are playing each other every year. Ideally, in those years we play TCU at Ford, I'd like to play at either Baylor or UNT. When we travel to cowtown, either Baylor or UNT should be coming to Ford. With a little advance planning, this shouldn't be too difficult to work out...or am I missing something?

Stallion and Charleston Pony -

TCU partially accomplished – “Baylor-on-the-schedule”

In addition to having SMU scheduled several years (except 2006) into the future, the Horned Frogs also have the following: 2006 – at Baylor; 2007 – Baylor; 2010-Baylor; 2011 – at Baylor.

They also have upcoming games scheduled with Army (2005 – home); Arkansas (2008 – home / 2009 – away), Stanford (2007 – home / 2008 – away) and Texas Tech (2006 - home).

With MWC teams of questionable appeal to Texans coming to Fort Worth starting in 2005 TCU really needed to schedule traditional/regional (SMU, Baylor, TT, Arkansas) non-conference opponents.

TCU currently has a larger base of fans than SMU.

Winning and efforts to cultivate the local market earned them that.

Stallion wrote:now is the time for SMU officials to attempt to tie down a long term series with the Bears. Its a game that is close enough to pump up attendance for both school, there is a tradition and natural rivalry to the game, Baylor would receive the advantage of a game they should win(with the recruiting advantage of the Big 12), Baylor could start the reestablish connections for DFW recruiting and it could build its vital Dallas alumni relations. Plus SMU is a cupcake which Baylor desperately needs playing a Big 12 schedule. Why hasn't this game been made a permanent rivalry game? Is it a goal of the SMU athletic department. If not? Why not? If not then I think we got some people running the department that need to go.

Copeland did pursue a long series, but Baylor wanted to start with '03 and '05 and see how it worked out… Totally understandable since the SMU name isn't exactly a box office stimulant.

I think the next step should be to break off the Wake Forest series (if possible) and see if we can land Baylor, UNT, a Division 1AA Texas school or a combo if the years don't work out perfectly.

What really would help our cause with signing Big XII schools is a mass migration of SMU fans down to A&M next season when the Ponies play there.

Yup, I'm wondering how many fans Baylor will bring next fall to Ford Stadium. We probably do need to make this a regular game on our schedule. Maybe we could hype it with TCU as the "Texas Church School Championship" like Hayden Fry did.

Southland wrote:I think the next step should be to break off the Wake Forest series (if possible) and see if we can land Baylor, UNT, a Division 1AA Texas school or a combo if the years don't work out perfectly.

Sam Houston State is on Texas Tech's schedule next year. I'd suggest scheduling them in 2006 or Stephen F. Austin in 2005. Lots of kids from the D-FW area go to these schools. SFA is currently ranked 10th and SHSU is 12th in the nation in Div. 1-AA.

If you are going to get beat, wouldn't it be better to get beat by a 1-A team instead of a 1-AA team? Right now, we would have a hard time beating either Sam Houston St. or SFA.