Comprehensive Plan to Return SMU to Football Relevancy
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:10 amLike most of you, I'm ready to see a return to the winning tradition of Mustang Football. Here's my comprehensive plan to return SMU to football relevancy and New Year's Day bowl games.
1) Marketing. We now have a major marketing angle to play up in DFW. "Bowling with the Mustangs." I can see it now: you are watching your TV in July when a commercial comes on. It's Peruna (or some horse) in a bowling alley. Narration: "Last Year, the SMU Mustangs were bowl-eligible, but were not selected." The horse rolls a bowling ball down a lane. Narration: "This year, they will be going bowling." The ball hits the pins...it's a Strike! Highlights of last year's season begin playing. Narration: "Come see your hometown college football team as they make plans to go bowling." (Of course, the narration is negotiable)
2) Lowering Recruiting Standards. Let's face it, we don't have our choice of recruits in Texas, or even in DFW. By making it harder for recruits to qualify here than at other schools, we eliminate our chances to sign some talented individuals that may be academic risks, but could have succeeded at SMU by utilizing the support systems of the University. We can justify this to the "you are compromising the quality of our academics" types by pointing out USC, Notre Dame, and Duke in basketball.
3) Athlete-Friendly Majors. So I was watching the Independence Bowl last week and I noticed that a lot of Oklahoma State players were Sports Management majors. This major, through the OSU business school, teaches students and student-athletes about the business aspect of athletic programs and professional sports organizations. Other majors that would be athlete-friendly would be Education (since so many athletes go on to coach) and a major in Sports Broadcasting.
4) Always moving up. We should be happy that we are in CUSA right now. We are right about the middle of the pack, and that's where a program in the stage of development ours is in should be. It's a good fit. But we should continue to make a long-term trend upwards (top of the conference within three years). If we can get to the point that we continually dominate our conference (see: WAC and Boise State), then we should look into moving into more major conferences.
5) Marketing. Oh, that's Number 1. Well, it's Number 5 too. The reason why is because it improves "butts in seats." The fact is, even though we won more games this year than any in recent memory, our attendance didn't improve because of horrible marketing strategies. Let's make sure the community knows about each and every game.
1) Marketing. We now have a major marketing angle to play up in DFW. "Bowling with the Mustangs." I can see it now: you are watching your TV in July when a commercial comes on. It's Peruna (or some horse) in a bowling alley. Narration: "Last Year, the SMU Mustangs were bowl-eligible, but were not selected." The horse rolls a bowling ball down a lane. Narration: "This year, they will be going bowling." The ball hits the pins...it's a Strike! Highlights of last year's season begin playing. Narration: "Come see your hometown college football team as they make plans to go bowling." (Of course, the narration is negotiable)
2) Lowering Recruiting Standards. Let's face it, we don't have our choice of recruits in Texas, or even in DFW. By making it harder for recruits to qualify here than at other schools, we eliminate our chances to sign some talented individuals that may be academic risks, but could have succeeded at SMU by utilizing the support systems of the University. We can justify this to the "you are compromising the quality of our academics" types by pointing out USC, Notre Dame, and Duke in basketball.
3) Athlete-Friendly Majors. So I was watching the Independence Bowl last week and I noticed that a lot of Oklahoma State players were Sports Management majors. This major, through the OSU business school, teaches students and student-athletes about the business aspect of athletic programs and professional sports organizations. Other majors that would be athlete-friendly would be Education (since so many athletes go on to coach) and a major in Sports Broadcasting.
4) Always moving up. We should be happy that we are in CUSA right now. We are right about the middle of the pack, and that's where a program in the stage of development ours is in should be. It's a good fit. But we should continue to make a long-term trend upwards (top of the conference within three years). If we can get to the point that we continually dominate our conference (see: WAC and Boise State), then we should look into moving into more major conferences.
5) Marketing. Oh, that's Number 1. Well, it's Number 5 too. The reason why is because it improves "butts in seats." The fact is, even though we won more games this year than any in recent memory, our attendance didn't improve because of horrible marketing strategies. Let's make sure the community knows about each and every game.