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Let's say we get our high profile new coach. Let's say we hover just below .500 next year. And let's say our nonconference FB schedule in two years consists of Southern, Alabama St, TCU and N. Texas. And let's say we're 0-2 going into that TCU game.

How excited are we gonna be? Will there be anyone left to see the games? Personally I think bringing Southern & Bama St would be good for attendance, as the halftime show would overshadow the game.

can we get a new coach before thinking about 2 years down the road? i hate losing just as much as the next person, and talking about it just doesnt help

RGV Pony wrote:Let's say we get our high profile new coach. Let's say we hover just below .500 next year. And let's say our nonconference FB schedule in two years consists of Southern, Alabama St, TCU and N. Texas. And let's say we're 0-2 going into that TCU game.

How excited are we gonna be? Will there be anyone left to see the games? Personally I think bringing Southern & Bama St would be good for attendance, as the halftime show would overshadow the game.

Careful now, some people may miss your point..

If you were at Moody this weekend, you get it.

Wouldn't it be great though if we had Ole Miss and LSU on the schedule in 2 years and beat Ole Miss and made a game out of LSU. That would be exciting. The strategy of playing minor league teams (and yes, thanks to Bennett/Copeland we may be one ourselves now) to reach a bowl is a misguided strategy. Losing to a Sun Belt team in a bowl doesn't help recruitment either. I doubt Rice playing Troy State last year in the New Orleans Bowl will really do much for their program. On the other hand, Fresno State playing USC and almost beating them does help.

TheRealTruth wrote:Wouldn't it be great though if we had Ole Miss and LSU on the schedule in 2 years and beat Ole Miss and made a game out of LSU. That would be exciting. The strategy of playing minor league teams (and yes, thanks to Bennett/Copeland we may be one ourselves now) to reach a bowl is a misguided strategy. Losing to a Sun Belt team in a bowl doesn't help recruitment either. I doubt Rice playing Troy State last year in the New Orleans Bowl will really do much for their program. On the other hand, Fresno State playing USC and almost beating them does help.

While we would all love to compete with SEC, Big XII, Big Ten, Pac 10, Big East, and ACC teams, what makes you so confident they would want to play us, especially if we start competing. These big teams look for easy wins with minimal payouts. There is a good reason Ohio State plays Youngstown State, Texas plays Sam Houston State, Florida plays Western Kentucky, etc.

You run the table in non-conference (usually a pipsqueak schedule and maybe one good team) and you dominate your conference. That is how it's done for non-BCS teams to make a BCS bowl. The more good teams you play the more chance for a slip up and a loss.

SMU has played 1 school in the Top 50 teams in the Country according to Sagaran and all the cry-babbies went on for days stating we should never play them again. Its time for fans to decide whether SMU wants to compete at the highest levels of Division 1A. Either line up on one side of the other. Either you have a Goal of a Top 25 program or you want to go to Soccer Homecomings and Spring Regattas. Why in the hell would a recruit want to play Texas State School of Optomistrists. THEY DON'T. If they didn't get recruited by the big boys they want to beat the big boys. FIGHT FOR RELEVANCE. The BCS exception of scheduling creampuffs is not applicable because the reason they play those games is to sell 80,000 seats for an inferior product. SMU tries that and 8,000 show up.

After about 30 years of going to ALL SMU BB games, I first learned I could live without SMU Basketball when my son was young through when he was starting elementary school and decided I no longer cared to watch SMU play Bishop College, Tarleton St. or Cisco JC. Guess what I've found I can live without SMU Basketball ENTIRELY.

If I wasn't addicted to College Football I bet I could learn that I could live without seeing SMU play North Dakota St too. Soon I bet I could learn to live without watching SMU FOOTBALL ENTIRELY as well. Every one of you know many fans who have expressed similar feelings about SMU Football and Basketball. It simply is not relevant to their life and they are not interesting in putting themselves or their families through the exasperating pain. DRAW THE LINE and lets count which side we stand on.

Stallion wrote:SMU has played 1 school in the Top 50 teams in the Country according to Sagaran and all the cry-babbies went on for days stating we should never play them again. Its time for fans to decide whether SMU wants to compete at the highest levels of Division 1A. Either line up on one side of the other. Either you have a Goal of a Top 25 program or you want to go to Soccer Homecomings and Spring Regattas. Why in the hell would a recruit want to play Texas State School of Optomistrists. THEY DON'T. If they didn't get recruited by the big boys that want to beat the big boys. FIGHT FOR RELEVANCE. I first learned I could live without SMU Basketball when my son was young through when he was starting elementary school and decided I no longer cared to watch SMU play Bishop College, Guess what I've found I can live with it ENTIRELY. If I wasn't addicted to College Football I bet I could learn that I could live without seeing SMU play North Dakota St. Soon I bet I could learn to live without watching SMU FOOTBALL too entirely.

I'll bite. I'm not promoting that we play North Dakota State, Sam Houston State, Texas State, SE Louisiana, NW State, or any other FCS team. I'm saying we don't need to overload our non-conference schedule with high-caliber BCS teams and potentially put ourselves in a 1-3 or 0-4 start to the season. My ideal schedule would be:

A mediocre-to-good regional BCS team (i.e. Tech, TAMU, UT, OSU, etc., but it needs to be a home-and-home deal) -- (To showcase our abilities against a decent BCS-level team)

TCU -- (It has to be done)

UNT -- (I was pleased with the attendance at the game and I think once Dodge gets his thing going at UNT they will improve)

A low-end BCS team (i.e. Baylor, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Syracuse, Duke, etc.) -- (To possibly knock off a BCS team and catch the public's eye)

I vote for UNT, TCU and Baylor on the schedule every year.

TheRealTruth wrote:On the other hand, Fresno State playing USC and almost beating them does help.

Almost doesn't count, they still lost.

BTW, how is Fresno State better today than they were two years ago?

[quote="Stallion" Its time for fans to decide whether SMU wants to compete at the highest levels of Division 1A. Either line up on one side of the other.DRAW THE LINE and lets count which side we stand on.[/quote] ......................THE LINE HAS ALREADY BEEN DRAWN ! MILLIONS OF DOLLARS have been RAISED for new football coaches salaries including increased recruiting budget/degree plans etc.... Anyone who truely enjoys all the depression of the present should drop out because Orsini has the tools in place to get SMU's football program turned around.....That said, I think that once we start winning, SMU football will also need to be important again not only to SMU alums. but also with some residents of Dallas. Other successful private school sports programs have able to keep strong fan support with the residents of their cities.

Pony Up equals becoming relevant again. I say lets play the Big Boys, even if it is 2 to 1 in their place.

Besides, it gets us more TV coverage and that helps with recruiting.

We need to play the big guys if we want to be a big guy. However, I recall Ron Meyer saying that in order to be successful in recruiting you need to win 3 games for sure. Your first game of the season, your last game of the season, and the game against your biggest rival. With that in mind I would think we should schedule a patsy (first game and of course very hard to find at this time), a big boy (UT/Ark/OU/AM/TT/etc.), and then I would say TCU since they are perhaps our biggest rival at this time. I would try to keep the Rice game as the last game and hopefully learn how to beat them again.