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This is an actual poll on USA Today sports page:

http://socialhub.usatodayhss.com/blogs-main/staffblogs/item/1068-the-myles-turner-athlete-blog

What should be the most important reason an elite high school football player chooses a particular college?


*Ability to prepare them for NFL

*Studies/degree

*Proximity to home

*Relationship with coaching staff

*Cool uniforms

*Other

ponyinNC wrote:This is an actual poll on USA Today sports page:

http://socialhub.usatodayhss.com/blogs-main/staffblogs/item/1068-the-myles-turner-athlete-blog

What should be the most important reason an elite high school football player chooses a particular college?


*Ability to prepare them for NFL

*Studies/degree

*Proximity to home

*Relationship with coaching staff

*Cool uniforms

*Other

SMU has been relatively good in preparing kids for the NFL. The Mustangs there are doing pretty well.
As far as studies, this one is in the bag, we are known for academics. Our school is best in DFW and possibly 2nd or 3rd in the state (that's if you count UT as a "good school"_
Coaching staff...lol
Our uniforms are OK...just fine

Let's start working on that *Other. I like Other, we need more of it. Here's a quote from Player: "I really like Other." There you have it folks.

i just couldn't believe that "cool uniforms" was even an option in this poll.

Since all d1 athletic programs have certain limitations (85 scholarships) that they must follow it then becomes how to use other factors to a programs advantage. In no particular order facilities, uniforms, is there an active program to recruit and maintain great relations with the parents so they will pass along how great the university and staff are to future recruits( my experience is SMU lacks bigtime in this area) , other clothing that players can wear full-time and to class such as shoes, shirts and warmups, dorms/living arrangements, if off campus how much do players receive in monthly stipends($1400 at SMU $1000 at TCU due to cost of living) campus life, coeds, surrounding community attractions, educational opportunitities, business opportunities after and during college, fan support, student support,championship opportunities, tv, positive media coverage locally, bowls, head coach, coordinator, position coach, type of players on team...thugs football only or well-rounded, graduation rate with "meaningful degrees" or like OSU, does the staff treat all players good or does the staff run off players who can't contribute to free up scholarships, opportunity to play early, is there a strong alumni program so players can come back( yes that would be a selling point to recruits since playing days are short but being an active alumni is for life.

In the case of dealing with a 16 or 17 year old kid, yes, they do matter.

I remember a coach talking about going to a recruits house and the kid asking what kind of gloves they wore. The coach (can't remember which one) said he just got up and left.

Look we're not going to start pulling 5-star recruits with cool uniforms. But look at who we should be competing with for recruits and beating out every once in awhile: Baylor, TCU, Tech...all of them have cool uniform combos that are 100x cooler than the crap we have right now. This is indisputable. We can't put 50,000 in the stands or play Texas and Oklahoma every year, but right now we can't even keep up in the areas we CAN control. Pathetic.

East Coast Mustang wrote:Look we're not going to start pulling 5-star recruits with cool uniforms. But look at who we should be competing with for recruits and beating out every once in awhile: Baylor, TCU, Tech...all of them have cool uniform combos that are 100x cooler than the crap we have right now. This is indisputable. We can't put 50,000 in the stands or play Texas and Oklahoma every year, but right now we can't even keep up in the areas we CAN control. Pathetic.

as usual, ECM nails it.

One way to answer the question is to look at the Moody Renovation, the hiring of a legitimate Hall of Fame coach, raise your recruiting game and chops and make the only Division 1 School in Big Dallas attractive to local and national 4 stars.

The excitement we are looking forward to indoors at Moody this BB season will capture the attention of students, Dallas fans, alumni, future recruiting and the national media. Being good at BB has a great cool factor, while FB in Texas is a religion we need to reawaken on the Hilltop. Upgrading/expanding Ford before we can actually justify it is a good idea, as is breaking ground on an Indoor Multi-Purpose Facility.

I went to Homecoming this year and was blown away by the growth and excitement of the Boulevard. The downer was seeing so few students and fans tearing themselves away from it for a competitive, conference game. If you want to recruit better and improve finances, we need to pulling 25-32K fans in actually attendance.

Watch what attendance we get in Moody this year. It is likely to exceed some of our home games at Ford. FB recruits will like Moody and how we trend in BB. Model the BB programs and step up our FB chops.

FB and BB are a tough comparison though. For instance, we were all embarrassed by the 10K announced attendance for the Montana State game. If those same 10K had showed up at Moody, there would have been 2,000 waiting outside without tickets. Basketball is just so much easier to be competitive in than football

A football recruit has no idea what kind of alternative uniform a school may have in their time on campus. If Oregon, you know that things will be flashy all the time but other than that if a recruit is saying cool uniforms make a difference they would be talking about the standard uniforms. I doubt many of the Northwesten recruits were shown the bloody flag uniform during their visit.

I think a retro or alternative uniform once a year or every other year would be nice if affordable, but I just do not see them as making a recruiting difference. I do agree that our current uniforms need some help.