Moody can Rock

[Water Pony]

I'm not breaking new ground with this insight. . .but there is also the fact that SMU football and hoops have not seized on their opportunities to get the students' attention for decades. Case in point. . .we beat TCU in Fort Worth in 2011. Hey, that was great. But what would have REALLY been great is if we had beaten TCU at Ford in 2010 when we had a packed house, including a large student turnout. The students showed. . .and SMU lost. That has been the experience time and time again for SMU students when they give the Ponies a chance. The Mike Dement teams were on the cusp a few times and there were some big crowds at Moody. But invariably they lost the big games at home that could have captured student interest. The few big wins that I can point to over the past couple of decades (Arkansas in football 1997, Purdue in hoops, etc.) all happened away from campus and out of the student's eyes.

You want students to become more interested. . .How about beating Baylor and/or Tech at Ford next year. For hoops, how about some marquis wins against BE competition AT MOODY next year. Nothing gets people on board more than winning. . .and there is nothing like winning a big one at home.

So, we have to win big before the students will support their school? To me, this excuse does not compute. Besides, we are talking about "current" students and not the apathy of either previous students or eras.

[mustangband27]

Doherty did a great job of trying to keep the students involved, he even brought the SAE pledges back into the locker room after a big win two years ago. I also remember him visiting the SAE house.

I'm only bummed that Larry's first year as a coach is my first year as an alum, But a few of us in the SAE house did our very best every year to encourage the pledges to always be there and always be loud, and our last two coaches have recognized our efforts.

All frats should do the same.

Question for Oliver and all current and recent grads:

My son graduated in '05 (and an SAE) and I was struck by so many students (especially the fraternities), who stayed on the Boulevard or the Chapter Houses during all or part of the FB games at Ford. It frustrated me because when I attended (in the Sixites), our turnouts at the Cotton Bowl were generally quite good. It was expected that everyone attend. For example, the swimminers and divers always got a block too.

I have heard that today's students prefer watching games on TV watching, while some students maintian allegiance to other schools, e.g. state schools. How do we break this pattern and get the student body into Ford and Moody in large numbers, on-time throughout the game? No smack. How, do we accelerate these actions beyond having a better product on the field/court?

There isn't an easy fix for getting students in the stands other than winning. Everyone seems to think that our students suck or they don't care about SMU football because of outside allegiances. If their previous outside allegiances are better, they're going to continue supporting them. That being said, once SMU's programs start to figure it out and gain some consistency and respect nationally, you'll see stronger support.

The school has done what they can by creating gimmick ideas at different events and offering SERC (party) points to greek organizations for having 80% of their membership at games, but there isn't much more that can be done other than to field competitive, winning programs. It really isn't complicated and I don't get why everyone always looks for other solutions. If your team sucks, so will your fans (by and large).

[PonySnob]

Maybe with the increased Mustang Club donations or higher ticket prices for the new Moody, people who buy tickets will show up on a much more regular basis. Plenty of current "blue" seats that the people show up for 2-3 games and that's it. There are some right in front of mine, that have been sat in one time this whole season.........

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

"So, we have to win big before the students will support [b]their[/b] school? To me, this excuse does not compute. Besides, we are talking about "current" students and not the apathy of either previous students or eras."


1. So, we have to win big before the students will support their school?

That is correct. I'm not saying its right, but people love a winner. People want to support a winner. Show me a program that consistently loses all its big games at home, and I'll show you a program that doesn't have much support.

2. To me, this excuse does not compute.

See response to #1.

3. Besides, we are talking about "current" students and not the apathy of either previous students or eras.

That is true, but current students of any era inherit a culture when they come to campus. For example, A&M freshman are taken straight off the bat and indoctrinated into the football culture of Aggieland by existing students. That cycle is perpetual. SMU is locked in the opposite cycle. Apathetic existing students breed apathetic freshman in perpetuity. Invariably, those apethetic students become apathetic alumni. What is needed is something to break that cycle. . .big wins over name opponents at home.

[Charleston Pony]

the bottom line is that the majority of SMU students are "trendy". I agree wholeheartedly that if/when SMU starts upsetting top 25 programs on our home field/court, attending games at Ford/Moody will become a "cool" thing to do and things will change. I fully expect Coach Brown to make it happen at Moody berfore we see the same results at Ford. Mustang bball will have the advantage of a brand new facility to inspire curious fans. Ford gave football the same opportunity but after that opening win against Kansas, we blew that opportunity to build momentum

[Mustangsabu]

[quote="lwjr"]As someone mentioned earlier, one of the problems is out of state students coming in and holding allegiance to theiir state schools teams of choice. I am sure a lot of that is due to SMU's poor football and basketball teams over the years but I witnessed the same thing when I was at SMU in the early 80's. I am not refering to all of the students but it does seems like it was a rather high number of students.

Of course out of state students have always held some sort of allegiance to a college closer to their home, but at least when I was in school they still wore SMU stuff and went to the games and cheered for SMU.

Now the one thing that may be a bit different now is allegiance to other schools in Texas for some Texas kids - which never happened in the days of the SWC.

Any SMU student who cheers or wears stuff from another Texas school should be expelled.

I tend to agree with you, DF. It is not the out of state schools that worry me. We are their only DFW, Texas, SW and national university. We need and want passion. Pony Up!

We have to play top level football. To the average person we might as well be Div 1-AA. Thus we get treated as such. Being a UT fan and an SMU fan is not a conflict to students.[/quote]

I think this is a huge part of it. My wife to be is an Aggie, and from a huge Aggie family and she doesn't see it as a conflict to cheer on my ponies.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[lwjr]

Any SMU student who cheers or wears stuff from another Texas school should be expelled.[/quote]

I tend to agree with you, DF. It is not the out of state schools that worry me. We are their only DFW, Texas, SW and national university. We need and want passion. Pony Up![/quote]
We have to play top level football. To the average person we might as well be Div 1-AA. Thus we get treated as such. Being a UT fan and an SMU fan is not a conflict to students.[/quote]

I think this is a huge part of it. My wife to be is an Aggie, and from a huge Aggie family and she doesn't see it as a conflict to cheer on my ponies.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2[/quote]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife.
On the other hand congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

[Mustangsabu]

I think the biggest indictment is that the last two times we have played A&M there was no tension in the house....

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[couch 'em]

Do any of you give a damn about the women's equestrian team? No? You mean you don't show up to events and support SMU?

It is the same for football. This isn't the SWC. Football at SMU is not big time college ball, it is closer to FCS than FBS. Thus we draw crowds very similar to FCS teams and the students support their big time college football team first, and their small time team second.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Do any of you give a damn about the women's equestrian team?

Hey now.

[LA_Mustang]

Do any of you give a damn about the women's equestrian team? No? You mean you don't show up to events and support SMU?

It is the same for football. This isn't the SWC. Football at SMU is not big time college ball, it is closer to FCS than FBS. Thus we draw crowds very similar to FCS teams and the students support their big time college football team first, and their small time team second.

Not sure the point you're trying to make but our attendance is FCS like because we've got a small alumni base and we've NEVER attempted to be inclusive of the Dallas community. TCU did it with FW...Baylor, Miami, Northwestern, Vandy, Stanford and Duke never messed up their situation. The apathy of our alumni, the inability to connect with the locals and poor performance is a recipe for horrible attendance.

[smustatesman]

Do any of you give a damn about the women's equestrian team?

Hey now.

It's rumored that Irving Dreibotd had Frankie Laine record both, "Peruna and Rawhide". If such is the case, they should be played at the Equestrian events.

[Bergermeister]

The apathy of our alumni, the inability to connect with the locals and poor performance is a recipe for horrible attendance.

I think you nailed it.

[whitwiki]

Do any of you give a damn about the women's equestrian team? No? You mean you don't show up to events and support SMU?

It is the same for football. This isn't the SWC. Football at SMU is not big time college ball, it is closer to FCS than FBS. Thus we draw crowds very similar to FCS teams and the students support their big time college football team first, and their small time team second.

Not sure the point you're trying to make but our attendance is FCS like because we've got a small alumni base and we've NEVER attempted to be inclusive of the Dallas community. TCU did it with FW...Baylor, Miami, Northwestern, Vandy, Stanford and Duke never messed up their situation. The apathy of our alumni, the inability to connect with the locals and poor performance is a recipe for horrible attendance.

The Baylor board complains just as much about lack of local support as we do...

[Oliver]

We've seen articles posted here about Stanford's problems with attendance as well. SMU will never pack the house consistently in my opinion. We need to start playing enough big games that matter so that the entire fan base doesn't lose interest after the OOC schedule.

We need something big to happen, either a new conference with classic teams that draw big crowds during the regular season, or a top 10-15 ranking, or a magical BCS busting type year.

I really have no hope for football to do anything worthwhile for another 5-6 years, depending really on when June is fired. I'm a bit disillusioned honestly, and just ready for SMU to become a basketball school. Will I be at all SMU football games, yes, but do I expect many others to be there for a while, no..