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Did you know that our men's basketball team was absent from campus for more days than they were on campus this semester? Did you know that at least 3 weeks this year, they missed over 3 days in a row of class? Did you know that they had only one tutor travel with the team? Did you know on most trips, if the guys had to use a computer at the hotel, they might have had 3 to share among all 12 players? Did you know that when the players travel, there is no system to get class notes for the players? Did you know that at SMU, if a test is to be administered during travel days, the players for the most part have to take the test before they leave? Does it surprise you that the professors basically take a "gee, I'm sorry but I can't make an exception for you because everyone will want one" attitude towards the players? Did you know most universities have multiple tutors travel with all teams and that a systematic process is in place to get notes from classes the players miss?

Basketball places the most stress on student athletes of any sport because it spans both semesters and multiple games take place in a week. It is amazing that any one stays eligible. And that stud shooting guard from the Panhandle who chose SMU because he wants to get into Cox????? I wonder if anyone has told he and his dad that he must post a 3.35 in 7 core courses to qualify for Cox. Good luck with all that with the absolute absence of support systems we have in place.

If we want a huge selling point to recruits' families, we need to revamp this entire process and give these kids the support they need to succeed in the classroom. "Yes, mom, we will have 3 tutors - one for English, one for math and sciences and one for business classes traveling with the team. Your son will also have the use of a laptop so he doesn't have to twiddle his thumbs while his team mates use the 2 desktops the hotel makes available to us." "Your son will have someone in his class taking notes and recording the lecture so he will not fall behind."

We just shoehorned an oversized new $900,000 scoreboard into Moody. I wish we had downsized that thing a little bit and spent the money on building an academic support system for all athletic teams. That would have money well spent......................

Good Ideas, The building blocks of a TOP 25 Team.

Mr Orsini " Get R Done "

He probably doesnt know this..

How about we kill two birds with one stone and fill the team with players who leave for the NBA after their junior year.

Have we not recently hired an ex Princeton fballer / attorney to admin such things???

Even East Carolina uses charter planes to limit missed class. SMU has never had enough money in the budget to come close to doing this the past 20 years. Big boys charter. Small timers fly commercial.(not insinuating ECU is Big Time). Memphis charters to every game. The advantages are this: Game at Marshall on Wednesday. Leave by charter Tuesday evening, practice at home, arrive in Huntington by 10pm. In class all day, Tuesday. Miss class Wednesday due to game. Take charter flight back to Dallas immediatley following game and arrive in Dallas around 1:00am. No class missed due to Thursday travel which can take up most of a class day. When we were really good at SMU that is how we traveled. Is it expensive?, Hell yes but worth every penny. It is also a topic that is frequently discusses by potential recruits.

friarwolf wrote:
We just shoehorned an oversized new $900,000 scoreboard into Moody. I wish we had downsized that thing a little bit and spent the money on building an academic support system for all athletic teams. That would have money well spent......................

Don't touch my scoreboard. If anything they should have spent more money and made it HD. As it is now, it will be a relic in 5 years when every TV made is HD.

friarwolf wrote:We just shoehorned an oversized new $900,000 scoreboard into Moody. I wish we had downsized that thing a little bit and spent the money on building an academic support system for all athletic teams. That would have money well spent......................

If anything it should have been bigger and more extravagant. It could only help recruiting.

friarwolf wrote:Did you know that our men's basketball team was absent from campus for more days than they were on campus this semester? Did you know that at least 3 weeks this year, they missed over 3 days in a row of class? Did you know that they had only one tutor travel with the team? Did you know on most trips, if the guys had to use a computer at the hotel, they might have had 3 to share among all 12 players? Did you know that when the players travel, there is no system to get class notes for the players? Did you know that at SMU, if a test is to be administered during travel days, the players for the most part have to take the test before they leave? Does it surprise you that the professors basically take a "gee, I'm sorry but I can't make an exception for you because everyone will want one" attitude towards the players? Did you know most universities have multiple tutors travel with all teams and that a systematic process is in place to get notes from classes the players miss?

Basketball places the most stress on student athletes of any sport because it spans both semesters and multiple games take place in a week. It is amazing that any one stays eligible. And that stud shooting guard from the Panhandle who chose SMU because he wants to get into Cox????? I wonder if anyone has told he and his dad that he must post a 3.35 in 7 core courses to qualify for Cox. Good luck with all that with the absolute absence of support systems we have in place.

If we want a huge selling point to recruits' families, we need to revamp this entire process and give these kids the support they need to succeed in the classroom. "Yes, mom, we will have 3 tutors - one for English, one for math and sciences and one for business classes traveling with the team. Your son will also have the use of a laptop so he doesn't have to twiddle his thumbs while his team mates use the 2 desktops the hotel makes available to us." "Your son will have someone in his class taking notes and recording the lecture so he will not fall behind."

We just shoehorned an oversized new $900,000 scoreboard into Moody. I wish we had downsized that thing a little bit and spent the money on building an academic support system for all athletic teams. That would have money well spent......................

I trust you've e-mailed this list directly to Steve-O ([email protected])?

goponies1 wrote:Even East Carolina uses charter planes to limit missed class. SMU has never had enough money in the budget to come close to doing this the past 20 years. Big boys charter. Small timers fly commercial.(not insinuating ECU is Big Time). Memphis charters to every game. The advantages are this: Game at Marshall on Wednesday. Leave by charter Tuesday evening, practice at home, arrive in Huntington by 10pm. In class all day, Tuesday. Miss class Wednesday due to game. Take charter flight back to Dallas immediatley following game and arrive in Dallas around 1:00am. No class missed due to Thursday travel which can take up most of a class day. When we were really good at SMU that is how we traveled. Is it expensive?, Hell yes but worth every penny. It is also a topic that is frequently discusses by potential recruits.

Ask Oklahoma State about traveling on charter flights. IMO a very big recruiting advantage is/should be access to DFW / Love Field. I'm surprised it isn't mentioned more.

I would be very surprised if Steve was not aware of some gaps / issues with this. Are guys flunking out? What can you tell me about bball grades v. other programs in c-usa / big 12? Isn't there a new academic / "rules" guru who has just been hired? You guys act like Orsini is clueless...seems to me he is pretty sharp...

This isn't a shot at Orsini, this is calling attention to another hurdle that we place in front of our student athletes. SMU continues to ratchet up the academic requirements of our students - Sewell is on record as saying he wants the average SAT for an incoming class to be 1350 - its about 1230 now - second best in the state behind Rice. Grading is getting tougher to reflect the improved caliber of incoming students. So what are we doing to help the student athlete who spends a good portion of his day practicing and preparing to play. Not a whole lot other than tutoring those who are really struggling................So, unless you want Stallion really teeing off regarding the quality of our recruits, we need to better support the kids we do get to come here. As far as grades versus other CUSA/Big 12 schools, please......................

Every single Big 12, ACC, Big 10, Pac 10, SEC, team travels by charter. Last I checked these are Top 25 Conferences with many Top 25 teams right???? What SMU aspires to be and once was. One extrodinarily unfortunate accident isn't a reason not to do it. If so we would never allow a charter bus trip. I would say that, statistically speaking, flying is pretty safe. I couldn't agree more with Friarwolf, this is a huge hurdle and missing the number of classes that our players missed this semester is unacceptable. Charter flights cut the missed class in half. DFW, as great as it is, doesn't help with trips to Marshall and ECU. You are going to have to connect and it's an all day affair. Again, the Bigboys aren't doing that. Even Baylor! I am not advocating a charter flight to every game as I'm not into wasting money but charter flights are a necessary cost when traveling to places that are difficult to get to, particularly games in the middle of the week. It not only helps with the academics, it helps with comfort and game preparation which can help a team win on the road.

...once again, are bball players flunking out? How many hoopsters are on academic probie right now? Give me stats v. a bunch of "we don't have X", whinning bs...reality is, SMU is not swimming in cash and positioned to have fully stocked corporate lear jets waiting on the runways with albert einstiens third cousin on board with a chalk board, now really....it wold be nice if we occasionally had a realistic assesment of who we are, where we are and what we are, this si a work in progress, somethingthat is building. Got to go, Phil Bennet is in Memphis to accept the college football associations academic acheivement award...GO PONIES!!

Definitely nice to have for the bball teams. Some of these things are not expensive and should be done.

On the other hand, we are having one of our best recent recruiting classes and not a rash of academic problems. Let's just chill and count on Doh to comment on what he needs for the men's team.