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while the natural tendency is to blame the non-conference home scheduling on the coach or athletic director, the truth is that, more than anything else, our lack of a rabid fan base (that would fill Moody even for the Cal-State E. Podunks of the world) is what is dictating the way we schedule.

Ah, yes...now I remember why we weren't invited when the (later to be known as) BCS conferences were formed. Supply and demand. What a novel concept.

Long live the 1500

Charleston Pony wrote:while the natural tendency is to blame the non-conference home scheduling on the coach or athletic director, the truth is that, more than anything else, our lack of a rabid fan base (that would fill Moody even for the Cal-State E. Podunks of the world) is what is dictating the way we schedule.

Ah, yes...now I remember why we weren't invited when the (later to be known as) BCS conferences were formed. Supply and demand. What a novel concept.

Long live the 1500

Thanks for enlightening us.

forgot to insert the question...

what would YOU do if you were Orsini to try and get more butts into the seats at Moody and Ford, i.e., to work on BUILDING a fan base when you are selling an inferior product?

Fill it with visiting fans like always.
Ark, UT, Baylor, OSU, OU, Texas Tech, to name a few. Oh, that's right...our out of conference schedule sucks. Nobody cares about these teams.

You have to pay those guys to visit and give up a pay day on the road. Also, playing patsies at home gives you a win. Why don't the Ponies play UNT every year? That would be as good as any of the nine non-conference teams (excluding the tournament) this year.

Why doesn't BU/SMU play every year in basketball AND football. Luckily we will start playing each year almost every year in football soon.

I agree with scheduling UNT & Baylor (along with TCU) because of the proximity of the 3 schools. I've proposed that for years. Every year in bball and rotate UNT & Baylor in football... but the challenge facing SMU remains...how do we build OUR fan base? Building a consistent winner is the no-brainer, but the real challenge is/has been finding a way to put butts in seats NOW - how to get people out to watch an inferior product. Rent-a-fans are nice, but I want home-field/court advantage

I keep harping back on the Dallas Cowboys early days, when end zone seats were basically given away. My father would buy one end zone seat and that would allow him to bring up to 5 kids free. He and a buddy would bring a herd of kids and most of us grew up Cowboys fans.

Went to the SMU vs UT-Chatanooga game a few years back and UTC charged $1 per child accompanied by an adult. We should have been doing this the past several years when we've had so many empty seats in Moody & Ford.

It's painful to see 1200-1500 in the seats at Moody for these no-name opponents. I just think we should have been working for years to attract the casual sports fan who might otherwise never set foot on the SMU campus - but we have to make it such an attractive deal that they will come out to see SMU play Sam Houston State or Arkansas-Pine Bluff

CP, we've been discussing this for years. This isn't 30 years ago anymore.

The only time I've seen any excitement was the Sasser time in the last 10 yrs. That team was fun to watch at least. It hasn't helped with the crappy recruiting and nobody to get excited about except Bhop. It's a catch 22.

Dallas is too big and the Mavs kill us. Maybe when they start losing their momentum. I think those days are coming real soon. I would gather that most SMU bball fans have Mavs season tickets and they are typically scheduled on the same night. I don't think this is a huge %, but it doesnt help at all.

Pony_Fan wrote:CP, we've been discussing this for years. This isn't 30 years ago anymore.

The only time I've seen any excitement was the Sasser time in the last 10 yrs. That team was fun to watch at least. It hasn't helped with the crappy recruiting and nobody to get excited about except Bhop. It's a catch 22.

Dallas is too big and the Mavs kill us. Maybe when they start losing their momentum. I think those days are coming real soon. I would gather that most SMU bball fans have Mavs season tickets and they are typically scheduled on the same night. I don't think this is a huge %, but it doesnt help at all.

I agree times are very different and there is a lot more competition for the sports entertainment dollar. Having top teams playing on TV during our games hurts our chances of getting the casual sports fan out. I do think we have a "target market" in the pee wee football/bball leagues and should try to get those coaches/parents/kids out to SMU with attractive bargain deals...won't get those from the pro teams in town because they obviously have a product to sell and we don't ...yet.

You do not necessarily have to pay a lot of money to attract a good visiting team. There is another option. You can offer play two games at their place in exchange for them playing one game at SMU. This type of arrangement is not unheard of.

The Big 12 south schools all have a lot of alumni in DFW who will come to Moody to see their team play SMU. There are SEC fans here too. Why not try to work something out with Oklahoma or Arkansas? Maybe even Texas. Wouldn't it be worth it to give one of those schools an extra game at their place? By bringing in a recognized team you would bring in a much higher number of visiting fans and you would also draw a higher number of regular SMU fans as well.

TC

I thought coach Doh had basketball connections and would get some better games........

I'm not sure Coach Doh wants better games, until he ha sa team that can hang. We need to see some improvement