More Beasley tweets

[RebStang]

Wasn't insulted, I just found it funny that you all are basically making constructing/reconfiguring the campus to accommodate larger enrollment analogous to the Manhattan Project.....

Sorry, I just think the majorities path of hiring the "exciting" coach (i.e. young enthusiastic guy with Texas roots or Mack Brown) is guaranteed disaster.

Then what's your plan?

Start tearing down buildings and replacing them with 10+ story buildings?

Tear down Ford Stadium, move back to the Cotton Bowl, and build a massive building on the land?

Look carefully at USC's campus - there's no football stadium They have fewer dorms than we do. Their basketball arena is essentially off campus (right across the street... but off campus). It's literally dotted with 10 or more story relics from the 1970s that they can't tear down because they don't have anywhere else to put classrooms and dorm rooms.

Doubling SMU's enrollment would require either acquiring a lot more space (in case you haven't noticed, the main campus is close to built out right now unless you plan to put a building in the middle of the Dedman Quad) or tearing down buildings to put in 10+ story eyesores...

All to accomplish what?

[Johnny Utah]

The Coliseum is a 5 min walk from the USC dorms according to google maps. Not sure where you got your information on the stadium but its as flawed as the rest of your logic. Go look at 95% of the teams in the P-5 and they have one thing in common - Enrollment which exceeds 15,000... 80% exceed 20,000. I think it's obvious that as far as having a successful program, large enrollment is an important factor.

As far as my plan, it's about priorities in land use and not building skyscrapers. It can be done. Again, not overnight but start a gradual trend........

[blackoutpony]

The Coliseum is a 5 min walk from the USC dorms according to google maps. Not sure where you got your information on the stadium but its as flawed as the rest of your logic. Go look at 95% of the teams in the P-5 and they have one thing in common - Enrollment which exceeds 15,000... 80% exceed 20,000. I think it's obvious that as far as having a successful program, large enrollment is an important factor.

As far as my plan, it's about priorities in land use and not building skyscrapers. It can be done. Again, not overnight but start a gradual trend........

More like 15 minutes, as someone who has walked it many times. No pro team in LA either helps a lot. Just sayin

[RebStang]

The Coliseum is a 5 min walk from the USC dorms according to google maps. Not sure where you got your information on the stadium but its as flawed as the rest of your logic. Go look at 95% of the teams in the P-5 and they have one thing in common - Enrollment which exceeds 15,000... 80% exceed 20,000. I think it's obvious that as far as having a successful program, large enrollment is an important factor.

As far as my plan, it's about priorities in land use and not building skyscrapers. It can be done. Again, not overnight but start a gradual trend........

First fatal flaw in comparing USC to SMU: Population of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area: over 13 million. Population of DFW Metropolitan area: under 7 million. Number of nationally respected universities in the LA area: 2. Number of nationally respected universities in the DFW area: 2. It stands to reason that both SMU and TCU would be significantly smaller given the fact that, despite all the growth over the last 2 decades, Dallas is still almost half the size of LA in terms of population.

You mention enrollments at P5 schools but you completely ignore the fact that the vast majority of P5 schools are flagship public institutions or flagship land grant institutions... they're "University of [Insert State Name]" or "[State Name] State University". There are a grand total of 10 private schools among the 64 P5 conference schools (11 of 65 if you include Notre Dame as part of the ACC).

Of the 10 private schools in P5 conference, USC is far and away the outlier at a total enrollment of 40,000 (talk about campus overcrowding). The next largest private school in a P5 conference is Northwestern at 16,670 in total enrollment. Our enrollment, by comparison, is just under 11,000.

Also, remember when you want to reduce tuition: SMU doesn't get supplemental money from the state of Texas to help keep tuition down. Every public school in the country gets supplemental money from the state to help offset the true cost of the education in order to keep tuition down... we don't get a dime from anyone for that. So, when you want to reduce tuition to help encourage growth in enrollment... where is the money to offset the cost going to come from?

[SMUer]

We effectively have 6,000 students, not 10,000...seldom does a grad student give a flip about football. They went to other schools for UG who are better in football, work full time and do evening or weekend classes, or are mostly too busy and doing things too important for a +5 hour activity on Saturdays.

Say 50% actually go to the game...okay 3,000...and half of our 40,000 living DFW alumni...23,000...now where do we find the remaining 9,000? This is an absurdly high percentage IMO and herein lies is our problem. Our fans aren't perfect but I don't think we "suck"; I'dbet we have a higher percentage of our students/alumni attending games than any school on the state. Even so, we don't fill up Ford by ourselves, the stragglers on the Blvd are visible, and very few people in DFW not directly connected to SMU go to games. Increasing UG enrollment is one way to grow our own (if TCU can do it, so can we). Scheduling marquee, non-SWC opponents and putting up a good performance might be another way. And freaking advertising/generating hype.

[TidePony]

SMUer you are on the money. I am a good example of someone who went to graduate school at SMU. My son was elementary aged at the time and because he loved to go to football games I started taking him to Ford. We live too far away from Alabama to go to every game there, so we became SMU fans.

We started going during the Bennett era. Even though we lost most games we still had fun. Maybe the university can provide seating areas in the stadium for seminary students, law students, MBA, MEd, and MA students and spam them with emails inviting them to games.. (And, maybe Hart already does this). There were about 4,000 grad students when I attended and maybe a goal could be to get 1,000 students, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, and children to the games. Plus, I don't remember if I got in free or not, but family packages might be an option for this student population.

And, please don't bring your dog to the Boulevard! Leave it at home and get your butt in the stadium! My two cents...

[RGV Pony]

Yknow, the game that keeps coming to mind is the Friday night game vs a highly ranked TCU team. Smu fans outnumbered TCU and it was a great atmosphere. Do that regularly and attendance will be fine. Problem is save for the game at Tech, smu regularly spit the bit against name competition during the jj/CB years. And it's generally in spectacular fashion, see the kp misses the bus/kicker kicks himself onside aggy game during the storied "we beat TCU then nobody came to watch ucf" season. People aren't going to come out of the woodwork for 6/7/8 win seasons where the wins are utep uab Memphis, one of nw St/sfa, one of ECU /Marshall, one of rice/Tulsa and one other game. Bball does a lot of things right.. One of them was taking it to the eventual national champ in moodys first game, rather than an eked out win vs a centenary

[FriscoChuck]

Gotta win. If we were an undefeated team or a top 20 team we would not be having this argument. One 7 win season will not grow attendance.

[mrydel]

Maybe Cole should have gone to one of the high enrollment state schools that offered him.

Oops.

[smu2004]

What's most baffling is that SMU fans expect to become a P5 program when they cannot fill up Ford, which only seats 30k. You cannot use the small enrollment and alumni numbers as an excuse, especially when you live in a city with almost 7 million people. When SMU began winning for the first time since the Death Penalty, tickets should have been virtually impossible to get.

Tickets should havd been impossible to get to watch a .500 team play directional and/or northeast schools? Are you kidding me? Why on earth would a dallas resident w/ no SMU affiliation have any interest in paying money to watch that? The bottom line is SMU, during the JJ era, had a grand total of one marginally big win (on the road no less). If you want to get noticed, you need to get more than 1 marquee or signature win over a period of 6+ years.

[smusportspage]

I see alot of excuses on this thread. I will only leave the BLVD. (or home) and support my team if they win.....I would have had a better experience at SMU if only more fans were in the stands to support me as an athlete. I have never liked excuses, they get in the way of progress. Just do the right thing.

[bobcat68]

This thread has been fun to read. Many of the complaints that PF's have concerning their football program and spectators are similar to my alma mater SWT/Texas State. It's all about what is going to take to get to the next level. With my kids in school at SMU I have become a fan and season ticket holder. I played at both Baylor and Texas State. Both places that had good coaches that promoted the universities and engaged the community (Teaff and Wacker). After both coaches left each program feel into disrepair. Until recently, the attendance records at Texas State were set during the Wacker years. Why, because we won and he was all over the place promoting the school in both Austin and San Antonio. It's interesting to see how Larry Brown has done this for SMU basketball. When you have a coach that knows how to win and is media savvy, SMU will have the ability to make the move to a P5 conference. Conferences want the Dallas media market. You just have to have a product that they can use.

[StallionsModelT]

When you consistently get your doors blown off by schools that SMU fans/alumni care about then don't be shocked when they don't show up to see us play UCF, Southern Miss, UCONN, etc. You have to win and you have to play an exciting brand of football with an energetic leader. We did none of those things at home in the JJ years.

That Friday night TCU game is a great example of another missed opportunity. Full house. National TV audience. Marquee opponent. We kept it close for a half and then got our doors blown off. You want people to come back? Win those games.

[sbsmith]

I see alot of excuses on this thread. I will only leave the BLVD. (or home) and support my team if they win.....I would have had a better experience at SMU if only more fans were in the stands to support me as an athlete. I have never liked excuses, they get in the way of progress. Just do the right thing.

Yeah there are a lot of excuses on this thread but we need only to look at SMU Basketball to see what kind of support is possible with a legit on-field product. You want more people to buy your product then fix the damn product and stop blaming the customers. We're never going to have the kind of fanbase that will show up en masse to watch a mediocre product.

[smusportspage]

Exactly.