Turner, Knight Commission, and SMU Football

[Top Twenty]

I am as interested in our band, swimming, soccer, and tennis as I am in St. Mark's track. We totally missed the boat, and I hope our Administration really enjoys watching TCU in football's Final Four.

[PK]

Everybody needs to take a deep breath here. The board of trustees set the agenda. Unfortunately less than half of that board has any direct relationship to SMU. That is a result of the DP...basically an extreme knee jerk reaction to the DP. Until the Board realizes the benefits of successful football and basketball programs to the overall success of the university in terms of recognition and overall attractiveness to potential students in todays culture things aren't going to change much. Turner promotes what the board dictates he promotes. Increasing the endowment and increasing the facilities and staff have been his goals set by the board. He is president of the university, but not free to do as he likes...one way or the other.

TCU's board of trustees get it...not so sure of SMU's.

[JasonB]

I'm aware of the disrepair of other facilities. Just stating the reality of the situation.

If there are a ton of people who were going to donate to those causes and nothing else, that's fine. Personally, I wonder if at least some people gave money to those buildings instead of the football program because they were pissed at June.

There are basically three approaches we can take with a limited athletic budget:

1) spend most everything at football and basketball at the expense of all other sports until we get football and basketball straightened out. Then with the expanded budget we fix other issues.

2) spread the money around so that none of the other sports are miserable, but still spend most on football and basketball. I would argue this is the approach we have now, which leads to half-ass other sports, great basketball and average at best football.

3) Give up on football, limit the money spent there, and spend everything on basketball and other sports. This is the Big East approach, and none of them finish in the top 50 of the directors cup either. If you play in a conference worse than the AAC or the MWC, then it devalues the sports program to the point where it is impossible to even keep basketball functioning at a high level.

The only thing you can do to reduce the impact of a limited budget is to invest in football until you get to a successful point, and use that to raise money to support a solid athletic program.

[tristatecoog]

Was TCU just "lucky" with Patterson? SMU invested pretty heavily in June Jones and got that one wrong in the long run and should have cut ties after the ASU deal. Did the change in ADs and dysfunction between Orsini and RGT have something to do with JJ staying around?

[JasonB]

TCU changed their model 15 years before we changed ours, and was able to compete in a landscape prior to the huge TV contracts rolling in. They were able to grow the support of the Fort Worth Community, have massive local and corporate involvement because of their success, and had a very famous hall of fame running back.

Those items allowed them to bring in the right coaching staff. Saying they were lucky to get Patterson is like saying UH got lucky with Dana, Briles, and Sumlin. The investment and model was there to attract a coaching staff that would take advantage of it.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I am as interested in our band, swimming, soccer, and tennis as I am in St. Mark's track. We totally missed the boat, and I hope our Administration really enjoys watching TCU in football's Final Four.

+1

[smumustang1980]

Everybody needs to take a deep breath here. The board of trustees set the agenda. Unfortunately less than half of that board has any direct relationship to SMU. That is a result of the DP...basically an extreme knee jerk reaction to the DP. Until the Board realizes the benefits of successful football and basketball programs to the overall success of the university in terms of recognition and overall attractiveness to potential students in todays culture things aren't going to change much. Turner promotes what the board dictates he promotes. Increasing the endowment and increasing the facilities and staff have been his goals set by the board. He is president of the university, but not free to do as he likes...one way or the other.

TCU's board of trustees get it...not so sure of SMU's.

Right about the board. They're not SMU alumni.

[couch 'em]

TCU board: http://www.chancellor.tcu.edu/trustees.asp

Any idea how many of them are TCU alumni?

[03Mustang]

I am as interested in our band, swimming, soccer, and tennis as I am in St. Mark's track. We totally missed the boat, and I hope our Administration really enjoys watching TCU in football's Final Four.

Correct me if I am wrong, but weren't you fairly adamant that we should be happy June was here as recently as a year ago?

[Top Twenty]

I was thrilled when June was hired and for his first few years. Starting with the ASU Fiasco, then on to his ripping two loyal supporters at a dinner in the coaches' honor, and culminating with his mailing it in on the recruiting front, I was ready to see him move on. None of that should give the Administration a free pass, however; the all-in commitment that has been needed for decades was never there, and we will pay an increasingly painful price for that in the years to come.

[Water Pony]

False straw man arguments and choices will not solve our problem.

To suggest that spending on non-revenue sports limits progress on football is wrong on so many levels that it borders on the ridiculous. There are no examples, facts or evidence to imagine it, much less make a case for defunding non-revenue student athletes, facilities and program to achieve our elusive goal, a return to college football prominence.

Let us do what North Carolina - Chapel Hill did ... devalue academics.

[Stallion]

The real problem is the annual 40-45 Million Dollar revenue gap between SMU and P5 schools. You ignore reality and want to lash out at Turner for "not getting serious about football". As if the 10,000 SMU fans that actually go to games doesn't tell the real story. Well its a little too late for that unless you want to endow the athletic program with about 250 Million or so. But go ahead and threaten not to buy season tickets (which you probably don't use) or renew your Mustang Club donation (which probably won't cover the spread). So whose going to make up that 40-45 Million annual revenue gap so Turner "can get serious about football"? Because you got to be an idiot if you think its coming from SMU school operating expenses or the endowment. The only logical plan of action is to hire the best Football Coach and staff that our Millionaires can fund and hope that we can increase ticket sales revenue to make up some of that gap-which btw will get bigger every year forever. That idea failed last time although Turner hired the overwhelming popular choice of most of the same people criticizing him now. Most are [deleted] about Turner picking the guy they wanted. This is the future of a non-P5 small private school in Dallas Texas whose fans really don't care too terribly much about college football

[NewAgeMustange]

I've always had the feeling that Fort Worth actually enjoys having TCU there. Dallas on the other hand seems to loathe SMU and anyone associated with the school. You should see some of the looks I get when I tell UTD people that I graduated from SMU. I'm pretty sure if looks could kill I would be dead everytime I go there. If anything SMU needs to get Dallas on their side to help fix any problems.

I just had class over the weekend there and the new classrooms they just built for their business school are great and in fact I heard that SMU's Cox people have been up there and are going to be renovating the school sometime

[coloradoStang]

Why isn't there an athletic endowment? Doesn't stanford have one? If we can raise 1 billion in the new century stuff couldn't we raise at least 100 million for an athletic endowment? Maybe thats just wishful thinking.

[PK]

TCU board: http://www.chancellor.tcu.edu/trustees.asp

Any idea how many of them are TCU alumni?

I will see a friend of mine who is on the TCU BOT this weekend and will see if I can find out what that percentage is.