Best fans in college football

[Bergermeister]

Big12 = Sybil

[SMU1523]

We are a sleeping giant of a fan base. See SMU Men's Basketball.

[Big12Mustang]

It will be interesting to see how our donation levels and attendance behave when we reach that turning point when we pass the 10 win barrier and stay there. Basketball seems like it has staying power, need next years Morris' program to get there too.

[StangEsq]

It's easy to pack a 7000-seat air conditioned arena to see a team that dominates its opponents in most games and beats nationally-recognized, relevant teams. It's not easy to pack 30K into a football stadium to see a team that gets blown out by 40 every week against teams no one here cares about. Even when we were decent, we couldn't draw a full crowd at home. See http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=312882567 when a 4-1 SMU team coming off a win over a top-20 TCU team in their own house drew about 10-15K at home the next week. We have a tiny fan base and we are in a completely irrelevant football conference (to those in this area), and it's going to take a lot of winning to change that. It will probably take enough winning to change our conference before we can fill the stadium with fans rooting for SMU.

[gostangs]

Big 12 does have a point - some of you love to wallow in it. Probably some sort of defense mechanism to keep you from actually getting excited only to have your hopes dashed. When the time comes you will need to shed that loser coat you wear so proudly.

[covok48]

It will be interesting to see how our donation levels and attendance behave when we reach that turning point when we pass the 10 win barrier and stay there. Basketball seems like it has staying power, need next years Morris' program to get there too.

It will increase obviously. is it enough to get to where we want to be? Maybe, maybe not.

Most people take issue with this article because it's so blatantly wrong and entirely out of place in the midst of an 0-12 season.

[Big12Mustang]

The article ranks teams by brand equity. They figure that after controlling for team performance, we support our program financially and in attendance more than anyone does in the AAC if they were in a similar position. Yes they extrapolate saying "hey they draw 15k when they are below .500, imagine if they won 12 games they would fill to capacity" because it may be true. We haven't won big games consistently since the death penalty, and I think TCU proved that a small private school can be ranked #4 and be in the playoff conversation as well as draw a 7.0 in DFW area ratings for their big games. I think we can be just as successful as TCU is, let's not short sell and limit ourselves either, our current situation sucks but it is very salvageable and ESPN would love to tell the story a few years down the road of that small Texas school that even went 0-12 at one time that is in the run for a potential playoff spot.

[PonyKris89]

I will take a positive spin over all the negative BS we see every week. Really tired of SMU getting
bagged on for low attendance with crap teams and 6,000 undergrads. It's total BS.

Give SMU a big winner year after year in mediocre conference and we can average
25,000 to 30,000, and hell, maybe even more if we keep playing the tough OOC.
Put us in a P5 conference and the attendance could be 35,000 to 45,000.
and it will be higher $$ attendance than a lot of schools.

IT can happen, TCU and Baylor have proven it.

[LA_Mustang]

Saturday night's forecast won't help - upper 30s and rain. Will a 1,000 people be there?

[Big12Mustang]

Saturday night's forecast won't help - upper 30s and rain. Will a 1,000 people be there?

It's homecoming, South Florida is beatable, it's a night game, it's cheap, people from out of town are here, they sell beer, Matt Davis gives us a glimmer of hope...I'll say 8k to 10k tops at kickoff, 1,000 by 3rd quarter.

[Pony ^]

this is so wrong

[Big12Mustang]

this is so wrong

We have been a sub .500 program for the last 30 years, and we still have fans show up and people posting on Ponyfans and people who still donate to the MC. I don't think South Florida would have the same kind of support with our on field performance that we have. We are a sleeping giant of a fanbase and there are many that would jump in the bandwagon. Why is the article wrong?

[smustatesman]

I've always felt the Casablanca brand were the best fans.

[Nacho]

i will be there saturday.
i enjoy going to the stadium.
that about sums it up.

[Charleston Pony]

this is so wrong

We have been a sub .500 program for the last 30 years, and we still have fans show up and people posting on Ponyfans and people who still donate to the MC. I don't think South Florida would have the same kind of support with our on field performance that we have. We are a sleeping giant of a fanbase and there are many that would jump in the bandwagon. Why is the article wrong?

First of all, you can't compare us with South Florida; it's just not a fair fight. Last year's USF team was the equivalent of this year's SMU team. They were HORRIBLE. Remember that we beat them at their place even after losing Gilbert to injury. They had close to 20k for that game which looked pretty pathetic in Raymond James Stadium, but the simple fact is that they have 40k students and have potential far beyond what SMU has (in terms of having a sleeping giant fan base). When they were competitive, I remember 50-60k crowds for USF's Big East games. With only an estimated 45k alumni in the DFW area, we can't expect to generate that kind of attendance fro our own fan base.

You ask what is wrong with the article? My guess is the writer was clueless and simply looked at SMU's average home attendance (rather than game by game) and was oblivious to the fact our average was bolstered by home games against A$M and TCU who brought the numbers to those games. But...on the plus side, I said when Ford was built that it was a PERFECT football facility for SMU because if we can field a winning team, I do think we will be able to fill Ford. If we were winning AAC championships, I think we could attract 20k for almost any opponent which is a decent looking crowd in Ford and we should draw 25-30k for the higher profile games against schools that bring some of their own fans. Games against our former SWC foes would sellout pretty easily and the south endzone would be full of "standing room only" fans. That's a realistic goal and what we should be shooting for.