SMU working to renew Baylor, TCU series

[Stallion]

Arkansas isn't going to play a home and home with SMU at Ford Stadium. Those days are over. Most P5 schools are more likely to search for 8 home games or 7 plus a big neutral site TV blockbuster game. Same with UT. Its pretty shocking that A&M played SMU but that may be because they rarely play road games in Texas any more. None this year I believe. Those big expensive stadiums at Big State U. have too much revenue generating potential to waste a date on SMU on the road

[Pony64]

I like this. Baylor and TCU should always be on the schedule.

Hell yes

[ponywhupp9202]

Nice that the TCU series is being renewed. I could live without Baylor every single year but playing them a few times a decade is a good idea. I like the old series with Arkansas as well, and also think it would be a good idea to schedule a mid tier Big 10 and/or Pac 12 team every so often if we can get a home and home. How come we never play BYU? Seems like that would be of interest to both schools.

Haha, well they wouldn't contribute to our alcohol sales in Ford. Also, do you want to go to Provo? Yikes. My only experience with that is from Fletch.

So is it pretty much a done deal that UT will never schedule us again? Some older posters have insinuated that, so I was just curious.

The Salt Lake City / Provo area (even though they are about 50 miles apart) is actually a nice area, but I guess the reality is our fans (including me) don't travel well (Waco, College Station, and Tulsa is the furthest I've personally traveled for a game), so maybe there is no real benefit there. Maybe that would be a good neutral site game. As for the Big 10 / Pac 12 games I suggested, purely as a fan, I'd still like to see it. I remember attending at least one post death penalty SMU-UT game at The Cotton Bowl a long time ago. That would be fun for us to play another TX school (or Arkansas, OSU or similar) there every other year or so. We obviously have some history in that building, but unless we know we could bring a substantial number of fans, that probably won't happen either.

[ojaipony]

TCU and UNT yes. Baylor? Meh. Really would like to play UT at AT&T stadium.

[smupony94]

UT will never play us in DFW

[mrydel]

We need to play higher rates teams anyway.

[LA_Mustang]

TCU and UNT yes. Baylor? Meh. Really would like to play UT at AT&T stadium.

Remind me again why you say yes to UNT, and meh to Baylor? Again, playing UNT does nothing to help our cause. If you say because they brought a lot of people this year that was a one time thing. They were coming off the high of killing us last season and 95% of their fans thought this year was a sure win. I'd be surprised if they bring 2,000 next time. As for Baylor, we should jump at the chance to play any Big12 school whenever we have the chance. Every time we play a P5 school moving forward is a HUGE game for this program.

[Stallion]

I think he's slotting schools into different categories. NTSU makes perfect sense for the 3rd or 4th non-conference game. Its not a 1 year deal they have brought great crowds just about every year-and this goes back to the 1970s when they brought about 20,000 to Texas Stadium for a series of neutral site games. They can usually be counted on to be our best non-conference non-P5 crowd-in fact they will outdraw every AAC conference game we've ever played-except maybe 1

I'm tired of playing in front of 20,000 empty seats-NTSU should stay on our schedule until we can draw at least 20,000 for someone else

[PerunasHoof]

I think he's slotting schools into different categories. NTSU makes perfect sense for the 3rd or 4th non-conference game. Its not a 1 year deal they have brought great crowds just about every year-and this goes back to the 1970s when they brought about 20,000 to Texas Stadium for a series of neutral site games. They can usually be counted on to be our best non-conference non-P5 crowd-in fact they will outdraw every AAC conference game we've ever played-except maybe 1

Couch em and LA Mustang would disagree.

[ojaipony]

I just don't like Baylor.

TCU is a traditional rival and I'd like us to start beating them on a regular basis like we used to. UNT because I think it's a good win and puts them into their place on a regular basis.

We have, what, 4 spaces for nonconference? I'd like us to play TCU, UNT, "an easy win", and maybe a rotation of other B12 teams like Baylor then Tech, etc. But if we keep Baylor that's fine. I just can't stand the school and I'm very tired of seeing the track meet come to town or us going to whacko and seeing it there.

[Stallion]

if we scheduled Tech in 3 years they'd be Top 10 by time we played them and Baylor would be 8th in the Big 12. That's just our luck

btw kind of a big game for Coach Bro in Lubbock this weekend-I'm not so sure TCU survives Lubbock. Patrick Mahommes is playing great and there were signs of life for Tech's defense against Arkansas

[Pony Boss]

I think he's slotting schools into different categories. NTSU makes perfect sense for the 3rd or 4th non-conference game. Its not a 1 year deal they have brought great crowds just about every year-and this goes back to the 1970s when they brought about 20,000 to Texas Stadium for a series of neutral site games. They can usually be counted on to be our best non-conference non-P5 crowd-in fact they will outdraw every AAC conference game we've ever played-except maybe 1

I'm tired of playing in front of 20,000 empty seats-NTSU should stay on our schedule until we can draw at least 20,000 for someone else

Stallion- isn't the point for SMU to work on growing the fanbase, both organically (young alums, older alums, students, family, etc) and non SMU affiliated fans..to get to the point where season ticket sales are high enough (20-25k) and SMU does not need to worry about having other teams bring people in order to sell out? Not through giving tickets away with mustang mania or whatever but having paid SMU attendance reach those levels. Raising season ticket sales is ENTIRELY on SMU and should not be dependent on having others come to Ford so there is a sellout.

I just hope everything is finally in place within the Athletic Department, SMU admins, Alumni, Boosters and Coaches to get both revenue sports to capacity. (I recognize basketball is there, but SMU needs to sustain it and get football from the 10k season tickets to at least 25k in let's say 10 or 15 years so we dont need to worry about bringing other teams fans.)

[Pony Boss]

It's also on us current fans to help grow the fanbase. I have already brought several coworkers and friends from other Texas and regional schools and they really had a blast boulevarding and the game and after the TCU performance, two of them came back and said they were buying season tickets. Bring your friends to the boulevard and games, not many people have experienced SMU and once they do they are amazed. And the coworkers that are buying tix are from Tech and Oklahoma, so they want a hometown team to cheer on. Pony up and let's get this new era kicked off the right way.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I think he's slotting schools into different categories. NTSU makes perfect sense for the 3rd or 4th non-conference game. Its not a 1 year deal they have brought great crowds just about every year-and this goes back to the 1970s when they brought about 20,000 to Texas Stadium for a series of neutral site games. They can usually be counted on to be our best non-conference non-P5 crowd-in fact they will outdraw every AAC conference game we've ever played-except maybe 1

I'm tired of playing in front of 20,000 empty seats-NTSU should stay on our schedule until we can draw at least 20,000 for someone else

Stallion- isn't the point for SMU to work on growing the fanbase, both organically (young alums, older alums, students, family, etc) and non SMU affiliated fans..to get to the point where season ticket sales are high enough (20-25k) and SMU does not need to worry about having other teams bring people in order to sell out? Not through giving tickets away with mustang mania or whatever but having paid SMU attendance reach those levels. Raising season ticket sales is ENTIRELY on SMU and should not be dependent on having others come to Ford so there is a sellout.

I just hope everything is finally in place within the Athletic Department, SMU admins, Alumni, Boosters and Coaches to get both revenue sports to capacity. (I recognize basketball is there, but SMU needs to sustain it and get football from the 10k season tickets to at least 25k in let's say 10 or 15 years so we don't need to worry about bringing other teams fans.)

I agree with both Stallion and Pony Boss. Its a question of planning for both the short-to-medium term as well as the long term. As we have seen over the entire history of SMU football since the Dallas Cowboys were established, the organic growth model is a very heavy lift for a school of our size in our location. Before TCU did it, I would have said its impossible for any private of less than 10,000 undergrad enrollment not called Notre Dame. But TCU has proven that it can be done. . .and I think we can do it here too.

Having said that, it took TCU many years of sustained success before they reached the point of regularly attracting 40,000+ for their games. The timeframe you reference PonyBoss, is about how long it took (10 years or so). And that's in Fort Worth, which is WAY more supportive of TCU than Dallas is of SMU. So while I think it is doable for SMU over the long run, in the short-to- medium term we are going to need some help to fill the seats. And I get the sense that there is pressure from the Board of Trustees on the athletic department to get the athletic budget situation under control in less than a 10-15 year timeframe. So we need butts in the seats now. UNT fits the bill nicely.

[Charleston Pony]

until we can sell at least 16k or more season tickets and fill at least half of Ford with loyal SMU fans, we need to borrow a page from the Mustang Mania days and do everything possible to fill all those empty seats in Ford no matter who we play. Keep giving away seats and make the gameday experience fun for curiosity seekers...and start winning with fun to watch, up tempo football. Would be great to someday hit 20k plus in season ticket sales. For now, baby steps...