6-2...middle finger to the following 10...

[leopold]

Take Turner off the list. He's done too much for athletics to be on that list, IPF be damned.

[Stallion]

Turner is the scapegoat for alumni not financing the program's requirements to the level necessary to be competitive. No IPF? Blame Turner-when actually at a private University like SMU (and even well funded P5 TCU and Baylor) alumni are responsible for facility upgrades and bankrolling Coaches salaries to make them competitive. These funds NEVER come out of the endowment or operating funds of a private university. No one has ever made a cogent, logical argument on an SMU board disputing this fact.

[SMU_Alum11]

Agreed. Sadly Turner is the easiest to blame where blame shouldn't be placed. (I might be a little off here) The endowment that is normally raised is kept intact where we are able to utilize interest, and investment income to help fund the school. The endowment includes restrictive donations where donors specify a specific use. So if we wonder why the aquatics centers gets built before the IPF, it's probably due to those specific donors meeting the threshold for development. If we want to get the IPF built, all SMU football fans will need to make a donation that has a specific use for the football program, so they can direct the funds accordingly. Again, I might be off a bit from my non-profit accounting, but I believe that's correct.

[redpony]

but,but we have an IPF- it's the 'imaginary practice facility'. All those coaches who thought this was a real thing just didn't listen to our ad very closely.

[PonyTime]

Turner is the scapegoat for alumni not financing the program's requirements to the level necessary to be competitive. No IPF? Blame Turner-when actually at a private University like SMU (and even well funded P5 TCU and Baylor) alumni are responsible for facility upgrades and bankrolling Coaches salaries to make them competitive. These funds NEVER come out of the endowment or operating funds of a private university. No one has ever made a cogent, logical argument on an SMU board disputing this fact.

Stallion - if you are as close to the internal workings of the University as I think, you have to know that SMU has mismanaged its finances and made EXTREMELY poor financial decisions over the course of the last 20 years. I would put that blame squarely on the president of the University.

And the fiscal outcome of those decisions DO impact the athletic department as well as every other part of the university.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

If we want to get the IPF built, all SMU football fans will need to make a donation

good luck with that...we don't even have enough active fans to fill half of a small stadium!

[MV pony]

Turner puts the focus on the things he wants funded.

[SoCal_Pony]

Turner receives blame IMO pre-tiki / pre-Model, but not afterwards.

I will add someone in honorable mention....then duck

Forrest Gregg

An honorable and respected man who IMO should have spoken out about the complete farce our program was operating under immediately post-DP. Stallion alluded to this awhile ago and I was glad he did as I thought I was the only one with that opinion.

Also, while I am being a complete [deleted]....will add that William Clements moves up my Top 5 list if for no other reason than that he gave a $100 million donation to UT-Medical and not SMU. I'll duck again.

[PonyTime]

Turner receives blame IMO pre-tiki / pre-Model, but not afterwards.

I will add someone in honorable mention....then duck

Forrest Gregg

An honorable and respected man who IMO should have spoken out about the complete farce our program was operating under immediately post-DP. Stallion alluded to this awhile ago and I was glad he did as I thought I was the only one with that opinion.

Also, while I am being a complete [deleted]....will add that William Clements moves up my Top 5 list if for no other reason than that he gave a $100 million donation to UT-Medical and not SMU. I'll duck again.

I support SoCal Pony's post.

And while we are at it - want to throw Jim Copeland's name out there? After all, while TCU was in the early stages of a resurgence after the demise of the SWC, our AD Jim Copeland did very little. That is the time period where the gap between SMU and TCU went from slight to significant.

[leopold]

Turner puts the focus on the things he wants funded.

Exactly. Like Ford Stadium.

It's Turner who funded Ford. I've had multiple discussions with faculty who have said it was Turner using discretionary funds during the 'Capital Campaign' of the 90's that provided the majority of the money that went to that stadium - and believe me, they WEREN'T happy about it. This guy has back athletics ever since he showed up in 95 so - I"m sorry - any idea that he deserves blame for pre-tiki stuff is wrong, too.

And that's not all. Time and time again Turner has risked his administrative and academic neck on athletics, fighting an uphill battle against a faculty and admin that - rightfully - has reasons to not agree with him. It was Turner who wanted Brown for the BBall coach, a controversial decision if there ever was one, but a ballsy one that paid off.

We need to stop acting like he's Dean Wormer and give the guy credit. We don't need/want another Jock Sniffer like Shields was, and he's the furthest thing from a Pye you could hope for.
At least he shows up to the football games.

[SMUer]

June was always a pretty good tape evaluator...regularly checks his mail

[mrydel]

Turner puts the focus on the things he wants funded.

Exactly. Like Ford Stadium.

It's Turner who funded Ford. I've had multiple discussions with faculty who have said it was Turner using discretionary funds during the 'Capital Campaign' of the 90's that provided the majority of the money that went to that stadium - and believe me, they WEREN'T happy about it. This guy has back athletics ever since he showed up in 95 so - I"m sorry - any idea that he deserves blame for pre-tiki stuff is wrong, too.

And that's not all. Time and time again Turner has risked his administrative and academic neck on athletics, fighting an uphill battle against a faculty and admin that - rightfully - has reasons to not agree with him. It was Turner who wanted Brown for the BBall coach, a controversial decision if there ever was one, but a ballsy one that paid off.

We need to stop acting like he's Dean Wormer and give the guy credit. We don't need/want another Jock Sniffer like Shields was, and he's the furthest thing from a Pye you could hope for.
At least he shows up to the football games.

I agree with this post. To me Turner has been very much supportive of athletics while maintaining the integrity of the school.

[gostangs]

First of all - we will probably drop at least 2 of the next three so not sure I'd be flipping anyone off just yet. Hope so, but odds are we get one more win this season. Better, but not back flip territory.

But not sure how anyone could not start this list with the 9 banned alums from the mid 80's who actually got us in all this mess and put us in a spot that was so weak that firggin Baylor got our spo in the big 12. Punish the guilty - not the players who had it handed to them, administrators who had to figure out how to clean up the mess and save the entire university, or athletic directors - all of which have had to try to make a pretty bow out of a pile of pig [deleted] because we never have enough money to compete.

Our alums give at an alarmingly high rate given how few of them there are, or what they have gotten back in return for 30 years. It really is remarkable. Most of the whiners are clueless about the real world.

[The Falcon]

I strongly agree with Leopold & Mrydel. Pres. Turner has been an excellent leader for
a number of years and I hope he stays on. I say this coming from the academic side of
the equation, having worked at SMU for 40 yrs. I also see his contribution from the
athletics side. He has walked a tightrope between the faculty, the alumni, and the SMU
fans. He has done an amazing job. It is because of him that SMU is currently in the
national spotlight with our basketball team and what an exciting ride that has been.
Football is trending up.

[orguy]

Bill Clements should be at the top of the list! Were it not for his buffoonery we would never have had decades of futility.

1. Bill Clements
2: David Stanley
3: Sean Stopperich
4: Sherwood Blount
5: Dan Beebe
6: The Naughty Nine
7: Kenneth Pye
8: Dale Hansen
9: Jim Copeland
10: Ann Richards

Agree about the "guv". Always amazed at how little derision the non SMU graduate huckster hick ex gov gets on this board. However, putting Stanley (a 20 yo kid) near the top of this list is absurd.