A tale I've never heard

[EastStang]

A Rice fan on the CUSA board stated that SMU and Rice were invited to join the ACC after the departure of the Gang of Four from the SWC. They reported that the two schools turned down the offer because they didn't want to leave TCU in the lerch since TCU was joining the WAC. I have never heard that tale before, has anyone else? It sounds like utter BS to me. Pye would have given our left doodad to join the ACC and be with his beloved Duke. Copeland was an old UVA guy. I don't think we would have been that stupid to pass on the ACC in favor of the WAC-16. Boy, would that have changed the BCS landscape.

[abezontar]

That makes no sense whatsoever.

[SMU Football Blog]

The C-USA board has an ignore feature. I suggest you use it to ignore that person's posts in the future. As abezontar said, it makes no sense.

[bagice]

I've been following that thread as well and that is definitely a new one on me. I never even heard that as a rumor.

That thread did get me to thinking though. In hindsight, I wish we would have just kept the SWC together and invited new members. It would have been rough for a few years but when the dominoes started falling with realignment, I bet we could have had something really good.

That hope was dashed though when Houston bolted and maybe it wasn't financially feasible, but I bet we could have ended up with something very close to CUSA, but with more of a regional feel. At any rate, we still would be the SWC and could lay claim to all that history. Extending an invitation to the SWC to a school back then would have meant something, even with Texas and A$M gone, a lot of schools would have seen it as an upward move.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy where we are now, its just nice to dream sometimes.

[ThadFilms]

That's incorrect. SMU and Rice were being invited into the WAC, we stood together to make sure TCU got in too. That's the story.

[SMUstang]

I like to think I was very much on top of things at that time and was well aware of all of the possibilities. I never heard a mention of the ACC. The Rice guy has got to be wrong on this one.

By the way, the idea of keeping the SWC together as much as possible, in hindsight, seems like it would have been attractive. Don't know why we didn't go that direction.

[Stallion]

UH was not interested in further association with SMU, TCU and Rice.

[bagice]

UH was not interested in further association with SMU, TCU and Rice.

Funny thing is, here we all are right back together again, sans TCU ...except we are called C-USA instead of the SWC which makes me kinda sad to give up that history.

[EastStang]

Funny how that changed over time as things went the wrong way for UH. You know if there is that split of CUSA down the road between west and east, the western teams could adopt the name Southwest Conference. Certainly three of the teams were former members two of them charter members.

[SMU Football Blog]

That's incorrect. SMU and Rice were being invited into the WAC, we stood together to make sure TCU got in too. That's the story.

Isn't that nice that 2-8-1 Rice and 1-10 SMU stood by their 6-5 brethren at TCU?

[ThadFilms]

That's incorrect. SMU and Rice were being invited into the WAC, we stood together to make sure TCU got in too. That's the story.

Isn't that nice that 2-8-1 Rice and 1-10 SMU stood by their 6-5 brethren at TCU?[/quoute]

yeah very sweet. All I know is back then SMU made sure thast they were a package deal w/TCU. And in fact when CUSA came calling the first time it was for SMU... but then the Malin thing monkeyed it all up and CUSA got just TCU.

It's for poop if you ask me.

[Lamont_Cranston]

A Rice fan on the CUSA board stated that SMU and Rice were invited to join the ACC after the departure of the Gang of Four from the SWC. They reported that the two schools turned down the offer because they didn't want to leave TCU in the lerch since TCU was joining the WAC.

Apparently, not everyone who graduates from Rice is a genius, after all.

[SMUstang]

I don't think the Rice fan said that Rice and SMU were actually invited to join the ACC. What he said was that we were talking to the ACC. That may have been true because of Pye and Copeland. I still have my doubts though and apparently an offer never materialized. So we opted for the bird on the ground which was the WAC.

[SMU Football Blog]

Pye did not hire Copeland.

[OC Mustang]

Pye passed away of cancer in May/June 1994, I believe.
Don't think he hired anybody after Anya Royce (provost) in 1993, and he only hired her b/c a better fellow, Malcolm Gillis wasn't available (he took the Rice job and recently retired). He only promoted Gregg to the AD position because he felt he owed it to him b/c Gregg took the unenviable task of rebuilding in 1988 & 1989.