DMN: Five questions with SMU Athletic Director, Rick Hart

[AfricanMustang]

Right now is a very interesting time for SMU athletics. It’s probably one of the greatest moments in time of athletic director Rick Hart’s time in the job. The football team is 7-0 and the men’s basketball team is out from under the specter of NCAA sanctions. Even non-revenue sports like men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball and men’s golf are having success.
The Dallas Morning New spoke with Mustangs AD Rick Hart on Monday night after he did a radio appearance in Ozona Bar & Grill. He discussed a number of topics, including SMU’s drop in attendance at the football game last week, as well as a potential raise for head coach Sonny Dykes.

The Dallas Morning News: There was a 5,010-person drop in attendance from the Tulsa game to the Temple game. Is that something that disappoints you? Is it something you guys feel you can remedy?

Rick Hart: “I guess to answer the first part of the question, we were hopeful that we wouldn’t have a decline week over week, or, I guess it was a two week period. But game over game. But the reality is, No. 1, we didn’t have the benefit of Family Weekend, and Tulsa, who could travel fairly easily down here, and did bring some fans.
Two, look it’s really hard, my experience has been and Sonny would echo this, there’s a little bit of lag on these things. People can’t just all of a sudden adjust plans and schedules because maybe they want to prioritize our game differently.

And three, the game time is not being known until six to 10 days out is really inconvenient. So, you know, people had something scheduled at 2:30, that’s hard to readjust their schedule midstream, so to speak. So I think it’s something, as the seasons go along, as people get more of a mindset of this program around the SMU football game, then we’ll be able to move the needle a little bit more. But I appreciate the people who came.”

DMN: Would you consider renegotiating Sonny Dykes’ contract to incentivize him to stay at SMU, or simply to further reward SMU’s success this year? (Note: The details of head coach Sonny Dykes’ current contract aren’t publicly available.)

Hart: “Well, with all of our coaches and staff, we’re very proactive with all of them to make sure they know their value. That’s just been something we’ve done over the years. ... When we deal with the landscape, you’re not always going to be able to pay one particular person, probably the most. I think what we can do is we can treat people fairly, and to make them feel valued, and to make sure they have a great, healthy atmosphere to work in. So that’s what we’ll do with Sonny.”

Q: Is that something you would do after the season?

Hart: “We usually do those things, whenever we feel like it’s appropriate. One thing I don’t want to do is I never want to feel like they have to come and ask for something, if something is deserved or earned. And so, we try and be proactive about those things. Initiate that conversation.”

DMN: The AAC announced it would be sticking with 11 teams in football, after UConn leaves next year. What are your thoughts on the future of the conference in that regard, and possible future expansion?

Hart: "There’s been some consensus around, we want to stay at 11. Now the [NCAA] waiver allows us to do that temporarily. But if at some point we’re forced to have divisions in order to have a championship game, then we may have to add a 12th team in football. But we’ll see how that plays out.”

DMN: Does the sharp increase in success change the way football scheduling might look in future years? Could you guys garner interest from top programs, and would you be more interested in playing top programs?

Hart: “It doesn’t change. So the schedule philosophy is the same. That part of it doesn’t change, because we want to position ourselves, as you said, to compete for championships and to compete for that New Year’s Six bowl position.”

DMN: SMU will be wearing the “Dallas” jerseys to honor the hometown community impacted by the tornado on Sunday. When a storm like that does rapidly approach, and so close to your campus, how do you mobilize in a dangerous situation like that with student-athletes possibly in harms way?

Hart: “So each sport has a system how they check in. Make sure, it’s kind of a welfare check, if you well. And we learned there were some student-athletes who were without power. So it will be short-term, hopefully [where those athletes stay in hotels.] Just making sure that they’re comfortable, that they have power, that they’re able to get the rest that they need, and so on. So we just do it on a temporary basis.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/colle ... ttendance/

[SMU_Alum11]

Cupcake mentality:

"Hart: “It doesn’t change. So the schedule philosophy is the same. That part of it doesn’t change, because we want to position ourselves, as you said, to compete for championships and to compete for that New Year’s Six bowl position.”

You are going to have disappointing attendances if you are just eating cupcakes. Have a full sheet cake.

[mtrout]

F attendance. We had that when we scheduled a&m tcu baylor and tech and went 7-5.

We are the #1 fing team in g5 rn which is the best we could possibly hope for in the aac.

Even if we scheduled tcu tx tech and a&m as our ooc and went undefeated we still wouldn’t make the playoff.

[mr. pony]

F attendance. We had that when we scheduled a&m tcu baylor and tech and went 7-5.

We are the #1 fing team in g5 rn which is the best we could possibly hope for in the aac.

Even if we scheduled tcu tx tech and a&m as our ooc and went undefeated we still wouldn’t make the playoff.

Not so sure about that.

[One Trick Pony]

F attendance. We had that when we scheduled a&m tcu baylor and tech and went 7-5.

We are the #1 fing team in g5 rn which is the best we could possibly hope for in the aac.

Even if we scheduled tcu tx tech and a&m as our ooc and went undefeated we still wouldn’t make the playoff.

Not so sure about that.

https://youtu.be/XDGNsbLayJw

[SMU_Alum11]

F attendance. We had that when we scheduled a&m tcu baylor and tech and went 7-5.

We are the #1 fing team in g5 rn which is the best we could possibly hope for in the aac.

Even if we scheduled tcu tx tech and a&m as our ooc and went undefeated we still wouldn’t make the playoff.

If we went undefeated in the above scenario, we would be #1.

[sbsmith]

Even if we scheduled tcu tx tech and a&m as our ooc and went undefeated we still wouldn’t make the playoff.

It would take some chaos but we'd be in the conversation. Of course the buzz around town after beating those three in one season would be epic. We'd have sold out for Tulsa and gotten Gameday for Temple.

[NavyCrimson]

Our strength of schedule will always be used against us.

[smubrooks]

Build OOC up over time. Let’s focus on consistent 10 plus win seasons with conf championships and occasional “New Years Six” exposure. Then load up the OOC!

[SMU_Alum11]

Then you are going to get the criticism:

1) you cant predict who will be good
2) you would have to break contracts with already scheduled games, sadly. Thanks Rick.

[peruna81]

TCU played the long game to get where they are now, and where we wish to be. They bloomed where they were planted.

Sadly SMU had the same time, same opportunity, but the distinct lack of plan and leadership. We are paying (or not being paid) for it now.

Win.
Win the next year.
Increase winning.

They will come

[mtrout]

7-0 about to be 8-0 and we are still complaining. #SMU

[NavyCrimson]

[code]Sadly SMU had the same time, same opportunity, but the distinct lack of plan and leadership. We are paying (or not being paid) for it now.

Absolutely!

[skyscraper]

Y'all need to stop being so miserable and enjoy this.

[redpony]

His comments regarding coaches pay makes me feel uneasy. If this staff continues to be successful we will need to pay them top dollar- not just tell them how valuable they are to us. Of course HCSD is most important but many of the others are as well. We don't want what happened in the bball situation to happen in fball as well.