Tulane

[50's PONY]

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ss ... 238530.xml

[Sam I Am]

I keep wondering when SMU will go through the motions of a self study, like Tulane and Rice, designed to scare the SMU boosters into giving more to the athletic department. By the way, how much is the athletic budget deficit at SMU, and how much indebtedness will the school president accept? As for attendance problems, the situation at Tulane is similar to the problems at SMU, but can you imagine selling 14,000 season tickets in Dallas this year or anytime in the near future?

[Charleston Pony]

as I recall, we sold about 10,000 season tickets in 2000 (the opening year of Ford Stadium). That would be a nice season ticket goal for SMU. As bad as Tulane's attendance has been, it's been better than ours for years.

Remember SMU's "Commitment"? Dr. Turner announced that SMU would commit $50 mil over the next 5 years, $7 mil annually towards the cost of scholarships and another $3 mil in operating costs towards athletics. While I've always thought the cost of schloarships simply inflates the true cost of running a school's athletic programs, private schools like SMU and Tulane have higher costs if you want to factor i those "free" scholarships.

Let's just hope there is new life on the Hilltop by the time that 5 years is up. Sure would be nice to see the day that a good seat at Ford and Moody is tough enough to come by that Mustang Club membership and giving actually doubles from what it is today.

Here's the link is it works:

http://www.smumustangs.com/mustangclub/ ... sident.asp

[GoRedGoBlue]

I guess you were don't remember when A. Kenneth Pye did EXACTLY that back in the 90s.

He commissioned a council to look at the alternatives for SMU Athletics (stay Div1a, move down to 1AA, or become Div1AAA (no football)).

The conclusion was to STAY in Div1A.

[NavyCrimson]

hey - once smu starts winning - the $$ will be there by the boosters...
until then - its a wait & see attitude...

there has never been a long term committment by the administration in 20+ yrs so i'd be willing to guess this is all wait & see & 'show me & i'll believe it' by the alums & supporters...

the administration created this mess (lack of support) so they can just swim in it for awhile & hopefully it will be a goooooooood lesson for them & any other div 1 college program about building a good dept whether it be athletic or any other dept in a university...

if this was a corporation or private company with shareholders & a board the ceo, cfo & everybody else @ the top would have been fired a long time ago!!!!!!!!! duuuh!