> Irrational fan of the week: Things aren't so rosy on the Hilltop right now. SMU is 5-6 and hosting Tulsa at home on Saturday. Unless the Mustangs score the upset, they'll be left at home for the bowl season.
This comes after the crazy offseason where June Jones was seemingly gone, then back again, acting almost as if he never left for ASU. And recently, there's the announcement of Rutgers going to the Big 10. That affects SMU, since SMU is headed to Rutgers' old conference, the Big East, next year.
All of this was too much for at least one SMU fan, posting under the name "redpony" on PonyFans.com. In a thread titled "Just Got To Love This Silly Season", redpony wrote:
"two options : div 1aa or shut down fball.. IMO the latter is the best. I just don't care to be at the level or denton colege or sam houston state."
Slow down there, redpony. Are you seriously advocating shutting down a football program? It happened once against its will, and SMU wasn't too happy. This is Texas, not North Dakota. You don't play football here, you don't get taken seriously.
I hope "redpony" was being sarcastic, but something tells me this poor soul is really that depressed.
actually ponyboy, even you said that if we ended up in a Sun Belt type conference you would quit following SMU football. I happen to agree with you.
So if we get left behind and the Big Boys close ranks, what do you or others mocking redpony see as the future of SMU football SOLELY IN TERMS OF DOLLARS AND CENTS. I say it becomes a huge cash drain that eventually has to be addressed, probably in less than 10 years. This will not only occur only here, but at many other schools as well. Rice immediately comes to mind.
SoCal you were talking about the cash drain of football. I seem to recall reading a DMN article several years ago about how SMU handles its books. As I recall, the Athletic Department wrote checks to the school for the scholarship athletes' tuition and fees, and that the loss of scholarship athletes during the DP years was actually a bit of an overall financial drain. Point being what looks like a big deficit for sports is not really so bad. I wish I could find that article or maybe someone here knows how the accounting process works.
I would think dropping FB and all its scholarships would mean we could also unwind some women's sports, in other words, a huge cash savings.
Also, just wonder what type of crowds we could attract in a watered down conference. My bet is under 12,000 would be the new norm. It would spiral down. No CoC $$$, no reason for it. Who would you schedule for OOC? You really want to see a Tech receiver catch 7 TDs against us?
