Rutgers fan board on SMU attendance

[ponyinNC]

http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=167266269&mid=167266269&sid=988&style=2

Ouch.

Excerpts:

I though people in Texas love football.

HS games have more people than that in Texas.

SMU must be an ivy league school where kids just study instead of going to football games.

I thought SMU was one big time football program. Didn't they have Eric Dickerson?

Yes, a tiny student population, playing at 11 a.m. against a school they don't care about are all factors.

Don't compare Notre Dame -- which has been playing a national schedule for 90 years -- to SMU, where the death penalty killed the program (and any interest in it) for 20 years.

When we sucked, we got 12,000 playing opponents we would care about if we were any good. And we had thousands of students and hundreds of thousands of alumni a short drive away.

If I'm a rich-kid SMU student, getting up to go watch the Rutgers game does not rank high on my to-do list. Same if I'm an alum, and even moreso if I'm a casual fan in the area.

I laughed at threads about a month ago that urged RU fans to buy advanced tix....as I told this board that SMU's actual attendance for majority of their games is pathetic (no where close to their announced attendance numbers) and how RU fans can just buy the cheapest tix outside (probably $5-$10) and sit just a few rows away right behind the RU bench.

SMU has only themselves to blame...as their ultra rich alumni don't want to "share" their campus with others (i.e. those in Dallas that are not SMU Grads but enjoy good football) so 99.99% of the locals in Dallas DON'T attend SMU home games...even though they are not a bad team and their stadium doesn't have many bad seats in the house (especially when you can sit almost anywhere you want to).

Until SMU elitist actually INVITE other local white AND BLUE collar fans to their games...they will almost always play in front of just family/friends (6,000-10,000 a game) unless they host a non-conf game vs a Texas BCS team when visiting fans outnumber their own.

[Pony ^]

Agree with every comment. Worst fanbase in USA

[skurtn]

The last 2 remarks are just ignorant. The rest are interesting.

[sbsmith]

Yawn

[ponyinNC]

The last 2 remarks are just ignorant. The rest are interesting.

I agree - but I think it reinforces the fact that the "SMU" stereotype exists and we must work hard to break it.

[CenTXpony]

Yep. Well..... they're the preacher and we're the choir.

Except the last two comments...

[SMU_Alumni11]

Actually an Okay team, HAHAHAHA.

Our loyal fans have to watch the garbage JJ puts up and we only do it for our love for SMU.

Local people would only come to watch to just teach their son what NOT TO DO in a game.

I dont blame the fanbase. I blame the coach and the admin.

[Mustangsabu]

Actually an Okay team, HAHAHAHA.

Our loyal fans have to watch the garbage JJ puts up and we only do it for our love for SMU.

Local people would only come to watch to just teach their son what NOT TO DO in a game.

I dont blame the fanbase. I blame the coach and the admin.

You are as passionate a fan as we have and we need that, but I find this just outlandishly harsh. We have seen things during the JJ era that we've never seen before. It's not where we want it to be right now but there has been some good football played. And the kids are well coached.

[blackoutpony]

Actually an Okay team, HAHAHAHA.

Our loyal fans have to watch the garbage JJ puts up and we only do it for our love for SMU.

Local people would only come to watch to just teach their son what NOT TO DO in a game.

I dont blame the fanbase. I blame the coach and the admin.

You are as passionate a fan as we have and we need that, but I find this just outlandishly harsh. We have seen things during the JJ era that we've never seen before. It's not where we want it to be right now but there has been some good football played. And the kids are well coached.

Well coached kids don't rank near the top of the country in penalties committed

[MustangStealth]

Agree with every comment. Worst fanbase in USA

Eastern Michigan averaged less than 4000 fans per game last year. Idaho plays in a warehouse and gets about 12K. Last year more than 25 FBS schools had worse attendance than use, and only 2 have small student bodies.

We are bad but far from the worst.

[Cougar King]

So...what else is new?

[CenTXpony]

So...what else is new?

I agree with CK for a change....

[Dukie]

The last 2 remarks are just ignorant. The rest are interesting.

I agree - but I think it reinforces the fact that the "SMU" stereotype exists and we must work hard to break it.

Basketball may not be a P5 ticket, but if marketed well it can definitely be a reputation-changing ticket.

[Junior]

The last 2 remarks are just ignorant. The rest are interesting.

yep

[SMUer]

The number 1 comment I get from fans-of-other-teams I bring into Ford Stadium is whether this-or-that local high school could compete/beat SMU. Until that changes...