SMU's as perceived by Memphis

[NY Pony]

NY > Nashvegas > Hartford > Detroit > Compton > Mogadishu > [deleted]

[PerunaPunch]

My advise would be to enlighten your AD. SMU doesn't receive any state funding (at least that I'm aware of) for athletics, nor do we seem to receive much in the way of political support. As is well-documented, the university didn't Pony Up for June Jones either. Our AD found 10 individuals who collectively pledged enough to cover June's salary. And by the way, Dallas at large doesn't currently give a rat's [deleted] about SMU football. Dallas, more than anything, loves a winner. And SMU hasn't been that in a long, long time.

So for the most part, I think you AD's assertions are pretty weak. Heck, look at Houston. That place is a dump, it's located in a slum, and their alumni haven't been willing to do much of anything to improve their facilities. And Houston is currently sitting at #11 in the nation.

It should be obvious, but for every winner, there has to be a loser. In general, winning in college football is cyclical. You rise up, and then eventually somebody else rises further and before you know it you're back at the bottom again. My guess is that Memphis hasn't sucked long enough for the alumni to rise up and say, "forget this, let's find a way to turn this thing around."

[leopold]

Houston and Memphis are bad comparisons - Houston is light years ahead of Memphis. The University of Memphis is a poor school ignored by a poor city ignored by a poor state. UH is twice the size of UM, has played on the big stage in multiple sports, and has possibly the richest talent in the country surrounding the school.

The AD knows what the deal is at SMU. But while SMU has no state support, it has boosters who are willing and able to write the check - Memphis has none of that. They have no real money boosters, never built their own facilities, and the school itself is $120 Million behind in repairs. We revel in our image as the rich kids, they are absolutely the have-nots.

People are [deleted] Johnson, and they should be, but he hasn't failed anywhere that the other AD's in Memphis have. He has next to nothing to work with, outside of the fact that a dirt poor city has nothing outside of the Tigers to look forward to in terms of big-time sports.

[max the wonder dog]

East Memphis and some of the burbs are quite nice, with a low cost of living. It is a major transportation and logistics center, but those are low wage jobs. Memphis is a basketball town that lives in the shadow of SEC football. U of M is a poor step child to U of TN. Still, U of M has some advantages -- basketball sells out for the season at 18,000-seat FedEx Forum, and generates lots of ticket license $$$. It has some good academic programs, but also programs ideally suited to 6-year prep school grads and football players that can't cut it in the SEC.

Bottom line -- the football program will probably never be top 25, but it has the potential to be better, but won't because R.C. Johnson is a hack who hangs on to his job by being a sycophant around major donors.

[ponyte]

Lived in Memphis many years ago and it isn't the same. Beale Street that everyone loves now was too dangerous to venture to after dark when I lived there. Dirty, dangerous and without appeal then. And other parts of the city have deteriorated now. City government is a mess and corruption is a major problem. The area around Memphis has flourished and done well.

I don’t think Memphis is all bad or all great. The city proper has significant issues but the Burbs are doing well.

Bottom line, SMU was founded when Texas and Dallas were not rich, big or looking at a glorious future. Memphis was founded on a gem of a city on a revenue booming river in commerce centre of the US. Can’t blame it on the city or state in either case.
And our decades of neglect for athletes hasn't been brought into the discussion by Memphis AD. His school was doing much better while we having soccer for homecoming. It wasn’t until the school (entire organization) made a commitment to improvement that we improved.

[ojaipony]

I was born and raised in Memphis. The second I graduated from high school I moved to Dallas, attended SMU, and have only gone back to Memphis three times since in the last 20-ish years (twice was for funerals).

It's a fun place to talk about being FROM (best BBQ in the WORLD! best blues music in the world, and home to the greatest American who's ever lived: Elvis Presley).

Other than that, I don't plan on going back (I can get the BBQ sent to me, and I can buy the CDs).

It was even worse when I grew up there than it is now it seems. Downtown was all boarded up, there was no streetcar, and Beale was a dump. Typical white flight with some infill improvements. Corruption has always been there.