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Baylor travels well to Dallas-SMU v. Baylor will sell out

I agree - we dont have a major need to expand right now. But i think it goes back to Turner / fundraisers / and our positioning for a possible future move - possible big12 / sec / pac12 move in X years? Remember - we need to keep up with the big boys in Texas and a 32,000 stadium doesnt come off as big time.

Depending on how well we do in 2012... assuming we do well and win it all in cusa, here is MY predictions:




Texas Tech (SELLOUT)
Baylor (SELLOUT)
Boise State (30K) - if we are both good
Louisville (30K)
South Florida (26K)
Memphis (22K)
Houston (SELLOUT)

I see us easily being in the 30's for avg. attendence in 2013. I think we could even be 30k for 2012 if things go well.

Again, I'm not saying we are in NEED of a bigger stadium. I just know that it is on the list for Turner. He always vowed to expand the stadium before he leaves SMU, and its planned for 2015 start - i think. 2015 is when the airline / mockingbird intersection will be redone and shifted. This shift will allow for a full East tier of the stadium. SMU is making a huge push for attendence at games this year and I think we will be impressed (i hope).

IPF is important. How much would this cost? I know they are raising 160 million for a Ford expansion and Turner is not even keeping it that quiet. If you notice, the website says, football facility 'enhancements' not new projects... And I know they already changed out the turf and redid some of the box seating... so it must be Ford.

right or wrong, its in the works

Best thing for the Big East is if BYU joins in football only and BSU can find a decent non-fb home.

That gives you a strong western division with the two most valuable CUSA West schools (SMU & UH), the top 3 MWC properties other than Utah and TCU, and likely to also have nationally known Navy as fb only. Only dog in football is Memphis.

Playing BYU & Boise would be nationally relevant games. SDSU has a great coach and finally has a big budget. Rocky Long got New Mexico to be a consistent 7-9 win program in as big of a recruiting void as you will see anywhere outside the Dakotas. He is now in SoCal and they should be a very consistent winning program going forward. If Fresno does not get a BE offer SDSU became the #1 place for a Cali kid to play big time football outside the Pac12 and stay home to do it.

Navy is a program that should speak for itself.

Couple those 4 with cross division games with the eastern division and having UH, TCU, and BU every year and it is not a bad schedule for SMU compared to recent years.

Big thing is you want BYU or AFA to join. There is an outside possibility the BE could lose 2-4 teams if realignment gets crazy with the Big12, ACC, B1G, SEC, or PAC. With 14 teams and a valuable property like BYU it gives the Big East some slack to withstand the potential blow. I do think getting to 14 is in your best interest.

SMU has the right sized stadium for now. The big thing is to keep winning and keep climbing. I do think an indoor facility will become a need soon if it isn't already.

I would think that a quality IPF would probably run us 20-30M.

One of the issues on the IPF according to a few people I've talked to is that they want a facility that won't be an eyesore to the campus. In other words it needs to have the red brick and fit in with the overall aesthetic of the campus. I do agree that if we are going to do it we need to do it right. One of the truly awesome things about SMU is that the campus fits together perfectly. So to do an IPF to the specifications that we need is going to cost us a boatload of greenbacks.

Still, it needs to be done ASAP.

SMUfrat wrote:Texas Tech (SELLOUT)
Baylor (SELLOUT)
Boise State (30K) - if we are both good
Louisville (30K)
South Florida (26K)
Memphis (22K)
Houston (SELLOUT)

I see us easily being in the 30's for avg. attendance in 2013. I think we could even be 30k for 2012 if things go well.

Tech will sell out the stadium with its own fans, along with possibly Baylor if they are still doing well.. The rest really have to be driven by locals to all be above even 20k, and not the empty stadium "20k" we get now. Memphis is terrible and does not bring fans, even Houston is slightly washy as the rivalry is not seen as in the same light as vs TCU. Don't see USF being much different than UCF, which was fairly empty last time.

Marketing will be key, and is something that will be added as part of NBE budget, supposedly. Making the Blvd new comers and non alum friendly is also something that needs to be done to keep new fans coming back and feeling a part of the SMU gameday experience. Not to mention reigniting a fire in our local alum that seems to be dormant due to so many years of bad seasons. Just getting all the students that show up for the Blvd to stay for the game would be great.

I actually don't see much uptick with the Big East - East. Do they travel that well? UCF, Houston, were not sell outs, far from it, but should improve slightly in 2013. So we must keep playing our Texas Brethren (Tech, Baylor TCU, North Texas, UTEP??, UTSA??) and sell out with their fans. Doesn't bother me to sell out that way and doubt it bothers the players. Got to market Dallas to get local fans/alums up to the 25,000 level. Go slow on the Stadium expansion.

Season tix sales are being advertised that we have 1,700 new holders, so we should be approaching 10K total. I would expect a small uptick in this before September.

SmooBoy wrote:Season tix sales are being advertised that we have 1,700 new holders, so we should be approaching 10K total. I would expect a small uptick in this before September.

I wouldn't expect any uptick from the bug east schools. Cincy, louisvill, etc never traveled well to fort worth. None of the east coast or west coast teams will travel well. And regarding your attendance estimates, are you talking actual or announced. Some of SMU's recent announced numbers have seemed quite ridiculous. I think you will have to win 9-10 games for a few years before consistently bringing in 30k or more for anyone other than a big 12 opponent.

Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

I was expecting an uptick from the decent home schedule THIS YEAR, not the Big East sched. Only if SMU proves it can play with the big boys and pulls off a win over tamu or the frogs would I expect to have any sort of lasting ripple effect for the following year(s) season ticket sales. I don't think most are under the impression that the current makeup of the Big E schools will increase our numbers. The better tv contracts is the current benefit. We will need to continue to schedule old Big 12 rivalries (and win a few of those) to make some hay.

While you may be right about the iron skillet going by the wayside, don't be too quick to dismiss it. Weird things are going on in CFB.

And while 10K in season tix is small potatoes to tcu's base, it is a significant number for a program that inhaled deeply for two and a half decades.

ReedFrawg wrote:Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

Why?

PK wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

Why?

Probably that they're in the Big 12, and the Big 12 has 9 teams, so they're doing round-robin only allowing 3 OOCs. Probably schedule a 1-AA and maybe a Tulane, maybe one marquee OOC. It's either that a) the program will be at a high enough competitive level that we don't fit their OOC now that they deal with a Big 12 schedule; or b) a somewhat symbolic move to dump us off the schedule and show that they're "above us," " in another league," or "competing at another level."

PK wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

Why?

They aren't going to be able to handle the loss every other season when they are struggling to get to six wins.

And before you dismiss as idiotic this think about it.

In most seasons they will likely lose to Texas/OU/OSU. Add in a loss each season to Tech, Baylor, or K-State and they are at 8-4. One of the non-conference games has to be decent and a loss there gets them to 7-5.

A somewhat regular loss to SMU would put them at 6-6 with no margin for error to get into a bowl so it will be too big of a risk to them.

They will probably end up replacing us with NTSU, UTSA, or the like.

PK wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

Why?

What's the point of TCU playing the game? As far as I can tell it does nothing for them. If the tables were turned I'd want to stop playing the series too.

PK wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Lastly, it would not surprise me at all if the tcu-smu annual game ceases to exist in the next 2-3 years...

Why?

It's kind of the chic thing to do. OU Nebraska, KU Mizzou, Texas-atm