Bowl projections

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I don't mean to imply that Lanier is not the right coach in my post above. He may well be. And he'll have the first bite of the apple in the ACC.

[mrydel]

The SMU vs. aTm aka wTf BBall game at Moody tonight is supposedly almost sold out.

I would argue that if alumni and the generic Dallas basketball fan thought they would be going to see a local team that was likely to beat TAMU, it would have been sold out a month ago.

Wow. Curious as to how hard you had to work to turn the positive into a negative?


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[PerunaPunch]

The SMU vs. aTm aka wTf BBall game at Moody tonight is supposedly almost sold out.

I would argue that if alumni and the generic Dallas basketball fan thought they would be going to see a local team that was likely to beat TAMU, it would have been sold out a month ago.

Wow. Curious as to how hard you had to work to turn the positive into a negative?

I didn't perceive "almost sold out" as a negative. I just think that if fans knew the Ponies were going to be competitive, they would not be hesitant to spend their hard-earned cash.

[CA Mustang]

Fansided
Armed Forces Bowl
Texas Tech vs. SMU

USA TODAY
Birmingham Bowl
SMU vs. JMU

Yahoo
Hawaii Bowl (Dec. 23)
SMU vs. Wyoming

[HubbaHubba]

Playing the sand aggies wouldn't be terrible.

[PerunaPunch]

Fansided
Armed Forces Bowl
Texas Tech vs. SMU

USA TODAY
Birmingham Bowl
SMU vs. JMU

Yahoo
Hawaii Bowl (Dec. 23)
SMU vs. Wyoming

Texas Tech vs. SMU: Barf
SMU vs. JMU: The only way that matchup could be worse is if it were in the Frisco Bowl
SMU vs. Wyoming: This would be a year I'd fly out to watch that one.

[shadowman]

I am all for playing Texas Tech, don't care where it is at.

Definitely hoping to get a matchup with a P5 school. No interest in playing a G5 school, even if it is a desirable destination.

[PerunaPunch]

Definitely hoping to get a matchup with a P5 school. No interest in playing a G5 school, even if it is a desirable destination.

I concur. Birmingham was a great bowl venue, but I'm not sure I'd make that trip to watch a junior varsity matchup (even if JMU were really good).

[Mustangs_Maroons]

forget about these bowls. SMU has a chance at a NY6 bowl if we win out.

[Drum Major]

JMU is not even eligible to go to a bowl this year, so take these guesses for what they are worth. Clearly, USA Today made no effort and has zero credibility. Let's win the conference and do something big!

[Terry Webster]

JMU is not even eligible to go to a bowl this year, so take these guesses for what they are worth. Clearly, USA Today made no effort and has zero credibility. Let's win the conference and do something big!

The AG in Virginia has filed suit against the ncaa about this. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Mustangs35SMU]

JMU is not even eligible to go to a bowl this year, so take these guesses for what they are worth. Clearly, USA Today made no effort and has zero credibility. Let's win the conference and do something big!

They're eligible to go if there's not enough eligible teams to go to bowls before them. Sounds like there won't be enough either.

[orguy]

forget about these bowls. SMU has a chance at a NY6 bowl if we win out.

This.

[Smumba2009]

Is it me, or are we being shown a ton of disrespect in both the [deleted] bowl predictions and the T25 voting?

That is the story of SMU. We are never gifted default respect the way the blue bloods are. SMU has had to earn every ounce of respect it's ever gotten. . . which is frankly not a lot because for long stretches of our football history we haven't earned squat. So when we are actually deserving of respect, we have to prove it over and over before we get it. Hell, the 1982 Mustangs, who were absolutely incredible, stocked with future pros, and the only major undefeated team in the country, didn't win the NC and Eric Dickerson didn't win the Heisman Trophy. . . how did that happen???

Want respect?. . . beat Memphis, beat Navy, beat whoever we would play in the AAC title game, and then beat a P-5 school in a respectable bowl. Anything short of that and SMU will be immediately forgotten by the talking heads once again.

But no pressure

Spot on but how can SMU expect to be noticed nationally when we can't even fill a 32,000 seat Ford and 7,000 seat Moody? Even our students, alumni and DFW area college sports fans don't seem to care much about SMU athletics. I wish it wasn't true but that's our reality. Since moving away from Dallas in 1987 after we got the death penalty, I've had plenty of co-workers, friends and neighbors ask me why nobody seems to care about SMU athletics and I have trouble answering but I tell them the only silver lining is that when I am able to visit Dallas and attend a game, I never have any trouble getting a good seat. People talk about USC being the "University of Spoiled Children" and in that respect, I think SMU is USC's "sister school".

We've shown how a Top 25 hoops program can change the atmosphere in Moody. I'm waiting to see what a Top 25 football program playing in a big boy conference can do in Ford. I'm hopeful we will see our local bandwagon alumni return (I know a few) and that DFW area college sports fans will want to come out to watch quality college football at Ford and hoops at Moody. I'd be more than happy to have to plan well in advance to make sure I could get a ticket to Ford and/or Moody when I get to visit Dallas again. For now, please surprise me and beat Memphis, win out and keep the momentum going!

When I was completing my MBA at SMU back in the late 2000's I took Sports Marketing as taught by the former Jordan Brand Manager, Erin Patton. My class study group was given a project for the Texas Rangers. Our job was to create a plan that would increase attendance and present to the Ranger's leadership. We researched this top to bottom over decades of baseball. A guy in my study group was a Statistician for another industry and boy did we cut this project up 100 different ways. At the end of the day we made some easy recommendations like adding a premium "Coors Light" or "Sierra Mist" section in which the fans would enjoy industrialized cooling/misting fans throughout their game experience. But in terms of moving the needle our big recommendation was to go find the coaching and player talent that would lead you to the playoffs(spend money where it matters). Every single MLB team that has enjoyed sustained strong game attendance have a strong winning % the in common and more specifically made the playoffs the previous year. So we told them to stop being cheap, spend money, get talent and the fans will follow. They obviously didn't listen to our recommendations as their woes continued until recently. Point being for us to put fans in seats we have to win. I know it seems so simple but if you dig into the details there are layers and layers of things that leadership representatives do to put a winning team on the field year after year. We haven't consistently done these things since I've been a Mustang. To be honest until recently TCU was doing most of those things really well and we were not. We're catching up.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

Great post. Makes perfect sense. As an aside, I remember those Texas Rangers teams from the early to mid 2000's and its no wonder they couldn't generate fan interest being 20 games out of first place by the end of May.