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The current team is unwatchable. Only die hards will come to games.

The 2012 and 2013 teams looked competent but were hardly powerhouses.

So we have 2011 as really the only JJ team that looked like it could compete against a decent P5 team (although we didn't in 2011).

So to blame fans for not coming to games is ridiculous. Turn it around, say you are an SMU fan living in Houston - do you go to Rice stadium to watch Rice. Of course not. Its boring. You stay home and watch an SEC game on TV.
You can't expect non-affiliated fans to come watch a pitiful team.

Sorry, not purposefully watching an SEC team unless it is A&M in the national championship. (Go A&M) If the game happens to be on in an establishment I am already in, then yes, I might casually keep eye out on it. But definitely not setting aside time to do so. Why would I?

Kind of like saying if you could not see 10 clowns pile out of a Mini, why would you watch NASCAR.

Pony81 wrote:So to blame fans for not coming to games is ridiculous.

Which fans? Casual Dallasites? Of course not - they won't come out to watch this crap.

But our own students/alumni/family in the Dallas area? They should always be there, win or lose...A&M or UNT or UTSA. That is the problem.

The "We never made the Top 25" argument is intriguing, but I don't buy that either. We've been close and it made no difference. We beat a top 25 TCU team and it made no difference. I'm convinced it really wouldn't matter to most of our students.

3-5 years of Top 25 status while winning 9-10 games a year? Sure, then I can see casual Dallas fans coming to see us.

mrydel wrote:Kind of like saying if you could not see 10 clowns pile out of a Mini, why would you watch NASCAR.

Exactly!

Whatever Hart does, I just hope he doesn't waste one penny on marketing. Marketing is the ultimate waste of money. Use it on hiring more scouts and player evaluators. Marketing reminds me of Tommy Boy in the scene about the guarantee on the box:

"But why do they put a guarantee on the box then? 'Cause they know all they sold you was a guaranteed piece of S. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it "guaranteed", i will. I got spare time."

No marketing strategy "this is your team Dallas" B-S is going work. If SMU beats A&M straight up without trick plays, you will see a backed stadium.

You are insane to think marketing and advertising do not matter. Marketing campaigns done right can create buzz. I personally thought the June Cometh Pony Up campaign was great and created a lot of buzz. I think a new campaign with a new coach will help redirect the narrative on the program. I agree that bad campaigns hurt more than they help, but I trust Rick Hart to make the right call.

Excuses don't matter to the people who will decide whether we survive. I followed this school for 50 years and have been to every other school in Texas double digit times. SMU's students and alumni do not support this program through thick and thin like other similar schools. SMU does not have 95% freshman class participation like the Baylor Line. Its [deleted] incredible. Compare the TCU student section to the SMU section for a school only marginally bigger. I saw statistics in recent years that Baylor and TCU get upwards of 85-90% of their students to attend football games-based on allotment to tickets distributed. We take a 1,000 to visit former SWC schools and they bring 7,000-20,000 and we [deleted] about the opponent not filling OUR own home stadium. And it has always been that way. And it likely always will because SMU fans really don't care that much. So go on with your 9 pages of excuses that don't matter. If you give a [deleted] about SMU playing at the highest level of college football then make it a priority. No recruit considering SMU and another SWC school will commit to SMU after visiting one of our home games

So JJ was right to be shocked at the lack of support after we turned a big corner. We blast him for not caring?

I backed June up on that-it was pathetic

And Cole Beasley is right.

I haven't been participating on this thread. I did say that Beasley venting frustrations on twitter is not much different than my generation venting on ponyfans. My son doesn't go on message boards-he lives on twitter or something cooler

Yeah. I still submit in Shermans last season, tech in tubbys first game and the first Briles asxwhipping at Baylor when we had sizeable traveling parties which otherwise could've been capitalized on

i know the venue is smaller. how do you explain the rabid support the bball team is getting?

It is the same rabid 5,000 that go to the football games.