The news of USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten Conference has me both excited and nervous – and it’s always about my SMU Mustangs.
On one hand, it’s an opportunity for additional realignment among the power conferences and that means a potential for SMU to move from the American Athletic Conference into a better home. Not that the AAC hasn’t been great for us, but it’s the conference that gets poached most often when the Power 5 schools look to expand. Unfortunately SMU hasn’t had its name called yet so we’re left with a lesser and lesser conference after seeing our top programs leave for greener pastures every couple seasons.
On the other hand, it’s a risk that the Big Ten and the SEC become the two dominant conferences (and ONLY two dominant conferences) and even if SMU gets invited to the PAC12, Big 12, or ACC it’ll still be a tier-2 conference.
The latter is just getting picky. Let’s focus on the former.
When people point to SMU as having a lot to offer they usually begin with saying “SMU brings the Dallas market”. Well, not really. Of course the school is in the heart of Dallas, the 5th largest media market in the U.S., but it doesn’t really pull big ratings there. Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma are the big fish in that market. TCU also sits on the western edge of the metroplex in Fort Worth, and TCU is already in the Big 12 so they have a strong following.
SMU also struggles to fill its stadium for game days. You’d think with a decent sized alumni base in the region, plus a football crazy region, and some local rivalries coming to town it wouldn’t be so hard to sell out. However open seats area a fact of life. Perhaps bringing in opponents such as Oklahoma State, Stanford and Clemson rather than Tulane, Tulsa, and Stephen F. Austin will increase interest. I would hope so.
The school also needs to continue the “PonyUp” theme for alums and the local business community to help provide financial support. No school, regardless of how well it does from its tv contracts and ticket sales, can exist without significant fundraising from deep-pocketed boosters. SMU certainly has its share of those and we need every penny in order to match the legions of alums and donors from the larger school we hope to compete against.
SMU does have significant ties with the City of Dallas – including Mayor Eric Johnson who is a huge proponent of the university and its athletics. In 2019 SMU launched its “Born & Raised” campaign to promote the fact that so many great athletes come directly from the DFW area. Its primary message to local fans is that you can watch your favorite local athletes right here on the Hilltop at SMU. And its primary message to local athletes is that you can stay right here in Dallas, play in front of your family and friends, and compete at a very high level. SMU likes to say it’s “Dallas College Team” and they’re right.
The school also has significant momentum as a top-tier education and research institution, routinely landing in the upper echelon of Top Schools in the country. The business school is outstanding and has strong ties to the Dallas business community, and the Arts school is world-class. The Law School, engineering, and Computer Science, and Communications programs are also outstanding. The school also recently launched a program called “Life After Ball” which helps student athletes get internships and make connections to help them in their non-sporting careers after graduation. And let’s face it, although the ponies currently have 19 former players on NFL rosters, the great majority of athletes will NOT be playing professionally after graduation. These types of programs are critical in attracting well-rounded high school prospects.
SMU is on the verge of breaking out from a 30+ year sentence after receiving the “Death Penalty” from the NCAA for paying its players in the 1980s. That penalty was supposed to include a couple years of no games and no recruiting players, which is difficult enough to come back from, but when the Southwest Conference split up shortly thereafter and SMU wasn’t invited to join the Big 12 that started a freefall that lasted more than a decade.
After 75+ years in the powerful Southwest Conference, SMU bounced around from the Western Athletic Conference (1996-2004) to Conference USA (2005-2012) to the American Athletic Conference (2013-present). During this time, the emergence of the “Power 5” conferences – those that had the strongest programs, most money, best tv revenue deals from ESPN, NBC, CBS and FOX, and guaranteed bowl game selections – became more and more powerful. These were the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC12, and the SEC. Money spoke and the powerful won out.
Maybe this year is the round of conference realignment that finally sees SMU take a big leap forward and join the ranks of the football and basketball elite. I can only hope so, because the alternative doesn’t look so rosy from a revenue standpoint. It’s also a lot more fun as a fan and an alum to watch the program play big games under the bright lights.
In the end, winning covers up a lot of warts. SMU isn’t perfect, by any means. But it’s a great school with a long and proud football tradition. It has the financial means to compete at the highest level. And it sits in one of the top 2 recruiting regions in the country (Florida being the other). Given the chance, SMU could once again rise to the top of the rankings.