Frogco2015
Member
You don’t get out much do you?
Congratulations to SMU…
- Thread starter Sangria Wine
- Start date
This Ain't Chopped Liver
Active Member
Why SMU thinks the ACC move is the first step to a return to glory
Mustang rally? SMU got what it wanted, but will the ACC move mean a return to glory?
Nearly 40 years since being left behind by a major conference, SMU is joining the ACC. The league gave the Mustangs a lifeline, but they'll need to pony up for their ambitions to match the reality of today's college football.
www.espn.com
"We're finally back where we belong," said David Miller, the chairman of SMU's board of trustees, receiving a standing ovation.
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We've got an underdog mentality. We've got a chip on our shoulder. We've had to do more with less for a long time."
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In short, the Mustangs believe that there is money to be had if they win.
And they think they will. SMU's Boulevard Collective is one of the most generous NIL programs in the country, reportedly paying all football and men's basketball athletes $36,000 a year, according to On3. Gerald J. Ford Stadium is currently undergoing a $100 million expansion, part of a $300 million investment in new athletic facilities in the past decade.
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"I don't think it would be a stretch to say that there's some people out there that weren't excited about the notion that SMU was going to be uplifted back to Power 5 status," Miller said, hinting at a few Texas universities. "Think about what it's going to do for our recruiting. We already recruit extremely well. The only thing that anybody could ever use against us in a recruiting battle is the fact that we're not Power 5."
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SMU says its major projects were in the works before Dykes' departure. But it surely galvanized Mustangs boosters, seeing a coach who embraced Dallas, brought D/FW players home via the transfer portal, and won 10 games for the first time in 40 years, only to lose him to their rivals. Coincidentally or not, alumnus Garry Weber's $50 million donation for the new end zone project -- the largest athletic gift in SMU's history -- was announced 21 days after Dykes left for TCU.
Now SMU will become the state's sixth Power 5 program -- there's been a concerted effort to call it "the only D/FW school in a top-three conference," which makes for extra spice in its century-old Iron Skillet rivalry with TCU -- and the pressure will be on to capitalize in the same way.
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At the celebration Friday, the front rows were filled with several older boosters who had lived the entire cycle of despair and hope on the Hilltop. They've made it their mission to restore the Mustangs to the top before their time is up. Miller and his wife Carolyn have donated more than $100 million to SMU over the years, according to The Dallas Morning News, including a $50 million donation to the business school. This is a personal mission for many of them.
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"We're coming in as humble pie as one can get," Loyd said. "We're the beggars, not the choosers. ... A lot of people did a lot of hard work, but this is a good stroke of luck for SMU and this would be the quintessential case of looking a gift horse in the mouth."
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This is sort of like a new beginning. It's a fresh start. It's an affirmation that the university's athletic programs have come back."
Hart said at the celebration ceremony that the Mustangs have a lot of work to do. The stadium is still under construction. There will be a lot more money to raise, tickets to sell and a lot of infrastructure work to do. It's time to Pony Up.
But Miller is confident that the glory days will return to Dallas again.
"The beast is about to emerge," Miller said. "Just wait."
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NewFrogFan
Full Member
I’m 5 years behind you but you can probably put me in the box next to you b4 it happens!
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LSU Game Attendee
Active Member
Point of order- Aggies are the traditional Trans Am slingers
This Ain't Chopped Liver
Active Member
Wolken’s last sentence irks me.
Dan Wolken—
“Everything that has happened over the last year in conference realignment was a choice. Schools made choices, conferences made choices and television networks made choices that have led to the Pac-12 being wiped off the map, the Big Ten becoming a league that stretches from New Jersey to Oregon and the Atlantic Coast Conference going to the Pacific to add two football programs.
Ostensibly, this happened because the Pac-12 did not have a good enough television deal to stay together. And yet those same television networks will end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars for 10 of the 12 teams to play in other leagues, while making everything about how those schools operate incredibly more complicated and expensive.”
And ESPN now has to pay for SMU too, sheesh.
Dan Wolken—
“Everything that has happened over the last year in conference realignment was a choice. Schools made choices, conferences made choices and television networks made choices that have led to the Pac-12 being wiped off the map, the Big Ten becoming a league that stretches from New Jersey to Oregon and the Atlantic Coast Conference going to the Pacific to add two football programs.
Ostensibly, this happened because the Pac-12 did not have a good enough television deal to stay together. And yet those same television networks will end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars for 10 of the 12 teams to play in other leagues, while making everything about how those schools operate incredibly more complicated and expensive.”
And ESPN now has to pay for SMU too, sheesh.
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Limey Frog
Full Member
We'll see what happens. Given their options, SMU did the smart thing. And being located where they're located, competing against 2/3 of the ACC should be possible even without that $20M/yr they're foregoing. At 17 members, this move gives the ACC the numbers to hold together for a while, I think. There's no path to dissolving the league by majority vote, if there ever was. There are probably enough members to make mass panic unlikely if the cost of jumping just because FSU jumped is $100M+. So what can FSU do? Unless they know something crazy that is unknown to anyone else, I think this move calms everything down for 5-7 years. At that point college football could be so different who knows what will happen, the conference model may go away entirely. If it doesn't, I'd say it's far more likely that if FSU and others join the Big Ten/SEC that the Big 12 raids the leftovers rather than the other way around. At that point SMU wouldn't have gained anything. But that's a whole string of "if-thens". For now, SMU put themselves in a better spot and we'll see what they do with it.
4 Oaks Frog
Active Member
scheiss smu!
toadallytexan
ToadallyTexan
I don't like em even that much.
tyler durden
Tyler Durden
Riiiiight, fellow horn frog. Yes I think that’s what most of us fellow horn frogs think when we walk through our WAC stadium, what a dump.
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HeidelFrog
Active Member
Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina are staying in ACC as of right now because the Big 10 and SEC hasn’t invited them to join. If/when Big 10 and/or SEC extends invitations they will be gone. They would make 2X as much per year by making that move.
If/when that happens the ACC could be on life support.
Hemingway
Active Member
I'll agree that those ACC schools are gone, and that SMU "burned the boats". So when it implodes, we will take what we want. And that won't include SMU, you hear us @ECM and @GAPony @VitnageHornfrog ? And your media rights will be trapped in that without $ for that rest of that contract.
You could've at least won something along the way to validate this.
Limey Frog
Full Member
We'll see about FSU. Their board chairman was being so public about intending to do something, but maybe they were just bluffing. If they win the ACC every year, or alternate with Clemson, they should get an extra $10M+ than the others and at least close the revenue gap a bit. I'm thinking the Big Ten invite would come at their next TV rights window, which is 2030. At that point the ACC grant of rights has six years left and they can just negotiate a buyout. I don't see a mass panic and defections to the Big 12 happening any time before then. And even at that, who can predict what college football even looks like by 2030? I have no idea. I feel like we're in a better group; I'd much rather be where we are than where SMU is, but SMU is better placed now than they were last month. They had nothing to lose, except a bunch of football games.
HG73
Active Member
In 2032 the ponies STILL won't get any TV money.
06DallasFrog
Active Member
We should start a poll on who drinks stronger koolaid - Prime or the SMU Administration?
Horned Frog Country
Full Member
HG73
Active Member
And a couple hundred million dollars.
ECM
Active Member
Yes. SMU locker room will be moved to the new endzone complex on the other end of the stadium.
Sweat Equity
Tier 1
SMU just raised $100mm in seven days from 30 donors "to support the Mustangs' transition to the Atlantic Coast Conference."
