Smu v rice

[PlummMeanGreen]

Both schools' student enrollment combined probably equals about half of UNT's. Lets keep things into perspective here.

On the other side of the coin, North Texas does not have about a hundred year membership or legacy in a major conference, ie, the old Southwest Conference to have built a fan base we have been trying to build in much smaller profile conferences (Missouri Valley, Southland, Big West and the Sun Belt)

In a perfect world, Big East officials should have canvassed SMU students weeks before they were given a B.E. membership on a silver platter and just asked them if being in the B.E. would really create that much difference than what CUSA didn't really seem to do for Mustang football.

GMG!

[Green Mean]

On the other side of the coin, North Texas does not have about a hundred year membership or legacy in a major conference, ie, the old Southwest Conference to have built a fan base we have been trying to build in much smaller profile conferences (Missouri Valley, Southland, Big West and the Sun Belt)

In a perfect world, Big East officials should have canvassed SMU students weeks before they were given a B.E. membership on a silver platter and just asked them if being in the B.E. would really create that much difference than what CUSA didn't really seem to do for Mustang football.

GMG!

Other schools have been in the same position as ours and even in worse position than ours in our history and they bettered themselves despite being in lower conferences. We haven't deserved a better conference at this point because NT has failed to get it 'done'. Regardless of how we didn't get it done via school administration, fans, apathy, hippies etc etc etc....it seems that we've always found ways to think of new excuses. Hopefully we're on the right track at this point and again I say lets forget what SMU is doing because it is North Texas that controls North Texas' destiny.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Other schools have been in the same position as ours and even in worse position than ours in our history and they bettered themselves despite being in lower conferences. We haven't deserved a better conference at this point because NT has failed to get it 'done'. Regardless of how we didn't get it done via school administration, fans, apathy, hippies etc etc etc....it seems that we've always found ways to think of new excuses. Hopefully we're on the right track at this point and again I say lets forget what SMU is doing because it is North Texas that controls North Texas' destiny.

North Texas does control its own destiny but that very thought alone is a scary one because look at our across the board program the last 15-30 years? We need to do something different with our destiny than what we've been doing is what I guess I'm saying here and I'm talking about careeer wins versus losses of all varsity progams thru a string of varsity coaches.

I'm not totally dissatisfied with our average attendance this year inasmuch as we are (after all) in our 8'th losing season in a row--new stadium or no new staidium. The North Texas students of today would not be as impressed with a new stadium because they haven't had to sit in Fouts Field for decade after decade after decade.

Rice vs. SMU, Ford Stadium, 11/26/11

Resized to 99% (was 600 x 450) - Click image to enlarge

Edited November 27, 2011 by PlummMeanGreen

[dodgefan]

Two actual numbers for SMU. 7 win season three years in a row, and will be making third bowl trip in a row.

[SilverEagle]

Other schools have been in the same position as ours and even in worse position than ours in our history and they bettered themselves despite being in lower conferences. We haven't deserved a better conference at this point because NT has failed to get it 'done'. Regardless of how we didn't get it done via school administration, fans, apathy, hippies etc etc etc....it seems that we've always found ways to think of new excuses. Hopefully we're on the right track at this point and again I say lets forget what SMU is doing because it is North Texas that controls North Texas' destiny.

This has been the mantra of the North Texas administrators and their yes-men/women for the last 30+ years.

Just how many business CEO's (large or small) would accept that statement from their "assistants" regarding the current (and future) health of their companies?

It seems like I can't buy so much as a toothbrush (a very large exaggeration) on-line these days without being sent a survey from the company that I just bought the toothbrush from, asking me about my shopping experience, and what I would suggest to improve the experience. I get the same thing when I buy something at a store. The clerk hands me the receipt and points to a 1-800 number or web-site where I can go and give them feed-back on my shopping experience.

How many of you have received such a thing EVERY TIME you buy something from the North Texas athletic department. How many of you have ever received an e-mail, or letter, that solicited your opinion about your level of satisfaction about that year's football (or other sport) experience. Or your total experience for that matter.

Just my humble opinion, but we have to take the words...HOPEFULLY, MAYBE, and "WE'LL WAIT AND SEE" out of our North Texas language.

Edited November 27, 2011 by SilverEagle

[FirefightnRick]

Rice vs. SMU, Ford Stadium, 11/26/11

Resized to 99% (was 600 x 450) - Click image to enlarge

I count around 100 people per each section that has a group. So IMO there may have been 1,000 there yesterday. Very sad for a team that qualified for a third straight bowl game.

Rick

Edited November 27, 2011 by FirefightnRick

[CaribbeanGreen]

Not saying their crowd was huge, but that's obviously before the game started. We usually do a pretty substantial fill-in through the 1st quarter.

Lousy crowd given the Ponies success? Absolutely.... but Thanksgiving weekend is HARD.

ETA: If you look, you can tell this is pre-coin flip.

Edited November 28, 2011 by CaribbeanGreen

[Comet7745]

I hate having to say this because I don't want it to seem like I'm ignoring the HUGE attendance issues we have, but that image is like many others. It's being taken from the side of the stadium where most fans are. The opposite side is usually a mix of the student section and the opponents' fans. The media always has the cameras on our fans' sides so it looks like a dreadfully empty stadium. While it is a pathetic turn out, there are probably about ten thousand on the western side of the stadium alone. This was the same issue we had at the UCF game. Either way, whether we have 8,000 fans or 15,000 fans, that sucks and the team deserves better. While it was a crap showing by our fans, it was still much more than 1,000

Edited November 28, 2011 by Comet7745

[BigPonyFan]

Announced was around 15k, which is about right (sad, but accurate). The cameras always show the East side (which should be full of SMU fans, too), but the West side (plus Stadium Club) has far more people.

It's going to take more time to earn back SMU fans. You can't suck for 20 years and expect fans to jump right back on board. This year didn't have one exciting home game, and this last game was expected to be a dud. Thanksgiving weekend, cold and crappy, students gone, RICE, and poor SMU QB play. Many of us were actually surprised we had as many fans as we did.

In any case, sorry you didn't get to six wins this year. Hopefully you're in good shape for next year.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

On the other side of the coin, North Texas does not have about a hundred year membership or legacy in a major conference, ie, the old Southwest Conference to have built a fan base we have been trying to build in much smaller profile conferences (Missouri Valley, Southland, Big West and the Sun Belt)

In a perfect world, Big East officials should have canvassed SMU students weeks before they were given a B.E. membership on a silver platter and just asked them if being in the B.E. would really create that much difference than what CUSA didn't really seem to do for Mustang football.

GMG!

This. SMU and Rice have pooped on their golden tickets. Well, maybe not so much Rice. Rice has other things to do at their school besides football.

SMU is poopfart. I don't care how many decades ago they had the "Death Penalty." Whole programs have been invented and been successful since then. Programs that came up straight out of the ground like so much summer corn in the fields.

SMU just didn't try to care or not. I can see it now. Big East. All nothing. Do nothing. Be nothing. Running out of power and juice.

[untcampbell]

Far be it for me to take up for SMU fan, but the last three posts provide objective insight into the "crowd" at SMU this past weekend. Thanksgiving weekend. Cold weather. No title or bowl eligibility on the line.

Why, by the way, do most stadiums insist on providing camera views that show the less populated side of the field?

And this bit of insight from BPF sounds like he is talking about NT:

You can't suck for (all but 4 of the last xx number of years) 20 years and expect fans to jump right back on board. This year didn't have one exciting home game, and this last game (is) was expected to be a dud.

In all likelihood, we will be facing similar cold weather this coming weekend, though we will have the benefit of students being back in class. It would be nice to see a good crowd witness our seniors playing their last game.

I look forward to a run-first game plan that favors Dunbar's pursuit of the record in front of enough fans to beat the attendance record.

Finish, boys.

GMG

[BigPonyFan]

Why, by the way, do most stadiums insist on providing camera views that show the less populated side of the field?

They want the logo to appear "right side up" on TV (and home fans want the same). Even against crummy teams SMU will pull the 15k "loyal" fans to make the home side pretty full (this game was an exception for the previously noted reasons). Where SMU falls way short is packing the visitor side (which is shown more on TV). SMU should pack the stadium and not depend on a visiting team to do so; however, most games this year had been 20-25k and that's a decent start. Starting next year, bringing teams like Baylor, TCU, Boise, Houston, Air Force, Cincy, etc. to campus will help a bunch with #'s.

Good luck Green.

[Comet7745]

They want the logo to appear "right side up" on TV (and home fans want the same). Even against crummy teams SMU will pull the 15k "loyal" fans to make the home side pretty full (this game was an exception for the previously noted reasons). Where SMU falls way short is packing the visitor side (which is shown more on TV). SMU should pack the stadium and not depend on a visiting team to do so; however, most games this year had been 20-25k and that's a decent start. Starting next year, bringing teams like Baylor, TCU, Boise, Houston, Air Force, Cincy, etc. to campus will help a bunch with #'s.

Good luck Green.

Agreed, that "visitor's side" should still be 75% SMU fans. Instead it's an empty, lonely, and cold valley. When we bring in better competition, the lackadaisical SMU fan will start showing up. Either way though, the SMU athletics brand is damaged goods in DFW. 20 years of irrelevancy will not be remedied by 3 no-name bowl appearances. If we pull a Houston type of season and still are bringing in less than 20K, then by all means persecute us.

[TIgreen01]

Thanksgiving is definitely a tough weekend if you're not hosting a MAJOR rivalry game.

That said, most of SMU's games have been broadcast on FSSW this season. That image posted by Plumm could be from ANY of the games I've seen. They had more than 15k show up for one game (Navy), as far as I could tell from TV.

Usually the away side has less than 500, the endzone less than 100-200 and home side around 75% full. In a stadium that looks to be a perfect horseshoe (ie, split the stadium at the goalpost and you'd have 15k on either side) it's pretty obvious what the actual numbers really are (less than 15k in the stands + however many are in the suites--I have no idea what their suite capacity is).

I do think that their attendance will get better over time....as long as they have a coach the caliber of June Jones running the show. A jump to the Big East will certainly make it harder to win games, but it's exponentially tougher if they lose June this offseason (as is rumored) and don't find a capable replacement (ie--Mike Leach would be their homerun).

[PlummMeanGreen]

Thanksgiving is definitely a tough weekend if you're not hosting a MAJOR rivalry game.

That said, most of SMU's games have been broadcast on FSSW this season. That image posted by Plumm could be from ANY of the games I've seen.

The photo of last weekends SMU/Rice game was taken from the TCU message board from one who had apparently been at the game.

Just looking at the student/visitors side one can probably see for themselves a a small group of fans wearing Rice's dark blue colors.

[TIgreen01]

The photo of last weekends SMU/Rice game was taken from the TCU message board from one who had apparently been at the game.

Just looking at the student/visitors side one can probably see for themselves a a small group of fans wearing Rice's dark blue colors.

Sorry, wasn't questioning it as being "The Rice game"....but was making the point that every single one of their home games had similar attendance (outside of Navy who actually brought a lot of fans) and a picture taken from that angle at any of their games would show little differences outside of the away team colors.

[BigPonyFan]

Sorry, wasn't questioning it as being "The Rice game"....but was making the point that every single one of their home games had similar attendance (outside of Navy who actually brought a lot of fans) and a picture taken from that angle at any of their games would show little differences outside of the away team colors.

Uh, way off. If you look at the picture you can see the band on the field -- it's half time. The "home side" is usually pretty packed for all games (and it was surprisingly full for this game). Now, SMU just needs to work on the East side. You're all more than welcome!!!

[PlummMeanGreen]

This!...will happen more often if we can get out of this losing funk. Amazing how some want to get on the bandwagon when we have had a few "W's" and those early on in the season.

[HoustonEagle]

"I will take 'who's the tallest midget' for a thousand Alex"

Edited November 29, 2011 by HoustonEagle

[MeanGreenDan]

It makes me laugh how few students/band members in this picture are facing forward watching the game, even though it appears that the ball is about to be snapped...

[EdwardRRooney]

It makes me laugh how few students/band members in this picture are facing forward watching the game, even though it appears that the ball is about to be snapped...

Looks like all the players on the field are standing around to me. But I guess that might give people something else to complain about.

[PerryG2480]

I don't know, that side of the field looks okay for this game: