Poor, Poor SMU Ponies
This just in: SMU athletics is suffering. By “just in,” I mean The Daily Campus reported it about a week ago. And by “reported,” I mean the paper published dollar figures to represent a trend that just about anyone who has driven on Mockingbird Lane on any given Saturday in autumn might have guessed. The lede:
Over the past four years, the SMU athletic department has lost $56.7 million.
The department is projected to lose $16.8 million in 2008 and $16.3 million in 2009.
If those projections hold up, the SMU athletic department will have lost almost $90 million over six years, figures far larger than previously published estimates.
As Athletic Director Steve Orsini points out, Division I programs typically run at a deficit, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to get the bottom line to look better. Still, the $2 million contract the school gave Coach June Jones tests the theory of “gotta spend money to make money.”
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Pony Up!
And what makes them think it’s going to get any better??? Use that Bush Library money and make SMU Athletics something to be proud of, not a $500,000,000 library with one book and an Apartment that everyone is pretty much embarassed about. And make Jerry Ford feel like he built the field for something besides lighting up the corner of Mockingbird and Airline. IJS
The University isn’t paying for the Bush Library.
No, I know that, silly!! That’s what is being raised to buy the land, build the new entrance, build the FauxLibrary and piss off the the neighbors!!! I would think kids would choose SMU if there was a much better Athletic Program and infrastructure (Campus). No???
As an SMU Alum, I don’t think that the athletic department is a big deterrent…but that’s just me.
Knowing that the university was going to flatten student housing (2 apartment complexes) and evict people from their homes, however, would have been an issue for me.
Luckily, I got out just in time…
Not surprised, but, still, wow.
I know just about everyone would like a credible athletic program, but what a price to pay in the attempt. That kind of deficit for an academic institution looks unconscionable to me. Done right, athletics can generate notoriety and promote spirit, but it’s NOT the mission of the university.
Imagine the academic quality if that deficit, year after year, was directed to scholarships or endowed chairs.
Too bad the Football program drags down what is otherwise a very strong athletic program. In other sports SMU is nationally ranked. The men’s soccer program was ranked #1 in the nation last fall and even beat FC Dallas this spring. Women’s basketball won the CUSA tournament. Some of the track and field athletes will probably be in the Olympics for their home countries this summer.
One thing is for sure. All those kids are getting a great education and almost all of them graduate. Not many schools in Texas can lay claim to that stat.
Eric, I completely agree. Great point!
Bill, you are correct, but in Texas Football is King, just look at the Cowboys promoting the Superbowl and all the photos in todays Blog!!! SMU is fine academically, not the BEST, but passable and they graduate with an OK education, there are tons of kids that go there cause they can’t get in anywhere else, let’s be honest!! If the $$ being raised would go for Chairs, Endowments, Athletics, really good teachers, we’d have a University, not a site for a library!! Remember the days of Steve Strange, Doak Walker, Don Meredith and others. That place was buzzing. IJS
The University isn’t paying June Jones’s contract. It will be paid by private donors.
I think we have been trying to recapture days the current ponies can never grasp. If our former governor could pony up what he cost us back in those days perhaps it would make a difference.
But I’m not letting the Aggies and the Longhorns off the hook, either.
Most top tier D-1 programs make money… a lot of money. Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, etc. make enough money off their football programs to pay for their entire athletic budgets. In other words, football pays for itself, and every other sport on campus.
Boosters pay for the coaches inflated salaries and for capital improvements.
If SMU could put a winning team on the field that deficit would drop pretty dramatically.
TCU wins and still loses astonishing sums of money.
Just consider it marketing expense. Football is the only way to get so much TV and print attention, and the value of the media time is far more than SMU’s cost.
Not sure which is worse: SMU’s athletic department fiscal performnce or Nancy Nichols’ friggin’ bird posts.
Everyone points the finger at football – it’s an easy target. But I guarantee you a major chunk of that deficit is for women’s sports that bring in zero revenue. Sports like women’s rowing and equestrian exist solely to fulfill gender equity requirements. Thanks, Title IX. Even traditional women’s sports like basketball have never come close to turning a profit. You’ve still got to pay to send them across the country for games. And one thing about athletic department deficits: If they include the costs of scholarships, its somewhat falsely inflated. Scholarships don’t really cost a school anything – it’s just another seat in a classroom, really. But some schools “bill” their athletic departments for them. It’s further inflated at SMU because tuition is so high compared to most schools.
Gmom, what are you snorting?
“If the $$ being raised would go for Chairs, Endowments, Athletics, really good teachers, we’d have a University, not a site for a library!!”
Have you been to the campus over the last decade to see how many ACADEMIC buildings have been built? Gee, I wonder if the TI Engineering Building is where the football team practices…
“Gender equity requirements”?
It’s called civil rights to equal educational opportunity and facilities.
BSM, Of course I’ve been there, I live in the neighborhood, is that the building around the corner from the Stadium? That messed up Airline? Have I slept with you? I didn’t realize I still snorted!!!
Another Gmom inaccuracy:
“SMU is fine academically, not the BEST, but passable and they graduate with an OK education, there are tons of kids that go there cause they can’t get in anywhere else, let’s be honest!!”
If that fallacy is correct, why does U.S. News & World Report Rank the SMU Cox MBA Programs Among the Nation’s Best?
I wonder if you are a t-sipper that couldn’t get into SMU.
Easy, Randy Brown. Lots of people like those bird posts. Chirp.
In a previous job, I was in the position to purchase SMU athletic sponsorships for my company. They came with tickets, signage and the “honor” of being an SMU sponsor. Against my recommendation, the company always “ponied up” for those sponsorships. I like the fine folks at SMU but that was the worst marketing investment they ever made. And keep making, After so many years of having to support the SMU cronyism, I left.
Name three people that read U.S. News and World Report for starters. Didn’t want to go to SMU, yes I’m a tea-sipper, did you go to HP too? SMU is simply pay to go, and I know there are some really smart peeps that go/have gone there, but as a rule…..
As a rule what? Unlike many schools in the Southwest, student athletes at SMU or TCU cannot major in hospitality, sports management or health. They have to pony up to the curriculum of all the other students.
The numbers don’t lie. The APR grade cards of D1 schools just came out and TCU, SMU rank the highest in this neck of the woods.
Football Mens BB Womens BB
Baylor 938 928 967
Colorado 929 873* 957
Iowa State 927 869* 975
Kansas 919 981 930
Kansas State 935 880 963
Missouri 939 957 995
Nebraska 941 927 981
Oklahoma 942 911* 973
Oklahoma State 935 957 914
Texas 942 929 974
Texas A&M 932 912* 948
Texas Tech 928 928 987
TCU 959 922* 943
SMU 945 965 969
North Texas 917 924 979
UT-Arlington 929 912
National average 934 928 960
Yes but our maids went to UT.
Which means, Mustang Mania from way back, that your maids must be smarter than you.
Hook ‘em!
I think the counterpoint here is that despite great strides in the past 20 years, SMU is still regarded as a joke school/party school by a lot of people, and beyond the five-state region, hardly anyone has ever heard of it (until recently, of course, what with the Bush Library situation). I started out as an undergrad there myself, but it was just HP 13th grade, not really a collegiate-level experience, so I headed down to UT. But that was 20 years ago, and like I say, great strides have been made at SMU since then, but the university leaders should have concentrated on maintaining that conservative internal growth strategy, based on merit and academnics, and not jumped for the gaudy external jewelry of the Bush Library like a fish for a shiny lure. It will only serve to drag SMU’s reputation downward again.
No knock to HPHS, by the way. Best high school in the country, as far as I’m concerned. I’m just saying college is supposed to be a step beyond.
Cowboy- What a good comeback! Wow I’m seriously impressed. I bet you learned that at good ole’ UT, huh? You are sooo smart.
Gmom- This explains so much!
…and as for all of this “poor SMU” bs, who cares? What’s wrong with supporting a great school? Maybe we don’t have the best football team, and maybe it is full of snobby brats, but it still is continually and consistently ranked in the top tier of many aspects.
Tons of people from “beyond the five-state region” know about SMU, I am from California and tons of smart and hardworking kids I know are coming to SMU every year from all over the State. Thats just totally wrong. And if you choose to go SMU after HPHS then obviously you signed up for 13th Grade. Give me a break and get out of your backyard.
Adam, couldn’t have said it better. CC – what explains so much? Your statement “but it continually and consistantly ranked in the top tier of many aspects”…many aspects? Well, name them, that was a really fuzzy statement. Top tier of “snobby brats”? Oiy!!!
GMOM, stop hating on SMU. you obviously live in HP. Do you have any idea how much revenue SMU brings on for the area? A LOT. Having a college nearby your hometown is generally a huge asset and that stretches across teh country. Not everyone who goes to SMU is a “snobby brat” and you know it, so stop sounding dumb. Just because you and your fellow HPers raised some “snobby brats” who choose to go to college a foot away from their parents doesn’t mean that everyone there is like the some of the awful kids that HP produces.
Now I am sure I’m going to get slammed for mispelling the. Pease excuse me.