SMU Message Board

https://www.ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=1

Check-out the Epoch Wines segment after the locker room celebration on the video above. STRONG case for Wine Makers mascot!

SMU fans are saying the attendance will be down some due to the extreme heat:

Hottest part of the day (3pm kick), near-100 degrees, and even hotter in the Student Section/Mustang Band sunny side. Largest SMU Freshman class will get a wake-up call to Texas heat.

28K announced but eyeball test says 22K with a balls hot day.

https://www.ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=96080&sid=84dfe164b2fed9952c3a75bbdbb6928a

The "OPPONENT PREVIEW: Mustangs host UC-Davis in 2026 home opener" thread on the SMU fan forum site is an outstanding summary of the Aggies. It's better than what we generally see written up locally.

https://www.ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=96093&sid=84dfe164b2fed9952c3a75bbdbb6928a

Great write-up on their board.

I wonder if we negotiated the payout before SMU joined the ACC. Payout is in line with non-Power 4, and even some with big boys

https://herosports.com/2026-fcs-vs-fbs-payouts-bzbz/

Write up is great, one of the comments labels Ken O'Brien as forgettable. I don't know if I remember Don Meredith or Josh McCown all that much. I'd argue we've had as many NFL caliber QBs as SMU has in the past 4 decades, just not so much the rest of positional players.

Payout is poor. If I remember correctly payout for the CAL 2009 game was $ 300,000 plus the revenue of 5,000 tickets for us to sell. Less expensive to travel and more fan interaction. Hoping the Ags beat the Ponies!!!!

True. That was pretty much the only slight....pretty lame one at that. O'Brien was 24th pick overall and threw for 25,000 yards over his career. Way more than McCown in 6 less seasons. Meredith was mostly forgotten 58 years ago.

Davis announced the SMU game January, 2025. SMU was coming off a season in which they lost the ACC conference championship game.
Most FCS vs FBS games match nearby teams, so there is more local fan interest. Ultimately i think payout is related to attractiveness of the game.

Hero Sports has an article that list every FCS over FBS (and 1AA over 1A) going all the way back to 1979:

https://herosports.com/football-every-fcs-over-fbs-win-bzbz/

exas heat is much like Central Valley heat. Not humid like here in the Carolinas.

. Well as of now the dewpoint is the same in Dallas as in the Raleigh, NC area (65). 100 degrees vs. 95 here. Kind of reminds me of the bear at the Tulsa game. That was epic with the win there. SMU is much better.

How about DII over D1 (UOP, Stanford).

Hero Sports has the those wins listed as 1AA over 1A which isn't accurate since we were DII at the time.

Bob Dunning picks SMU by 10.

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/come-saturday-will-the-mustangs-prevail?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=215115310&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I don't like this game at all TBH.....super hot mid-day, ranked FBS team.....we had a few injuries last week and some guys banged up.
Its like UW, but miserably hot. Get the thing over with and get outta there.

It has happened. I think a couple Big Sky schools have gone down to D2s but not certain on that.

We beat uop in 1980 w O'Brien?

Beat UoP in 1978 with Moroski and in 1982 with O’Brien.

Four families donated $50 million to the SMU Student-Athletic Fund in February and plan to raise $50 million more by the end of the year. We could use a few families like that to support Aggie Athletics!

The insanity and absurdity will one day slow down, or stop, but SMU is making sure rather than join the family of schools in search of a “solution,” it will play by a series of regulations that exist in the land of make believe.

SMU bought its way into power college sports, and now the Mustangs will attempt to buy its way to national titles.

On Friday, SMU announced that four families donated $50 million, as well as an initiative to raise an additional $50 million by the end of the year. All of these millions are designated to fund “scholarships, NIL advancement and revenue sharing,” SMU said in a statement.

Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/article314787660.html#storylink=cpy

When Sac was a member of Big Sky and Davis was D2, 1996-2024 inclusive. Davis beat Sac every year except two.

ESPN had a documentary of NIL a couple of seasons ago, and SMU was the example of the big spending school for NIL, which had been run by a collective of boosters. Now with revenue sharing the money flows through the school. So they’ve been spending big for a while.

I don’t have time to do it now, but I’d like to get an NIL collective together for Davis like the one Kevin Kennedy (who is a UC Davis Alumnus) has for UC Berkeley athletics.

Davis has a huge alumni base and I’m sure there could be some major investment in sports by the Admin and the Alumni. There just has to be a will to become a factory in college athletics.

Davis isn’t that appealing from a payout standpoint because the team is good and the fans do not travel. The playoff caliber programs that get big payouts also sell tickets (Montanas, Dakotas).

Exists already.

Fasho

@movielover and later in - 86 with Chris Peterson.

Bob Dunning today: "In the first five days after ACC membership was announced prior to the 2024 season, over $100 million from donors poured into SMU’s coffers"

Miami beat FAMU 77-7 last night. Hopefully we do a little better tomorrow.