This tweet is from a USA Today college football writer ...

https://twitter.com/PaulMyerberg/status/...7513677824

"Per Morris' instructions, SMU will have an empty case reserved for a nat'l championship trophy placed in the lobby of its football building."

Dream big, I guess

I would do the same thing if I were named head coach at Rice--or anywhere else.

Wonder if he'll take that empty cabinet spot to his future job, like Graham and "the rock."

For at least the first few years, it definitely sells the program's ambitions to potential recruits....

This sounds very Tank McNamara-esque

And they can pay a never-ending stream of players a couple thou a week to dust it for the next gillion years as it sits empty. Maybe put a replica of Bill Clements's wallet in there in the meantime?

They should put a gold Trans-Am in it to remind them of the good ol' years.

(01-08-2015 09:43 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  And they can pay a never-ending stream of players a couple thou a week to dust it for the next gillion years as it sits empty. Maybe put a replica of Bill Clements's wallet in there in the meantime?

Oxford?? Uhh, help us out!

SMU plays Baylor each of the next two seasons, and TCU for the next four. There's also a 2018 game at Michigan.

Maybe someone can find a 1935 national championship trophy for SMU. The national championship was awarded by the polls after the regular season back then so they did not lose out when Stanford beat them in the Rose Bowl.

(01-08-2015 05:58 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  This tweet is from a USA Today college football writer ...

https://twitter.com/PaulMyerberg/status/...7513677824

"Per Morris' instructions, SMU will have an empty case reserved for a nat'l championship trophy placed in the lobby of its football building."

David Stanley told me that Clements was lying through his teeth in denying the SMU payments. He told me he signed for $25,000 with SMU. Texas Tech offered him $50,000 but he thought he had a better chance of winning at SMU then.

(01-08-2015 09:43 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  And they can pay a never-ending stream of players a couple thou a week to dust it for the next gillion years as it sits empty. Maybe put a replica of Bill Clements's wallet in there in the meantime?

(01-08-2015 05:58 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  This tweet is from a USA Today college football writer ... https://twitter.com/PaulMyerberg/status/...7513677824

"Per Morris' instructions, SMU will have an empty case reserved for a nat'l championship trophy placed in the lobby of its football building."

(01-09-2015 05:42 PM)75src Wrote:  Maybe someone can find a 1935 national championship trophy for SMU. The national championship was awarded by the polls after the regular season back then so they did not lose out when Stanford beat them in the Rose Bowl.

This is not going to happen. SMU was not allowed to keep the Knute Rockne Trophy it won for the 1935 national football championship.

Apparently the tradition of those days is that the national championship trophy moved on to the next year's honoree, unless it was "retired" by a three-time winner, who could then keep it.

Here's part of an Aug. 30, 2011, account of the University of Maryland's search for its 1953 national championship trophy:

Quote:In the 1920s, national champions were given the Rissman Trophy, named for Jack Rissman, a Chicago clothier. After winning the trophy for a third time, Notre Dame was allowed to ‘retire’ (a.k.a. keep) the trophy, and create another, naming it as they wished.

Notre Dame created the Knute Rockne trophy in 1930, and this was won three times by the University of Minnesota, who retired it and created the A.V. Williams trophy in 1940.

Notre Dame re-entered the picture in 1947, having won the Williams three times. They created the Rev. J. Hugh O’Donnell trophy, in honor of a former ND president and football star. It is this trophy that the University of Maryland won in 1953.

Unfortunately for the Terps, the trophy they won was ultimately retired by the University of Oklahoma in 1956. We tracked the trophy there, where today it sits in a display case in the university’s Switzer Center.

The trophy that took its place was the AP National Championship Trophy, which was re-named for former Maryland and Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1983. That trophy is still awarded today, but no-one gets to keep it permanently, regardless of how often they win it.

SMU's 1935 title was also not due to what we'd call today a poll. That honor went to the 8-0 Minnesota Gophers, which topped the United Press International poll at the end of the season. (The Associated Press poll would start the next year.)

Rather, the Mustangs finished the season atop the Dickinson System ranking, which was created by U. Illinois economics professor, Frank G. Dickinson.

Its Wikipedia page describes Dickinson's methodology:

Quote:Scores of 96 football teams were compiled by Dr. Dickinson in seven football conferences, including an Eastern group of 25 leading teams regarded for convenience as a conference.

The Dickinson system awards 30 points for a victory over a strong team, and 20 for victory over a weak team. Defeats count half as much as victories [15 pts vs. strong team, 10 pts vs. weak team], and ties are considered as games half won and half lost [22.5 points vs. strong, 15 vs. weak]. Dividing this total by the number of games played gives the final rating.

Professor Dickinson later added another variable, a "sectional rating" which provided for different points in games where the teams were from different sections of the country.

Below is a photo that shows what the Knute Rockne Trophy looked like. This was taken in 1933 as it was being received by officials of the University of Michigan:



Although I haven't found a confirming photo, I expect that the Knute Rockne Trophy currently resides in the University of Minnesota's Athletics Hall of Fame and will never return to SMU's Hilltop or be enshrined in its Heritage Hall.

That's never stopped school's from making replicas that wouldn't be easily observed as not-the-real-thing. I thought I heard that Alabama has trophies for all of their claimed national championships on display, some of which came during the time in question - may or may not be true, though.