(08-05-2022 01:38 PM)Tmac13 Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 10:21 AM)johnintx Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 10:12 AM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Some of this is unlikely in the 1960's, particularly with travel. In addition, SMU and Rice were more than competitive at this time in the SWC (moreso than, say, TCU or Baylor, which are now every bit as academic as SMU.) SMU was getting big crowds at the Cotton Bowl, so trading this in to play Virginia would have been DOA.

One still major college school somewhat forgotten today would have been a good candidate: William & Mary (considered as a possible ACC addition at least once).

This. SMU viewed itself as a big-time football school in the 1960s and saw itself as a peer of Texas. This is the same school that caught outpaying everyone else in the 80's. They weren't leaving the SWC for a Magnolia League at that time.

Post-death penalty, they would have loved to be part of something like this. But their history is as part of the highest level of college football in the state of Texas.

I noticed a big age disconnect regarding SMU in a lot of discussions..People 45 and over remember SMU being the arch rival of Texas in the SWC and people under 40 have only known them as a lower tier sports name..I'm a little older, so I remember them as the modern day equivalent of Texas A&M so it doesn't seem weird at all for them to be in a P5 conference..

Up until the NFL and the Cowboys came to town, SMU was Dallas' football team. Dallas was smaller and different in those days, but SMU was the option for football. The same dynamic applies to Rice/Houston/Oilers.

The old SWC was a conference full of rivals. Texas and Arkansas dominated it, but everyone was everyone else's rival. Geography and familiarity breed contempt.

The death penalty was so bad that the NCAA will never use it again. SMU was forced to sit out the 1987 season, then sat out the 1988 season rather than play only conference games as the NCAA penalty allowed. As a result, SMU toned down their athletic ambitions when they came off the death penalty. They still haven't fully recovered. However, they have built a new football stadium and have rebuilt their basketball arena. Their facilities are now good.

TCU was similarly left behind when the SWC disbanded. They invested in their program, succeeded on the field in multiple conferences, and were able to get into the Big 12. In doing so, they blocked SMU's opportunity to also join the Big 12.

So SMU to the Pac is very out of the box. But, as mentioned upthread, it may be their last chance to be part of big-time college athletics.