(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.