Now It's Legal: SMU raised $159 million 2023-24 fiscal year for athletics

[LonghornsGamecocks]

Lots of posts around here recently (days, weeks, months) about our structural disadvantages in the NIL game. This article puts some real numbers in black and white as a reference point: 'Oh, s---, here come all the billionaires': How SMU came back from the dead

"SMU's chairman of the board, David Miller, fired his metaphorical six-shooter in the air when he explained how the program could go without television revenue for nine years: The money didn't matter to them. "It's a couple hundred million dollars," Miller told Yahoo. "I'm not losing sleep over it.""

"Those record-breaking donations didn't just come from a few wealthy wildcatters. There were four donations of eight figures, 35 of seven figures and 82 of six figures."

"By that fall, the Boulevard Collective signed every football and basketball player to standard NIL deals of $36,000 annually, according to On3. The Ponies have the payroll working again, and this time it's all aboveboard."

It is what it is. While I'm a Texas fan, I'm not a Texas super fan like I am a Gamecock super fan - but I'm sure what Texa$ is doing puts SMU to shame.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

I've been saying for some time SMU is the sleeping giant in CFB.

 

[Irvin Snibbley]

Texas A&M is also a sleeping giant that still managed to screw things up so I’ll take a wait and see on SMU.But the resources are there for sure.
Just imagine if Alabama was an oil rich state instead of a relatively poor southern state.Would they ever lose a game?

 

[gamecock stock]

Unless there is a cap on NIL spending, programs like ours will suffer. Just wait when they raise the cap on the number of scholarships a school can give out in the various sports. You all are probably too young to remember how things were for South Carolina football in the 1960s and early 70s. Yes, we won the ACC one year. But ACC football was even more minor league then than it is today. Seems to me that we have fallen into a black hole in space and broken the time barrier to go back in time to when I first remembered South Carolina football (1963). It's a shame. I stopped going to the games 15 years ago. If things continue as is, I may even stop watching on TV.

 

[LonghornsGamecocks]

Texas A&M is also a sleeping giant that still managed to screw things up so...

Yeah, but..... Aggies.

 

[LonghornsGamecocks]

Unless there is a cap on NIL spending, programs like ours will suffer. Just wait when they raise the cap on the number of scholarships a school can give out in the various sports. You all are probably too young to remember how things were for South Carolina football in the 1960s and early 70s. Yes, we won the ACC one year. But ACC football was even more minor league then than it is today. Seems to me that we have fallen into a black hole in space and broken the time barrier to go back in time to when I first remembered South Carolina football (1963). It's a shame. I stopped going to the games 15 years ago. If things continue as is, I may even stop watching on TV.

I'm 41. Third generation Gamecock and 8th generation SC native. Die hard fan from diapers. I'm close to saying, "you know I also earned a degree from Texas. No shame in paying more mind to the Horns than the Cocks going forward. Not like I haven't given the Gamecocks the ol' college try (pun intended)."

 

[Lone Star Rooster]

I'm 41. Third generation Gamecock and 8th generation SC native. Die hard fan from diapers. I'm close to saying, "you know I also earned a degree from Texas. No shame in paying more mind to the Horns than the Cocks going forward. Not like I haven't given the Gamecocks the ol' college try (pun intended)."

I'm in the same boat. Undergrad degree from SC and got a grad degree from Texas. I'm a Gamecock diehard, casually pull for Texas but not like I do SC. It makes me laugh when I hear UT fans talk about their "long walk through the desert" without much national relevance over the last 10-15 years, from which it seems they're now emerging. SC is going on 130 years without national relevance (save for a handful of years), and at this point, that doesn't appear to be changing. I don't ever plan to totally give up on Gamecock football, but the crew in Columbia sure will test one's patience.

 

[gamecock stock]

I'm in the same boat. Undergrad degree from SC and got a grad degree from Texas. I'm a Gamecock diehard, casually pull for Texas but not like I do SC. It makes me laugh when I hear UT fans talk about their "long walk through the desert" without much national relevance over the last 10-15 years, from which it seems they're now emerging. SC is going on 130 years without national relevance (save for a handful of years), and at this point, that doesn't appear to be changing. I don't ever plan to totally give up on Gamecock football, but the crew in Columbia sure will test one's patience.

I have not yet. But I sense I'm close to throwing in the towel on Gamecock football and saying "no mas...no mas". But I'm excited about the potential of men's basketball. So, there's that.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

I'm in the same boat. Undergrad degree from SC and got a grad degree from Texas. I'm a Gamecock diehard, casually pull for Texas but not like I do SC. It makes me laugh when I hear UT fans talk about their "long walk through the desert" without much national relevance over the last 10-15 years, from which it seems they're now emerging. SC is going on 130 years without national relevance (save for a handful of years), and at this point, that doesn't appear to be changing. I don't ever plan to totally give up on Gamecock football, but the crew in Columbia sure will test one's patience.

We're not serious about it. They are. And still walked through the desert.

 

[Lone Star Rooster]

I have not yet. But I sense I'm close to throwing in the towel on Gamecock football and saying "no mas...no mas". But I'm excited about the potential of men's basketball. So, there's that.

We do have other things to be excited about as Gamecock fans. Women's basketball has been awesome to watch, hopefully we're witnessing the rebirth of the men's basketball program, and we know winning can happen here in baseball. But it hurts to watch us continually underachieve in football, which is where you prove your worth as a program in the SEC.

And yeah, I think SMU could become a force in the ACC. Lord knows that conference needs some more competition.

 

[gamecock stock]

We do have other things to be excited about as Gamecock fans. Women's basketball has been awesome to watch, hopefully we're witnessing the rebirth of the men's basketball program, and we know winning can happen here in baseball. But it hurts to watch us continually underachieve in football, which is where you prove your worth as a program in the SEC.

And yeah, I think SMU could become a force in the ACC. Lord knows that conference needs some more competition.

I have been getting into women's basketball. I never thought I would. But I'm very proud of the gals. And I'm excited to see what Mainieri will do in baseball. I just wish we had as quality of a coach in football as we do in those other sports.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I've been saying for some time SMU is the sleeping giant in CFB.

Yes, financially, they can hang with most anyone in CFB.