Why We Fought to Get the Rights to SMU

Belief in sleeping giant, familiarity with Dallas more than enough to ignore non-believers

DALLAS, Texas — We've heard it all before. The intense tone of doubt accompanied by the snickers of non-believers. 

For me it began with telling people in my hometown of Warren, Arkansas, that I intended to forego the prescribed life of either working as a logging contractor or in the tomato farming business to become a journalist. People from the tiny rural town in the southeast corner of the state aren't exactly encouraged to dream big. 

Two decades later, Andy Hodges and I, both from that same small town, and both who beat the odds to cover the Dallas Cowboys at points in our careers, took on another task with its long list of non-believers. No one wanted to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks for the college division of the Sports Illustrated family in August 2021. On Thanksgiving week in 2021, we met at a small Mexican restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and outlined a strict vision to success. It was a vision no one else could see. 

Less than two years later, in a meeting with FanNation publishers from across the nation at both the college and NFL levels, SI executives encouraged everyone else to look at the allHogs site, a regular in and around the Top 10 of all college sites on the second most viewed sports media platform in the United States. After one publisher expressed he was tired of being asked to look at the Arkansas site every time something came up, one of the gentlemen in charge replied "Who the [expletive] cares about Arkansas football? Yet, there they are, so they must be doing something right."

Roughly a year ago, we turned our eyes on SMU. If we could build Arkansas into a highly successful platform, then we could do the same with the Mustangs. We started looking for ideas on how to convince the people within Arena Group, the parent company to Sports Illustrated and, thus, FanNation, it was worth taking a risk. No one had dared take on a non-Power Five program. The belief was strong that the Mustangs were a sleeping giant, and soon, given their geographic location and financial backing, their chance was going to come. There was just too much shifting among conferences and too many donors with real national power for SMU to not be involved. 

Finally, when word came down the ACC was willing to allow the Mustangs to hop on the train as the central stop connecting the East and West Coasts, the decision was quickly made to make a push for SMU. 

The response was what we expected. No one really thought we were serious. 

We made our case, explaining our sleeping giant theory while also noting we already had an office in the Dallas area used to cover the large number of Arkansas fans who live in DFW, recruiting and the Razorbacks' regular appearances in the area for games. Everything was already in place, plus, Hodges and I already know the Park Cities fairly well. No one else within the company understands "The Bubble" and all that comes with it. 

Eventually the laughs and rolling eyes gave way to the realization we were serious about acquiring the rights to cover SMU and it wasn't something we were willing to let go. If we had a dollar for every time we were asked if we were certain we could afford to park at AT&T Stadium on Sundays for at least the first half of the Cowboys' season. No one could believe anyone was willing to take this much of a risk on SMU. 

Doubting our sanity, there was a need for proof this could be successful. There was room for a lot of talk regarding potential weeks each season writing about games against Clemson and Florida State football or Duke and North Carolina basketball, but we had something more solid. Proof of how much we truly believe in the Mustangs' potential as an athletic program and that people are willing to read about SMU. Real numbers that show a solid following can be created.

The day the ACC took in the Mustangs, I wrote the following story. Almost immediately, roughly 50,000 people in and around Dallas gave it a read. That was enough to end the snickers for good and we got our contract. For those who didn't get a chance to read it, below is your opportunity. We've proven to the people who needed to know how much we believe in what's happening in the Park Cities and around Dallas. Now we need the SMU fans to understand how much we believe in the product that will grow over the next few years. 

Hopefully, after reading how this all came about, and also the piece below, fans will realize how serious we are. We're not the bandwagon people who will come later on. We hope Mustang supporters from across the country and fans of the teams they face will join us on this ride as we build this division of our company while documenting the upcoming journey for SMU from its beginning.

NEWS OUT OF THE ACC BIGGER CONCERN
THAN HOG FANS MAY THINK

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The news this morning that the ACC is inviting Stanford, California and SMU is being read nationally as the two Pac-12 schools with SMU as the throw-in, but when it comes to Arkansas and its future success in the SEC, the Mustangs are the biggest name in that list.

There's a lot about SMU people don't understand, so let's examine this through the Razorbacks' lens. The obvious is that Dallas-Fort Worth is a major recruiting area for Arkansas, although SMU hasn't made much of a dent in years past. Even TCU, which played in last year's national championship game and has clearly been the alpha of the three Division I schools in the area, rarely provides a regular challenge when crossing paths with Arkansas.

However, with the move to the ACC, the Mustangs are in line to be a much bigger threat than the Horned Frogs on the recruiting trail. For those who have ironically had their noses up to SMU over the years, this move is being made in a much different college sports world. You see, even Texas and Texas A&M are a little uneasy about the move this morning. That's because not only do the Mustangs have more money within a three-mile radius of the university than the entire state of Arkansas, but the long line of SMU boosters who have been dormant waiting for a moment like this are the bosses of all those big boosters who have been floating the checks down in Austin and College Station.

Highland Park and University Park has the highest concentration of billionaires per block of pretty much anywhere in the country, and SMU, even at its lowest from a conference affiliation standpoint, has always had a special place within the community. Everyone saw what the financial backers pulled off back when it was considered illegal to fill up a kid's fast food bag with hundred dollar bills with the Pony Express. Now that the Mustangs can sell an athlete on playing in a major conference, the odds are tipped heavily in SMU's favor because Arkansas can't match the NIL money and it would be shocking if Texas or Texas A&M can either.

To put in perspective how absurd things can get when that community gets behind something, the local high school newspaper at Highland Park in the early 2000s was bringing in $100,000 in ad sales along with 5,000 subscriptions in the surrounding neighborhoods. If that much is going to support a high school newspaper, think how much money the next 5-star Dallas area football player Arkansas tries to bat an eye toward is going to get. Jerry Jones has a lot of influence in the Park Cities, but not that much.

What should make Razorback fans even more nervous is head coach Rhett Lashlee. He's a Northwest Arkansas guy. Anyone in their early 40s who played high school ball in Arkansas knows the path to the state championship went through him. Lashlee was who made Gus Malzahn a name in the high school coaching ranks during his time at Shiloh Christian. Lashlee knows Arkansas prep football and he's just been handed a giant bag of cash and the opportunity to offer players the chance to take down Clemson, Florida State and the U on a yearly basis. Landing players like Greenwood quarterback Kane Archer got much more difficult this morning.

However, Razorback basketball fans have even more cause for concern. Remember the joy of watching Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh blossom over the course of last season? The homes of both of those players are a 20-minute drive on a Saturday morning from SMU's Moody Coliseum. Arkansas competes pretty well from an NIL standpoint in basketball, but not so well as to be able to hold up against having that money matched or bested while allowing Momma to make the short drive after work to see her baby take down Duke and North Carolina every year.

And before anyone starts talking about the spirit of the crowd in Bud Walton, when SMU boosters coughed up the money to hire NBA legend Larry Brown as their coach because they really love basketball and didn't want to drive far to see a winner, the hardest ticket in DFW to get was SMU basketball. It felt like the old Barnhill Arena days in the Nolan Richardson era just before the move to Bud Walton. People were going out of their way to figure out how to get in the gym. The front row was packed with Dallas Cowboys and Mavericks.

The other thing that should make Hog fans a little nervous is at some point the boosters there are going to look around for a coach they think knows the local recruiting area, has a pedigree that stacks up well against ACC powers, and who also knows how best to handle a couple of trips to California every year. Those credentials sound pretty familiar? Arkansas better hope Eric Musselman really likes skiing in the local lake and isn't a fan of 115 degree summer days and tons of traffic because the check needed to match is going to be large if SMU starts looking his way.

So remember this day going forward. It's the day a sleeping giant got tossed into the mix like croutons on top of a salad. It's the day things officially got much tougher for the Arkansas Razorbacks, even if it ends up taking a little while to catch up to them.