A national analysis of more than 100,000 Twitter accounts by a sports betting site found that a majority of fans in 28 states will be pulling for David over Goliath in Monday’s national championship game. Not so surprising, really. The story of little ol’ TCU’s rise to the pinnacle of college football proves irresistible. Everybody loves an underdog story inspiring us to unite behind a tale as ancient as the Old Testament.
This is not one of those kinds of stories.
TCU in the title game?
“It makes me want to vomit,” Kellie Prinz Johnson said, laughing.
Kellie went to SMU, if you had to ask.
She’s heard about SMU fans who think circumstances being what they are, maybe it’s time to get behind the championship hopes of a team from Texas.
Even one coached by Sonny Dykes.
The guy who ditched SMU for TCU.
Kellie, a ‘96 grad, can’t fathom it.
“I’m pissed,” she said. “I’m pissed about the way he did it and that karma hasn’t bit him in the a– yet. And I’m really pissed at the SMU fans who say, ‘Go Texas.’
“You’re not an SMU fan if that’s what you’re saying.”
She paused.
“Get off my lawn.”
Betsy Weber Hurst, SMU class of ‘78, responded to peacemakers with a Facebook post:
“For those telling me and my fellow Mustangs that now we should give up on the TCU hate . . . ”
Underneath the sentiments, looming over a horizon decorated by fireworks, is a picture of a Georgia Bulldog decal.
Betsy’s husband, Robert, whose parents went to SMU at the same time as Betsy’s parents, attempted to rationalize the idea of siding with Georgia by citing the fact that Matthew Stafford, the pizza salesman, played there, and he’s from Highland Park. Which is at least in the neighborhood.
Betsy would have none of it.
“I don’t have any connections to Georgia,” she said, dismissively.
Not every SMU fan contacted by your intrepid reporter for this survey was as bold as Kellie or Betsy. Most asked to remain anonymous, citing business ties, personal safety, national security, that sort of thing. Several offered to provide the perspective of SMU fans in general only on deep background.
Basically, this is how they see it, in terms not necessarily mine: They can’t believe everything that’s happened to them in a little more than a year. Sonny, the third coach in a row who tried or succeeded in using SMU as a steppingstone to a better job, leaves them in the lurch for their evil twin, ruining a perfectly good season as a result, and now he’s got the Horned Frogs one win away from their first national title since Davey O’Brien was an actual quarterback instead of a national award. Not only that, Sonny’s the national coach of the year for his treachery.
They’re mad at Sonny, of course, but some are also mad that their administration allowed this sort of thing to happen. Sonny probably wouldn’t have left Dallas if SMU were in a Power 5 conference. Back when the Southwest Conference broke up in the mid-’90s, SMU and TCU were left in the same lifeboat. The Frogs took the long way around and ended up in a better position than SMU, still treading water after 30 years.
“There’s a pocket of people who are pretty bitter,” one SMU lifer said. “But a lot of folks are used to being a punching bag. Even though we’ve been good the last 10 or 12 years. Because TCU can go undefeated in the regular season and make the playoffs.
“Even if SMU went undefeated in the American, they’re not going to the playoffs.”
Cincinnati did last year, and they were in the American. Now they’re on their way to the Big 12 and TCU’s going places, too. An unintended consequence of the Frogs’ good fortunes, SMU fans hope, is that it leads to bigger donations to their NIL collectives. Better athletes, a forthcoming stadium expansion and a few improvements on Rhett Lashlee’s 7-6 debut might even make SMU more attractive to the Pac-12 if the league goes to pieces as expected.
But those dreams could be years in the making, and, right now, devout SMU fans must find a way to get past Monday night.
Betsy said she’d watch the game with Robert decked out in their favorite T-shirts, each bearing the message, “My two favorite teams are SMU and anybody playing TCU.” No matter what happens, she said, they’ll yell for the Bulldogs. If you’ve ever heard Robert’s foghorn, that is no small consideration.
“I’ll watch the beginning of it,” Kellie said, “and if it’s the rout it should be, I’ll keep it on.
“But if it lines up with all this magical craziness that’s been going on all season, then I’ll start drinking.”
Kellie — who played alto sax in the band at SMU, serves on the alumni board and is president of the Diamond M Club, an organization raising funds for band scholarships – concedes she would have a hard time pulling for any of the old SWC schools in the national title game. Her senior year was the late, lamented league’s last, too. The rivalries of your youth die hardest.
As it turns out, she has a little bit of a soft spot for Georgia, stomping grounds of famed humorist Lewis Grizzard, so pulling for the Bulldogs won’t be a stretch.
But if TCU were playing, say, Penn State, she said, “I’d leave the country on Monday.”
What’s the problem with Penn State?
“1982?” she said.
Ah, yes. The season the 11-0-1 Mustangs finished second to Joe Paterno’s 11-1 national champs. Such is the beauty and torment of college football. Old grievances carry no expiration dates. TCU’s magical season just moved to the head of the list.
Twitter: @KSherringtonDMN
Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
‘It makes me want to vomit’: SMU fans won’t root for TCU, Sonny Dykes in CFP title game
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