If SMU is "Dallas' Team," Then Why Do They Play in University Park?

Last Saturday, a few hours before SMU's football team kicked off its season with a miserable loss to Baylor, I was driving down Lovers when I noticed scattered yard signs proclaiming "SMU is Dallas, Texas." I scratched my head at why the school had chosen such a terrible slogan, since...

By Eric Nicholson

September 7, 2012

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Last Saturday, a few hours before SMU's football team kicked off its season with a miserable loss to Baylor, I was driving down Lovers when I noticed scattered yard signs proclaiming "SMU is Dallas, Texas." I scratched my head at why the school had chosen such a terrible slogan, since SMU is very clearly a university and not a city.

The tag line seemed less terrible after head coach June Jones tweeted a link to the above video and it became clear that SMU is Dallas' team, not Dallas,Texas, but even that's a stretch. SMU isn't in Dallas but the Park Cities, and its cost puts the school out of reach for most Dallasites. Tuition and fees alone are $41,750 per year, about one-and-a-half times the per-capita income in Dallas.

Class and geography aside, the slogan ignores the fact that Dallas already has a football team called the Cowboys. In terms of college sports, Dallas doubtless has more Longhorns and Aggies fans -- and possibly even more Sooner fans -- than Mustang loyalists.

I'm an SMU fan, but that's not because the university's athletic program is somehow emblematic of Dallas. It's because my parents went there and I grew up watching their games. And to be honest, the new slogan has a nice ring to it. It just happens to be wrong.

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