One hundred and fifty-six million dollars went missing from Ford Stadium at the last SMU football game. No need to call the FBI, your faithful alums know where the money went.

It was sleeping off a tailgate party.

I estimate 3,000 SMU students could have attended the UCF game that Saturday. At $52,000/year for tuition and fees, which include football tickets, by the way, there’s your $156 million.

Sitting in the stadium that beautiful afternoon, I overheard several alums wondering, “Where are the students?” I answered that the way it works now, only a few students need attend the games, that they text back to the missing — or take pictures — on what’s going on.

I think it’s time for the administration to step in and show some “guidance” in making students a little more enthusiastic about their team. After all, I was under the impression that we admitted not only the best and brightest, but the most enthusiastic and loyal. Apathetic students make for future no-show alums.

I suggest the administration start by cancelling the tailgate parties for the students and keep them for the old folks down the block. We can not only have a few beers, we can still actually walk a straight line into the stadium. We pay attention and get loud, too. When the administration sees a lot more student bodies at the games, then they can have their tailgate parties back. As it is, SMU should have the tailgates on, say, a Thursday, as it obviously doesn’t mean they attend football games afterwards.

The tailgate was designed to “fire up” people for the coming football game, not be bigger than the game itself and certainly not be the excuse for not filling the stadium to support their team. I noticed at the TCU game — where SMU students didn’t show up, either — that the Frog undergrads made the trek into the stadium in droves. Their SMU counterparts should be ashamed. Here, the alums have delivered a new stadium and a successful coach to the school. The team responds by beating TCU and giving their fellow students a winning record, potentially a bowl game, and their fellow students thank them with their silence.

An SMU football player looked up into the student section and felt compelled to write about the apathy he and his teammates saw at the UCF game. His team had been doing their part. Why, he wondered, did so many SMU students see fit to skip out? I wonder if their professors are noticing their blasé attitudes in the classroom, as well?

All I know is that how students support their football program tells the alums and the public what they think about their school. Having been to the campuses of Notre Dame and the University of Texas during football season, I know that students attend the football games, win or lose. Why not you, SMU? I urge our students to stop in to Ford Stadium this Saturday on the way to the CVS, or coming back from there, and see what we’ve got going on.

Rick Larson, the Alumni Guy, is a 1981 graduate of SMU as well as a member Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He has been a stockbroker/investment banker for 26 years. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]