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In September 2023, when SMU announced its move to the Atlantic Coast Conference (�山����), much of the ensuing conversation centered on athletics. How would SMU’s sports teams stack up against powerhouses such as Duke University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Miami, Clemson University and others? What would it do for the school’s ability to land top athletic recruits? And how might the atmosphere at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, Moody Coliseum and elsewhere rise to a new level?

All valid questions that will be answered in due time. But the conversation tended to miss another key piece of the equation: how SMU’s move to a new, academically focused conference would raise the bar inside the classroom and expose students to greater opportunity.

Figure: SMU Board Trustee and Cox Executive Board member Bruce Robson, BBA ’74; SMU Board Trustee and Cox Executive Board Chair Tucker Bridwell, BBA ’73, MBA ’74; SMU Board of Trustees Chair and Cox Executive Board member Chair David B. Miller, BBA ’72, MBA ’73; SMU Board Trustee and Cox Executive Board member Carl Sewell, BBA ’66; and SMU Board Trustee Bob Dedman Jr., BBA ’80, JD ’84, said “Pony Up!” after news of SMU’s move to the �山���� was announced Sept. 1, 2023.

“SMU moving into the �山���� will positively impact all aspects of the collegiate experience on the Hilltop and will raise SMU’s profile on a national level,” says SMU Board of Trustees Chair David B. Miller, BBA ’72, MBA ’73. Miller was the catalyst of a small team of SMU alums and other powerful Dallasites who spent much of 2022 and 2023 chasing down SMU’s entrance into a Power Five conference, pursuing a partnership between SMU and the �山���� largely behind the scenes as rumors swirled about the Big 12 and Pac-12.

The �山���� did not offer the most natural geographic fit of the bunch. But with Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley joining alongside SMU, the conference will broaden its presence across the United States, beyond the East Coast.

By and large, the �山���� did offer the most attractive cultural fit. That begins with academics. The conference already had seven schools in the top 40 of U.S. News’ Best Colleges rankings and 13 in the top 75. The academic standing of SMU and the Cox School of Business naturally aligned with the �山����'s ethos. School leadership is confident the move only elevates that standing—in the near term, but also in the long term as its position in the �山���� helps SMU recruit top faculty and staff from across the country.

Figure: Red and blue confetti rained down on the family of SMU Board of Trustees Chair David B. Miller, BBA ’72, MBA ’72, during the Sept. 1, 2023 announcement of SMU’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“A lot has been written in the sports pages about how SMU moving to the �山���� will lift SMU athletics to new heights, and that is true,” says Martin Flanagan, BBA ’82, chairman emeritus at Invesco, SMU Board Trustee and a member of the Cox Executive Board. “The bigger picture, though, is that SMU joining the �山���� will further accelerate SMU’s and the Cox School’s academic standing and reputation.”

Flanagan says joining the �山���� will help the University and the Cox School funnel in top professors and students. “Becoming a member of the �山����, combined with newly renovated and expanded facilities,” says Flanagan, “puts Cox in a very small group of the most prestigious and attractive business schools in the country.”

The move comes at a transitional point in the Cox School’s 104-year history. The David B. Miller Business Quadrangle is the result of a complete reconstruction, including gutting and remaking the historic Fincher, Crow and Maguire buildings. The $140 million renovation project brings Cox facilities in line with the evolving landscape of business education and furthers the school’s experiential approach, while preparing it to take on forecasted growth over the next several decades.

Figure: SMU’s move to an academically focused athletic conference raises the bar inside the classroom and presents even greater opportunities for students, said SMU President R. Gerald Turner at the �山���� announcement.

“We expect our donors and supporters and President Turner to have those highest level of aspirations for the Cox School,” says Dean Matthew Myers. “To get there, we’ve got to be playing at the top of our game. If you’re going to compete for students and faculty with the likes of Duke, or Vanderbilt, or Stanford, or University of Chicago or Northwestern—pick your favorite—you need all the things that are attractive not only to the best and brightest on the inside, but to the types of companies you want to have strategic partnerships with on the outside.”

Senior Associate Dean and the Herman W. Lay Professor of Marketing Bill Dillon concurs that the �山���� move and the opening of the Miller Business Quadrangle come at an auspicious time in SMU’s history. He believes these developments are part of a broader halo effect propelling the school into a new, transformative era that may significantly boost its reputation amid the fiercely competitive business education landscape.

“Sometimes people ask me what our goals are,” Dillon says. “We want to attract the best faculty that we can attract, and we want the brightest and the hardest-working students.” He feels the move to a high-profile athletic conference will go a long way toward supporting those academic goals.

Kyle Miller, BBA ’01, founder and CEO of Silver Hill Energy Holdings, SMU Board Trustee and a member of the Cox Executive Board, says the investment continues Cox’s commitment to providing best-in-class opportunities to students.

“The coincident move to the �山���� reflects the same commitment to athletics,” he says.

“I strongly believe that the Cox School’s already strong academic merits and national reputation, reflected in the quality of our student body and faculty, will only be enhanced by the move to the �山����.”

Figure: Enthusiastic Mustangs gathered in the Armstrong Fieldhouse on Sept 1, 2023 to hear the details about SMU’s move to a Power Five conference.

The Cox School’s current era is an amalgamation of several long-running efforts. The yearslong pursuit of taking SMU to the �山���� was a massive undertaking that came about only through immense effort to court support and funding internally while continuing ongoing discussions with some of the biggest forces in college sports.

Meanwhile, the move to a new business school facility came about only after years of collecting input from students, staff and faculty, while Cox leadership examined and visited other top business schools across the country. Its ongoing development of a Next Gen curriculum also continues to be proof of time and resources well-spent. It’s a pivotal time at Cox.

Says Kyle Miller: “The combination of SMU, Cox, the move to the �山���� and our unique location in the heart of Dallas creates an environment for students that is second to none.”

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