SMU running back Jared Williams fights for extra yardage. (Photo: Kendall Webb/RoadTripSports.com)

The SMU football team released its 2012 schedule today.

The Mustangs, who are coming off an 8-5 season that included a bowl win over Pittsburgh, will open up at Baylor on Sept. 1. The Bears went 10-3 last year, but they will not have Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III back at quarterback next season. He is headed to the NFL.

SMU’s home opener will be one week later against Stephen F. Austin. That game will be the first of three straight at home. The Mustangs will take on Texas A&M on Sept. 15 and TCU on Sept. 29 at Ford Stadium.

The Conference USA opener for SMU is Oct. 6 at UTEP.

Luis Urrea will kick off SMU's 'Migration Matters' series.

That’s right. “Migration Matters: An Interdisciplinary Program on Immigration at the U.S.-Mexico Border” is kicking off at 6:30 p.m. at SMU’s McCord Auditorium, with a talk from Pulitzer-finalist author Luis Urrea. He’s the man who penned The Devil’s Highway – required reading a few years ago, by the way, for incoming freshmen — and first in a lineup of weekly speakers including artists, religious leaders, teachers, and people in law enforcement who’ll visit SMU through April 26.

“This subject isn’t about so-called ‘foreigners’ and making distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them,’” says program coordinator and English professor Jayson Gonzales Sae-Saue, who specializes in Chicano/a and Asian American literature. “It’s about understanding how we imagine complex social relationships that implicate everyone.”

For scoop about upcoming speakers, visit the event page on SMU’s website.

With SMU heading to the Big East Conference, talk of the school adding lacrosse as a sport has come up.

Athletic director Steve Orsini told ESPN that “lacrosse, as you know, is growing here, and the Big East represents the footprint of the best lacrosse in America … Those are all things we’ll discuss and see at the presidential level here.”

As Orsini said, adding lacrosse would make total sense for SMU. Dallas/Fort Worth is a hotbed for lacrosse, and several of the state’s top high school programs — Highland Park, Hillcrest, Jesuit, and St. Mark’s — are all a stone’s throw from the Hilltop.

A member of the SMU band gets fired up for the BBVA Compass Bowl. (Photo: Kendall Webb/RoadTripSports.com)

SMU is hosting a celebration to honor its move to the Big East Conference and its convincing win in the BBVA Compass Bowl at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

The event will feature members of the SMU band, cheerleaders, players, coaches, Peruna, and the BBVA Compass Bowl championship trophy. Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, school president R. Gerald Turner, and athletic director Steve Orsini will also be on hand.

Every once in a while I peruse the SMU crime blotter, reminiscing and wondering how I could convince Dan to allow me to write a “Never Been Kissed“-style story about the ins and outs of college life. It’s usually full of stolen laptops and kids who get caught blowing weed smoke through a toilet paper roll stocked with dryer sheets, but today’s search included this gem:

120012    10:53 PM.    Criminal Mischief:    Dedman Life Sciences Bldg./3110 University Blvd.    An unknown person caused damaged to the fountain by pouring Dawn dishwashing liquid into the water fountain.    Open.

The search continues for this bubbly bandit.

Photo: Jeremy Chesnutt

I’ve been kicking around this idea in my head for a bit, since at least December, when SMU joined the Big East: what does Matt Doherty have to do to keep his job?

Obviously, the bar is pretty low for SMU basketball. Last year’s 20-15 record was the best in Doherty’s five-year tenure, which also included nine-win and 10-win seasons.The fact that he’s still around (with a 66-88 record coming into this season) is a testament to the expectations at Moody Coliseum.

The jump to the Big East, though, means games against Connecticut and Georgetown, not Rice and East Carolina. And while this year’s squad is 9-6, a few facts:

- Two of the wins were over non-Division I teams, including one (Dallas Christian) that doesn’t even compete in NCAA athletics.

- The team is averaging 63.3 points per game, good for 271st in the country (out of 344 D-I teams), and grabs only 31 rebounds a game, 315th in the country.

I’m not an SMU alum, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. And Doherty did land this guy. But as the school continues to grow, and make its way towards the Big East, what will this program have to do to become a viable option for recruits?

SMU receiver Darius Johnson scores a touchdown at TCU on Oct. 1. (Photo: Christina Barany)

The SMU football team will finish up its season by taking on Pittsburgh in today’s BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. Kickoff is set for noon.

It’s been a long, strange season for the Ponies, who started off great, struggled down the stretch, and saw head coach June Jones flirt with leaving for Arizona State. The Sun Devils decided to go in another direction following social media backlash from its alums. That direction was Pittsburgh head coach Todd Graham, which makes today’s match-up at least somewhat intriguing. Jones, who has guided SMU to three straight bowl games, is also going for his 100th college victory.

The Mustangs are 7-5 after a 5-1 start to the season. The Panthers, who will be coached by Keith Patterson today, are shooting for its third straight bowl victory. Pitt is 6-6.

SMU will not have leading rusher Zach Line in the lineup. He underwent toe surgery on Nov. 17.

Anyone catch this Boston Globe travel story over the holiday? It’s flattering in general.

Highland Park and SMU made the shortlist of Dallas highlights (“jaw dropping,” the writer says of the former), but I’m curious to know what you (y’all) think of the story overall, namely the ol’ tourist-in-a-cowboy-hat part. And the TV references too, I guess.

Thoughts?

Carl Sewell addresses SMU graduates on Dec. 17.

I can’t drive down a street in the Park Cities without seeing at least three vehicles bearing the Sewell logo. It’s apparent that y’all love to buy cars from Carl Sewell, but will you take his advice? A 1966 graduate of SMU and a former chairman of its Board of Trustees, Sewell delivered the commencement address to about 950 graduates in Moody Coliseum last Saturday. According to an SMU press release, he offered four major pieces of advice:

Find a mentor.

Think about what you read and how much you read. Make the reading of a serious book something you do at least once every six months.

Decide how good you want to be, and how much time you want to devote to it.

Learn from failures. (He mentioned his long history of working with GM, and how he has learned from that company’s failures.)

Those all sound like good words to live by. Can anyone think of something he should have added?

The University Park City Council will tackle 7.59 acres worth of campus change at its meeting tonight. At stake are a new parking garage, student housing complex, and dining facility, all at the intersection of Dublin and Airline.

The council will also vote on whether to appoint special counsel to handle the Legacy Hillcrest vs. UP Board of Adjustment lawsuit, filed Dec. 8.

Check out the full agenda here.