DALLAS – Mike Williams is looking at the numbers. He is studying them, trying to find trends or patterns.
A year ago, that sentence would have meant the former SMU defensive tackle was reviewing the latest information on a coming opponent. He would need to know the odds an offense was going to run or pass in a particular situation. Did the running back have a tendency to go in a certain direction when he cut? How long of a throw can the quarterback make once flushed from the pocket? This was all crucial information that could be the difference between no gain or giving up a touchdown.
Today, the numbers have a very different meaning.
From his desk in University Park, Williams can hear the faint hum of the Dallas North Tollway as he sorts through spreadsheets, reviewing data on commercial real estate trends. As a Senior Analyst for Capital Markets with Walker & Dunlop Structure Finance group, Williams is what he calls the gatekeeper. His job is to review a commercial real estate proposal and determine its financial solvency before passing it along to the company's producers for consideration.
When Williams transferred as a graduate student from Stanford, he was looking for two things – a place near his home in Fort Worth to continue and advance his playing career while earning his Masters of Business Administration and figure out what was next.
Thanks to a program called Life After Ball and a mentorship from Chris Harris, Senior Director for Walker & Dunlop, SMU provided him just that.
"I got a mentor that wanted to teach me and took me under his wing. And it didn't matter what role I came into, I just knew I had a guy who cared about teaching me real estate and cared about seeing me progress," Williams said. "Life after Ball gave me that."
Setting a new standard
Lisa Rawlins remembers her 'a-ha' moment. As a Fresno State student-athlete back in the early 2000s, Rawlins had a general idea of what she might do after graduation, but it wasn't until meeting an academic advisor who guided her through the college experience that everything clicked.
"I remember sitting across from her desk one day and thinking, 'Man, this is her job. If I could have her job doing this for other athletes like me, it wouldn't be like a job. That would be amazing,'" Rawlins said. "That was the point I knew I was going to get into what I got into."
Following stops at Oklahoma and Central Florida, Rawlins landed at SMU in 2010, serving as director for Academic Development for Student-Athletes, specifically focused on football.
Her goal has always been to provide those she works with their own 'a-ha' moment. In 2018, that work reached a new level.
Back then, former SMU football coach Sonny Dykes came to Rawlins and members of the university's leadership team with an idea. Student-athlete development beyond traditional athletic and academic needs had always been a piece of what the university provided. Unfortunately, rules on required classes, academic standards and the general demands of being a Division I athlete often meant life skills and career preparedness didn't get the highest attention.
Dykes wanted to change that through a program that would come to be called Life After Ball. The initiative would connect football players with mentors and internships that would help them understand what career opportunities awaited after graduation. There would also be lessons in résumé writing, interviewing, networking, financial literacy and more.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone, SMU has nearly 60,000 living alumni, plus a vast network of corporations and industrial partners always looking for new talent to join their team.
The buy-in was there from the coaches and players. Rawlins' role was coordinating community support for the student-athletes.
Over a three-year build up, Life After Ball has provided a plethora of opportunities. In the summer of 2021, 24 football players had internship opportunities. In the spring of 2022, 90 percent of the football players who finished their degree and did not transfer for post graduate studies or attempt to play professionally had a full-time job lined up thanks to Life After Ball.
"I'll say this, if we did not have the alumni network that we do, and the people that want to pour in and contribute to this, it would not work. The network is everything – the people, the alumni out there and lots of DFW-area business leaders that just want to contribute," Rawlins said. "If we didn't have this network, it wouldn't work. To say the reception has been good is an understatement."
Success stories like Williams aren't an outlier, but the norm.
When he made the decision to get his MBA, Williams wasn't sure the exact direction he would go. Life After Ball showed him an array of jobs and connected him with internship opportunities and mentors who wanted to help him reach his potential.
Harris, a longtime fixture in DFW commercial real estate, was originally slated to be Williams' mentor. After getting to know each other, Harris ended up offering Williams an internship before he could accept another opportunity, which eventually led to the full-time job he holds now.
Like so many athletes before him, playing professional football had always been the dream for Williams. All that changed because of a mentorship.
"Because Chris has been in the business so long, I feel like that window to work with him is kind of short and I'd rather take the opportunity to kind of fast track my commercial real estate experience than maybe go play for a practice squad and have that unstable NFL life," Williams said. "I look back at it and I think, 'If I didn't have that job lined up, maybe I would have gone and done the NFL thing.' It made it easier stepping away from the game because I had security at that point.
"I believe I could have played in the NFL – I just didn't like the instability of the NFL. I've seen people in commercial real estate make NFL money. This is an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
A bigger picture
When he took the job as SMU's athletic director in 2012, Rick Hart and his team often discussed ways to enhance and ensure student-athlete success once college ended.
Life After Ball took things to a new level. Now, the program is serving as the launching pad.
Because of its early success and a waiting list of companies eager for interns, Life After Ball opened up to student-athletes across all sports at SMU in January, leading to 43 Mustangs having internship opportunities this past summer. More businesses and organizations have reached out about connecting with student-athletes to make sure they have the resources to succeed.
Recently, Hart got a call from a former men's basketball player who had just hosted some current women's basketball players at his business to talk about commercial real estate. The alum wanted to know if the players could come back and learn from some of the female real estate managers at his firm so they could get an even better picture of what the industry is like.
"My experience as I talk to the individuals who have participated with our student-athletes, now it's something they want to do. It's something they enjoy and it's becoming contagious," Hart said. "I hear from people on a regular basis who are getting involved for the first time and who are bringing people into the program because of the connections and the relationships. It's really inspiring. I think everybody wins when they participate in this program. Our student-athletes win and our mentors and employers win as well."
Life After Ball's expansion in January was the first of several big changes.
In June, SMU announced the launch of its Student-Athlete Success Department, with Rawlins becoming the Assistant A.D. for Student-Athlete Success. Brenda Scott (Director of Inclusive Excellence/Athletics Diversity Officer) and Rashard Fant (Director of Student-Athlete Success) and Andre Harris (Assistant Director for Student-Athlete Success) make up a team that will continue to oversee Life After Ball, and also manage NIL Education, the university's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, community service efforts and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion work.
In the summer of 2023, SMU will officially launch classes that will be required for all freshmen or junior student-athletes. As freshmen, the course will cover a variety of topics that will help a new college student acclimate to school, including understanding how the NIL works, financial literacy and tax implications. As juniors, the course will focus on life skills, career development and helping an athlete prepare for what comes after their playing days are finished.
"Student-athletes obviously have so many time demands with practice, class, travel, competitions, training, strength and conditioning, rehab, those type of things," Senior Associate A.D./Executive Affairs Lauren Adee said. "To actually get a course that will be for credit that will encompass some of the life skills and the content that we really want them to have when they leave SMU, having that built into their coursework will really benefit them and alleviate some of their time demands and constraints. That's going to be a really big game-changer for us."
Hart's vision for where this is going doesn't stop with a new department and some additional classes.
The end goal is to create an institute in the coming years that will truly provide every student-athlete who comes through Dallas with an experience that puts them in the best position to be successful on the field, in the classroom and in life after they leave school.
Hart sees the new branch as a part of the SMU athletic department solely focused on connections between athletes and the resources they will need to be successful when they enter the working world.
Make no mistake – winning remains important. SMU wants to be among the best athletic programs in the conference and the country. The Mustangs want to hoist trophies every chance they get.
The school also wants to prepare the athletes winning those championships for what happens when the competition is over. Providing the complete student-athlete experience, with a focus on what's next isn't just lip service – it's now SMU operates.
"What we're planning is aligned with our educational mission. It's very much a part of who we are and who we aspire to be as it relates to preparing our student-athletes for life," Hart said. "It doesn't at all suggest that winning and winning championships isn't important or isn't a priority. It clearly is, and many of our programs are positioned to do that every year. But, if that's all we do and all we've done, there won't be a lasting impact and we won't have alumni and former student-athletes who want to remain connected to the university and give back and participate because they will not have gotten from this experience what they should have."
