Here's my take: I think Jones is flirting with SMU to force the school to improve the facilities and most importantly, his recruiting budget. With the budget that Hawaii has now, Jones is unable to recruit effectively in the mainland. The recruits he gets either come from Hawaii (not a football rich state), other Pacific islands (some have good players, but mostly lineman and linebackers), and transfers from other D-I schools. At least at SMU, Jones would be able to visit recruits and widen his recruiting base.
I don't expect Jones to make the move, however, I wouldn't be suprised if he did. SMU has numerous rich boosters (they used to pay better than the NFL pre-death penality days), and is wishing to spend millions to get their pre-death penality glory back (I can ever remember when SMU belonged to a major conference and I'm only 23.) There's no way that SMU will ever be able to compete with Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech again, but if he could edge out all the other mid-major schools in the area (Baylor included)for recruits he would make one of the best football programs in the lower leagues.
Simply stated, SMU could quickly become like our state's Troy. With good coaching, a few topnotch players, and a solid roster of players that weren't good enough to play at the state's top programs, SMU should play competitively with the major programs (at least for the first half), score an upset or two over the BSC schools, and dominate its conference. However, unlike Troy, SMU will have millions in donor money to help make that possible.