SMU’s Playoff opener at Penn State is a house-money game for the Mustangs and ACC
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We’re still a week out from the big day. But already, SMU has crossed off enough of the big ticket items from its holiday wish list to ensure that its Christmas will be merry.
Let’s just say that Santa’s going to have a hard time putting anything under the tree better than what the Mustangs have gifted themselves over the past year.
Forget that Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle that will shoot your eye out.
Rhett Lashlee, his team and their determined support system had their wishes granted in June when their program ended a 4-decade crusade to rise from the ashes of the NCAA’s death penalty by leveling up to power conference status.
It’s the gift that kept on giving as SMU plowed through its first ACC season undefeated in conference play, then played well enough in a championship game loss to Clemson to earn a spot in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
Beating out Alabama, no less, for the final at-large bid. Something that would never have happened had it still been in the American Athletic Conference.
The Mustangs’ dream season can still get even better Saturday when they travel to Happy Valley for a first-round Playoff game against No. 6 Penn State with the winner earning a quarterfinal date in the Fiesta Bowl against Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty and third-seeded Boise State.
It’s a matchup with implications beyond the obvious.
For SMU and the ACC.
Beating a blue-blood program before 100,000-plus fans in cold weather and millions more watching from the warmth of their living rooms would confirm to all what those around the ACC already know.
The Mustangs are fully capable of playing big-boy football.
It would also provide a badly needed boost to the credibility of their new conference, which could use all the positive attention it can get.
An SMU win won’t validate the selection committee’s decision to include it in the field instead of Alabama. Just as a loss won’t prove that the committee got it wrong — though you’ll hear that from SEC types should the Mustangs fall.
But it would give the I-told-you-so crowd one less thing to complain about.
At least for another week or so.
None of that should really matter to Lashlee and his 11th-seeded Mustangs. They’ve already done their part for the ACC just by getting this far.
As Lashlee noted, SMU became “almost like America’s Team” for all the lobbying that was done on their part in the hours between their ACC title loss and the Playoff selection announcement.
“I think it validates that SMU is back where we belong,” he said. “We’re on the national stage, we’re in a big-time conference, we’re competing for a national championship. We earned the right to be in before the conference championship weekend, I was really proud they rewarded that.”
If the weight of the conference is resting on anyone’s shoulders, it’s Clemson.
SMU is playing with house money.
Considering the less-than-stellar record of Nittany Lions coach James Franklin in big-game situations, a Mustangs win will almost certainly be spun as more of a Penn State failure than an SMU success while an SMU loss would be business as usual.
The Nittany Lions are an 8.5-point favorite, according to most major sportsbooks.
That seems like a lot considering that other than the cold and potentially snowy conditions and the David vs. Goliath perception of the matchup, there isn’t much difference between the teams statistically.
SMU is averaging 38.5 points per game compared to 33.6 for Penn State. The Nittany Lions are holding opponents to just 16.4 points per game compared to 20.8 for the Mustangs. Penn State is ranked 10th overall in ESPN’s Football Power Index, just 3 spots ahead of SMU while both teams lost to the 2 best opponents they faced.
One of the Mustangs’ losses, in Week 2 to BYU, happened before quarterback Kevin Jennings was promoted to the starting job full-time. The other came 2 weeks ago against Clemson in a game that saw them outscore the Tigers by 2 touchdowns in the second half after turning the ball over twice and falling behind early.
If they can avoid the same big-game jitters and get off to a clean start, the weather won’t seem as cold, the crowd won’t seem as intimidating and Christmas will be even merrier than it’s already shaping up to be.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
