Now officially a part of the 12-team College Football Playoff, the judgmental eyes of the college football world will be on the SMU Mustangs.
There was plenty of debate about whether SMU belonged in the CFP after falling on a last-second field goal in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game to Clemson, but the 11-2 Mustangs did indeed get the call on Sunday. With that decision, 9-3 Alabama was bumped out of the CFP, igniting a plethora of discussion about the true value of a three-loss Southeastern Conference team versus a two-loss ACC team in the CFP universe.
With that heated debate and discussion bubbling under the surface, 11th-seeded SMU now has to not only prepare to play sixth-seeded Penn State in Happy Valley but also gird itself for days’ worth of questions about whether it truly belonged among college football’s final 12 teams. SMU will take the field on Dec. 21, not only looking to upset the Nittany Lions but also to prove to everyone that it belongs in the CFP.
It marks the second consecutive year that an ACC team is in the middle of a CFP controversy. Last season, undefeated Florida State was left out of the four-team playoff field, sparking plenty of outcry and helping shape what would become this year’s 12-team bracket. The Seminoles went on to lose 63-3 to Georgia in the Orange Bowl, adding more fuel to the fire that the Seminoles didn’t belong among college football’s elite last season.
To be clear, SMU is not Florida State. These are different years, different circumstances and different teams. However, a poor showing by SMU against the Nittany Lions will certainly bring back memories of last season and more questions about the strength of an ACC schedule versus an SEC schedule.
That is, of course, a worst-case scenario for SMU, a team that has shown it can score at will this season, averaging 39.9 points per game. It has also shown it can be victorious on the road, winning its last 10 true road games (the ACC title game was played on a neutral field in Charlotte, N.C.).
Despite the Mustangs being an early eight-point underdog, there are plenty of reasons to believe that SMU can hang with Big Ten member Penn State on the road. Now, SMU has to prove those reasons to be true to the naysayers who question if it deserved its CFP spot.
