SMU joins the ACC: How the Mustangs rose from the death penalty and how they’ve prepared for a step up

Quick turnarounds are part of the job as a college football coach, but in the mad-dash era of conference realignment, recent history reveals that a hurried transition doesn’t usually lead to immediate success.

That’s particularly true for the football programs making the jump from the mid-majors to power conferences. With only one year to prepare for the jump from the AAC to the Big 12, four new teams finished with losing records in 2023 (18-31 combined). 

SMU, thanks to its deep pockets and politicking, will make a similar move this fall when it jumps into the ACC — as of July 1, the Mustangs are official members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. From the NCAA’s death penalty in 1987 to several resurrection attempts, the Mustangs seem to have finally found their footing thanks to the help of big boosters, big spending ($400 million invested in athletics since 2013) and a reinvigorated focus on football. One question is whether SMU can avoid repeating the recent debuts of other mid-major programs that jumped to the big time with little time to strengthen their rosters via the transfer portal and high school recruiting.

It’s been just 10 months since SMU and the ACC went public with their marriage. The expedited timeline certainly makes it more difficult to build a power-conference roster overnight. As SMU’s coaches were busy preparing for their final season in the AAC, they also had to shift recruiting into overdrive.

“We’ve done, from January until now, everything we could possibly do as a staff to try to build as much depth as we can,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee told CBS Sports. “We haven’t been naive to where we’re going.”

The Mustangs certainly seem more prepared on paper than their former AAC counterparts. SMU won 11 games for…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/smu-joins-the-acc-how-the-mustangs-rose-from-the-death-penalty-and-how-theyve-prepared-for-a-step-up/

Author : Brandon Marcello

Publish date : 2024-07-01 15:06:48

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.