This Year's ACC Championship Game Will Feature New Conference Member
11/23/2024 03:53 PM
The 2024 college football season has seen a ton of schools making their debuts in new conferences. This past week we saw newly-minted Big Ten powerhouse Oregon reach the Big Ten Championship Game and now we're seeing an ACC debutant reach that power conference's title game.
Following their 33-7 win over Virginia today, No. 13 SMU secured their spot in the ACC Championship Game. The reigning American Athletic Conference champions will now face either Clemson or Miami with a chance to lock up a College Football Playoff berth on the line.
SMU have quietly been a very solid team for the entire year. The only blemish on their record is a 18-15 loss to BYU from early in the season. That BYU loss has looked pretty good given that the Cougars were undefeated up until last weekend.
NEW: SMU has secured a spot in the ACC Championship in its first year in the conference🏆https://t.co/BJ2FfbbwGgpic.twitter.com/lcNFGpyLcg
— On3 (@On3sports) November 23, 2024
For decades SMU ranked among the most hopeless football programs in the country. The fallout of the infamous "Death Penalty" that was handed down to the program resulted in 20 years in college football purgatory with only one winning season in that span.
But the arrival of Sonny Dykes in 2018 followed by Rhett Lashlee's takeover in 2022 has brought the program to new heights. Last year the program won their first conference title since 1984.
2024 has really been the year for college programs that have spent much of the last few decades in the gutter. Between Indiana's 10-0 start, Vanderbilt's upset over Alabama, Colorado's ascension under Deion Sanders and now SMU's reemergence as a college powerhouse, we're seeing something pretty special in college football this year.
Who will the Mustangs face in the ACC Championship Game? Does SMU stand to win against either team?
Related: ACC Reportedly Makes Decision On Cal, SMU, Stanford
