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DALLAS – SMU will play in the College Football Playoff for the first time ever.
The 11th-seeded Mustangs will take on No. 6 Penn State later this month.
The playoff berth didn’t come without a bit of concern.
SMU’s loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night opened the door to the Mustangs being left out for a three-loss Alabama team.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – DECEMBER 07: SMU Mustangs fans attend the 2024 ACC Football Championship at Bank of America Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
SMU and their fans got the news that they hoped for from the selection committee on Sunday morning.
“I’m in Alpha Delta Pi Sorority. We were at the sorority house, put on the TV and watched the whole thing. It was crazy,” said Gianna Pugh. “We all screamed.”
For both new and longtime SMU fans, the reaction to making the College Football Playoff was the same.
“I started jumping up and down and yelling, everyone thought I was 16 again. I was so excited. I think it is great for Dallas,” said Reid Ryan on Sunday. “I’ve seen good and bad. I was there in the 80s when we had the Pony Express.”
Ryan was one of the nine boosters banned from the athletic department in 1985 for recruiting violations involving offering student athletes money and entertainment.
“It was everybody, it was an all-out war. I think when we started beating Texas at Austin they couldn’t take that. Aggies were beaten badly and Arkansas, and they went after us,” said Ryan.
The university became the only school to ever receive what is known as the “death penalty” from the NCAA.
The penalty required the Mustangs to cancel their 1987 season and the school canceled the 1988 season too.
The university also lost 55 scholarship positions for four years.
“I don’t think the penalty should ever happen again to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/smu-fans-celebrate-rise-death-030429019.html
Author : KDFW
Publish date : 2024-12-09 03:04:00
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