BREAKING: SMU is ACC bound as league invites Mustangs

SMU landed a long-awaited invitation to a Power Five conference with the ACC inviting the university to join the league, sources confirmed to On3. SMU will accept the league’s invitation, which signals an end to a long pursuit of a major conference invite.

Sources say SMU will pursue an early exit from the American Athletic Conference in time to join for the 2024 season as well, which will require the school to pay an exit fee.

According to multiple sources, SMU will forgo ACC revenue for the first seven years and eventually build up to a full share of revenue.

That pitch paved the pay for SMU to get its long awaited invitation to the Power Five ranks.

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee has seen the commitment the university has made to football first hand. Now, the Mustangs will have a Power Five logo to aid the school even more.

“I think it’s big,” Lashlee said of the alignment between the school and football. “It’s a really big reason why I think our athletic program and especially our football program right now is in a really good position to maybe seize the moment we’re in. I know Dr. Turner is doing everything he can to give all our athletic programs, specifically football, all the resources we need to be successful. Just look no further than the facility he’s allowing us to build with all our donors and with what David Miller and Rick Hart are doing, too.

“It’s big because it’s not that way everywhere and it hasn’t always been that way probably here in the past, but it is now. That’s the first step to having a really good, stable, consistent program.”

Want recruit reactions to the news? The inside scoop on how SMU got to the ACC? Subscribe to On The Pony Express in seconds for $1 for your 1st month!

SMU’s investment in facilities key to Power Five push

SMU President R. Gerald Turner doubled down efforts along with Chairman of the Board of Trustees David Miller to put the school in strong position for conference realignment. That includes an over $100 million project to build the Garry Weber Endzone Complex.

“It’s exciting to do it. You saw the standing ovation that Mr. Weber got, which tells you everybody else is very enthusiastic about it,” Turner told On3 in January. “We’ll get the rest of the funding for it and be ready by Fall of 2024. When we built this in 2000, we said we’d come back some day and here it is.”

That level of commitment was a part of a multi-year push to join the ranks of Power Five programs. The endzone complex, Armstrong Fieldhouse (named for SMU megadonor Bill and Liz Armstrong) and other projects are signs that SMU is ready to make the jump.

“It’s been important to show that we’ve had all this investment in the last 20 years in a lot of other sports so it was important to have a major construction project for football that would enhance the stadium,” Turner said. “As you’ve noticed, a lot of these new stadiums being built are in this 30-35 (thousand) range because with all of things with streaming and everything else, attendance at most with 30-35 will take care of most.”

“Timing and alignment really matter in college football and college athletics to having a winning program,” Lashlee added during fall camp. “I think you’ve seen in the last five years from our administration to supporters, they’ve really invested and made a priority in SMU Athletics in general, but in football. They’ve given us the things we need to compete at the highest level. I think that’s why you’ve seen our program slowly creep back with some really good momentum.”

Now the school will make to move to the ACC, signaling the biggest moment in SMU Athletics history in the last 40 years. ACC schools have access to one of the top television markets in the country on top of a fertile recruiting ground with more reasons for student-athletes to consider their programs.

Pac-12 misses opportunity to expand

During this wild run of conference realignment in college athletics, the Pac-12 with its over 100 years as a conference is now on life support. Commissioner George Kliavkoff massively overplayed his hand with a TV rights negotiation, didn’t push harder to expand, and instead, lost eight schools to other leagues.

Cal and Stanford, which were also rumored for the ACC, and Oregon State and Washington State, were left behind when the Pac-12 fell apart. Cal and Stanford will be added to the ACC as well.

Arizona president Robert Robbins saw SMU as a connection to Texas that his school could capitalize on. Arizona long supported a move to the Pac-12 for SMU throughout the process.

“I think San Diego State and SMU are two good schools with two good teams that we should give strong consideration to, but we can’t do that until we get a deal,” he told The Athletic in March. “I’m looking at Texas being our next California for regular students.

“I think it’s really important because I’m looking beyond just sports recruiting. I’m looking at Texas being our next California for regular students. That’s been our biggest growth area for students coming to the U of A. It’s been very purposeful on our part as a strategy to try to go get those students. So if we got to play games there — wow. That’d be huge.”

Colorado departed for the Big 12, the first defection of the remaining group of 10 schools after USC and UCLA left last summer for the Big Ten. Oregon and Washington left for the Big Ten while Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are Big 12 bound.

Now, SMU can say it dodged a bullet from the Pac-12 and found its “Golden Ticket” to a Power Five conference in the ACC. It’s been a long journey for the university, but it finally hit pay dirt.