SMU's successful bid to join ACC leads to playoff berth, record donations — and more interest
Now the Mustangs are looking build on that momentum in Year 2.
The Dallas-based school chose to forego nine years of media-rights distribution simply for the opportunity to move from the American Conference — where it won the conference championship in 2023 — into a Power Four conference. And the Mustangs not only proved they could compete in the conference, but could win at the next level.
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They ran the ACC table in the regular season finishing 8-0 in conference play under coach Rhett Lashlee to reach the ACC championship game, where they lost to perennial league power Clemson. But it was enough to get SMU into the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
'I would say it validated a lot of things for us,' Lashlee said Tuesday during the league's preseason media days. 'It validated that we belonged. It validated all of the support from donors and fans. And I think for a lot of the fans that been around for the 30 or 40 years it was vindication.'
SMU earned a $4 million payday for the CFP bid, the product of the ACC's 'success initiative' allowing teams to keep money generated by their own postseason success. But equally as important, it helped ignite a level of interest in the program not seen since before the school received the notorious 'death penalty' from the NCAA in 1987 for secret slush-fund payments to players after multiple warnings.
The Mustang Club, the fundraising support arm for SMU athletics, had record support by raising more than $65 million in cash gifts from 6,158 donors for the 2025 fiscal year, an increase of $10 million from the previous year. Football season tickets and revenue also reached record highs, with 2024 season tickets doubling from a year earlier, increasing revenue by 157%. Income from concessions, parking and licensing revenue all rose more than 100% after the move to the ACC.
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Last year, SMU arrived at its first ACC media days after announcing it had surpassed a $125 million fundraising goal since being added to the ACC along with California and Stanford.
In an email to The Associated Press, SMU spokeswoman Megan Jacob said first-year undergraduate applications for the fall semester reached more than 24,000 after hovering from 14,000-16,000 going back to 2016. Jacob said the school also had a 63% increase in applications from transfer students for the upcoming semester from a year earlier.
'We didn't just enter the ACC. We confidently announced our arrival,' said Josh Whittenburg, SMU's associate athletic director for development, in a release from the school. 'Nowhere is that more evident than in the generosity of our donors. They saw a need and answered the call. I'm inspired by their commitment, and the growth we've experienced is a direct reflection of their belief in SMU's future.'
In an interview with the AP, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips described the deal that brought SMU into the fold alongside California and Stanford — which took seven years of reduced media payouts (about 30%) — as an 'innovative' move.
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'It shows you the will of an institution, if you're just talking about SMU, to just want to get a chance to play at the Power Four level, what they're willing to do,' Phillips said. 'I'm not overly surprised at what I witnessed, what the country witnessed. ... You could see that was a school that was thirsty for the opportunity to get to the P-4. And I think you'll see them continue to be really successful, not only in this league but nationally.'
SMU's success has also allowed Lashlee and his staff to pave major inroads into the historically strong region of high school football recruiting in Texas known as the Metroplex.
'Arguably year in and year out, the best high school talent comes out of the Metroplex,' Lashlee said. 'So for us to be positioned there as the only school within 30 miles of downtown Dallas is a huge advantage for us. Kids want to stay in Dallas, they want to stay and play in Texas, we just had to give them a reason.'
They certainly have it now with the program on the upswing.
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The Mustangs return Kevin Jennings at quarterback, who said the goal for the school's encore season in the ACC is to win a conference title and a national championship.
'The energy level on campus is crazy,' Jennings said. 'We know what we can do. The sky is the limit.'
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
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