Saturday, Dec. 7
8:05 p.m. Eastern, 5:05 p.m. Pacific
ABC
The Clemson Tigers were expected to be here in the ACC Championship Game. The SMU Mustangs were not. SMU was supposed to be a middle-of-the-pack team in its first year as an ACC school. Miami, Florida State, Louisville, and maybe North Carolina State were supposed to be better teams and more prominent ACC title contenders than SMU. Truth be told, after the first few games of this 2024 season, SMU did not look like a contender at all.
Then, however, coach Rhett Lashlee made the move which changed everything for the Mustangs. Kevin Jennings, the backup quarterback, was inserted as the starter over Preston Stone, who guided the offense in the first few games of the campaign and did not perform well. Jennings instantly ignited the SMU offense and made Lashlee’s system come alive, with explosive results. SMU developed an offense which was able to blow out Pittsburgh, win at Louisville, and maintain a high floor over the course of the season, all while other ACC teams – either due to bad quarterback play or key injuries – fell off the pace. SMU improbably rose to the top of the standings, and with Miami and Clemson losing key games in the second half of the season, the Ponies were able to make the improbable journey to Charlotte.
\SMU joins Oregon (Big Ten), Arizona State (Big 12) and Texas (SEC) as a power conference team which is playing in the conference championship game in its first year as a new league member. Now the Mustangs can take that one added step of making the College Football Playoff if they can finish the job against Dabo Swinney and the Tigers, who are here because Miami blew a 21-0 lead to Syracuse last weekend.
Clemson Tigers-SMU Mustangs Odds
Spread: Clemson +2.5 (-110), SMU -2.5 (-110)
Total: 55.5 (Over -105, Under -115)
Underdog moneyline: Clemson +112
Hear why T.J. Rives loves Clemson in this matchup with SMU off “3 Dog Thursday Podcast” by clicking play below,
Clemson has hope for the CFP
The matchups of this game can be discussed all day long, but what this game really comes down to from a betting standpoint is that Dabo and his Tigers have been in big games so many times. Even though Clemson hasn’t won many big games in recent years, the Tigers are used to playing in big-stage moments such as this one. Clemson started the season playing Georgia. It finished the regular season playing South Carolina. Even though Clemson lost, it knows what it feels like to play a game with maximum pressure. Dabo knows how to prepare a team for those occasions, even though his results in recent years have fallen off the pace from his dynastic period covering the 2015-2020 seasons at Clemson.
SMU did not play either Clemson or Miami during the regular season. The Mustangs are stepping into a whole new world which is entirely foreign to them … and yet they are favored to win in Charlotte, where Clemson fans will dominate the crowd, making it a semi-road environment for SMU. Clemson might not be a better team, but Clemson has a much better setup for this game. We would be surprised if SMU ultimately wins this game. Take Clemson and make it one of your bigger plays for conference championship weekend.