College
Back from the dead: SMU returns to major college athletics as members of the ACC
SMU athletics was left in the cold after the Death Penalty and the end of the Southwest Conference. The ACC provides the Mustangs with new life as Power Four members.
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee was watching his kids eat breakfast when he received a text from the university’s Board of Trustees Chairman David Miller at 6:43 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2023 that read, “We’re in,” followed by what Lashlee remembers as six or eight exclamation marks.
Soon after, SMU athletic director Rick Hart called to confirm the news that N.C. State changed its vote and that the Ponies were back in a major athletics conference since the 1990s as newly minted members of the ACC. It was a Friday morning before the first game of the season and the second-year head coach hoped to meet with his Ponies before news broke. A dream larger than winning a conference title for the first time in 40 years.
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