Pony Stampede: An SMU Athletics podcast · 247Sports, SMU, SMU Mustangs, SMU football, College Football

SMU football finds out 2024-30 ACC opponents

·28 min·1 clip

SMU is in a better situation than Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston were when they reached the Big 12.

Jordan Hoffaditz opens by framing the ACC schedule release as a real milestone in SMU's move into the league. He treats it like more than just another headline. The episode leaves the weekly recap lane and moves into the long view. That shift gives the conversation a different feel right away. The schedule sits at the center of everything here. Hoffaditz says the release makes the ACC move feel concrete in a way the announcement alone never quite did. He notes that some details are still unsettled. The dates still need to be sorted out, and the current football season is not over yet. Even so, he likes the shape of what SMU got. The protected Cal and Stanford games stand out immediately. He expected those schools to show up often, partly for travel and partly for continuity. The schedule does exactly that, with both teams locked in every year. One is home, and one is away. He presents that as simple and sensible. From there, he moves into the bigger home dates. Florida State coming to Dallas in year one is one of the first things he points out. He also points to Miami State coming to Dallas in year two. Those are the kinds of games that make the schedule feel real before anyone has kicked off. The next stretch turns to the non-conference slate. He says 2027 already looks rough. Oklahoma is on the home schedule that year. SMU also has to travel to BYU. He calls that combination a serious test. It changes how the season looks on paper before it ever begins. He keeps moving through the later years. Vanderbilt shows up in 2028 and 2029, split between a road game and a home game. Colorado comes in as a home-and-home in 2030 and 2031. That adds another layer to the overall slate. He then zooms back out to what the home schedule could become. The 2027 home list already includes Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and Virginia Tech. He acknowledges that Georgia Tech has not been strong recently, but he does not treat that as some fixed truth. That changes. Virginia Tech gets the same treatment. The program's history still matters, even if the recent results have not always matched it. The larger point is that the ACC move should give SMU a better home product most years. That is a sharp contrast with the concerns fans had about the old American schedule. He says the current and future home slates look fun in a way the recent past did not. That is the heart of the episode. He closes by saying the coaching staff and returning players are excited too, even if they may not say so in the middle of a season. The outro slides back into the show's usual subscription reminder and leaves the sense that the next few years are finally coming into focus.

As heard by us

A clear first read on SMU's ACC schedule, with protected matchups and early home games.

SMU's new ACC schedule comes across as concrete, not theoretical. The review keeps its focus on the parts listeners can actually picture: the protected Cal and Stanford matchups, the one home, one road rhythm, and the early stretch of home games that makes the move feel real on…

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Why you'd press play

See what SMU's ACC future starts to look like now that the next seven seasons are on the books.

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