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SMU finishes with highest AP Poll ranking since 1984 season

On3 imageby:Billy Embody•01/21/25•

BillyEmbody

smu-finishes-highest-ap-poll-ranking-since-1984-season
SMU WR Roderick Daniels. (Matt Visinsky / On3)

SMU finished No. 12 in the final AP Poll of the 2024 season, its highest ranking in the final poll since 1984. The Mustangs made the College Football Playoff after an 11-win season.

The 11-win season for the Mustangs in 2024 marked the first back-to-back 11-win seasons in program history. The Mustangs climbed as high as seventh in the Coaches Poll and eighth in the AP Poll during the season, the highest ranking since 1985.

For Rhett Lashlee, he hopes the 2024 season that included an ACC Championship appearance closed the door on all the talk about SMU’s Death Penalty. Now, his desire is the narrative shifts to the new era of SMU Football being among the nation’s best.

“I hope it gives you guys something else to write about,” Lashlee said after the loss to Penn State. “And nothing disrespectful to anybody here, you should have been writing about it. We’ve been revived. That’s over. That chapter is closed. We’ve moved on. It’s a part of our past in history just like everybody’s got parts of their past in history, but that’s what I mean by this team raised the standard and the expectations for SMU football. They made our entire school proud. They made our entire city proud.”

Lashlee and his staff have assembled one of the top transfer classes in America, hoping to continue its strong play from the last few seasons.

“We’ve proven we can play with the big programs in America,” Lashlee said. “We’ve gotten back to the national stage and we’ve proven we have a long way to go if we want to get to a National Championship again, but hopefully this is a way to close that chapter on that part of our history and say, okay, SMU is back and back in the standard of we’re on the national stage, we’re playing with the power conference schools. We’re competing and winning with power coverage schools. Now we have to see can we sustain it? Now we have to see can we take out even further over time?”

Here’s a look at the complete AP Poll for the final time in the 2024 season:

1. Ohio State (+5)
2. Notre Dame (+1)
3. Oregon (-2)
4. Texas
5. Penn State
6. Georgia (-4)
7. Arizona State (+3)
8. Boise State
9. Tennessee (-2)
10. Indiana (-1)
11. Ole Miss (+5)
12. SMU (+1)
13. BYU (+4)
14. Clemson (-2)
15. Iowa State (+3)
16. Illinois (+5)
17. Alabama (-6)
18. Miami (-3)
19. South Carolina (-5)
20. Syracuse (+2)
21. Army (-2)
22. Missouri (+1)
23. UNLV (+1)
24. Memphis (+1)
25. Colorado (-5)

Others receiving votes in AP Poll: Navy 55, LSU 39, Louisville 38, Michigan 36, Kansas St. 11, Marshall 8, Ohio 8, Florida 7, TCU 2, Texas A&M 1.

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