Report: SMU lands in Fenway Bowl vs. Boston College
SMU Football won the American Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday over Tulane, beating the Green Wave 26-14. When the College Football Playoff committee made its final rankings, the Mustangs were snubbed from a New Year Six’ Bowl.
SMU is headed to face a future ACC opponent, Boston College, in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 28 at Fenway Park (Boston) at 10 a.m. CT on ESPN and the ESPN App. Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported the game destination.
The Mustangs are 11-2 overall and 9-0 in AAC play while Boston College is 6-6 overall and 3-5 in ACC play. SMU will host Boston College in 2024 when the Mustangs begin ACC play.
SMU landed at No. 17 in the AP Poll released on Sunday following Championship Weekend. The Mustangs were above Liberty after the team won the American Athletic Conference Championship. The Flames won the Conference USA Championship and ultimately got the New Year’s Six nod SMU hoped for.
The Mustangs had quite the advantage in terms of strength of schedule over Liberty, which ranked dead last in strength of schedule at No. 133. SMU was 50 spots higher. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco released a statement on Sunday, calling the snub “stunning.”
“It is especially disappointing to see that the committee appears to have applied different standards in SMU’s case than they did with the selection of the top four teams,” Aresco said. “A double-standard with our conference is also at work. The American Athletic Conference has had multiple strong, undefeated teams over the past decade; teams that played tough schedules including power conference teams at home and on the road, and yet were often ranked behind two- and three-loss teams based on the committee’s assessment of strength of schedule.
“Apparently, that same assessment did not apply in this case when it was clearly warranted. This is beyond disappointing.”
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee stumped for his team in his postgame press conference on Saturday after the 26-14 win over Tulane. The Mustangs dominated the Green Wave in most facets of the game.
“We whipped them and I don’t mean that to sound, I’ve got a ton of respect,” Lashlee said. “We played really, really well for four quarters. If we don’t let them strip sack, fumble, score on the first play and throw two picks in the red zone and miss a field goal, but we beat a really good football team in their home stadium.”
The win gave the Mustangs their first conference championship since 1984. Lashlee felt like it shouldn’t be a question which team made it to a New Year’s Six Bowl, but SMU didn’t get the invite.
“No offense, those other people hadn’t played that team. They haven’t played a team that good, not even close to that good all year,” Lashlee said. “We beat two of them. Memphis, UTSA, Tulane, they would all win those other leagues, in my opinion. At some point, though, you play a real schedule, you should be rewarded for it. I think anybody who watched the game knows that we won, again, it’s hard to say, in a fairly convincing fashion today. But that’s a heck of a football team.
“You beat them by one, that should matter for a whole lot more than some of the things. And I’ll say this, we did win our games in the conference by a large margin, and it’s a good conference. The Top 4 teams in our league, and Rice and USF have proven, Rice beat Houston, USF went to Tuscaloosa, it should be a layup. Hope we don’t miss a layup.”
