Vegas is starting to stack the odds against Chad Morris and the SMU Mustangs this fall. The rebuilding Mustangs football team opens the 2015 season at home on Friday night, September 4, against defending Big 12 champion Baylor. More than four months out from the kickoff at Ford Stadium, the odds-makers at 5Dimes have listed SMU as a 35.5-point home underdog against Baylor.
At this point, such a dramatic line makes sense for the 2015 Baylor-SMU matchup. Baylor returns 18 starters (nine on offense and nine on defense) from a team that many commentators believe deserved a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff. SMU was among the worst teams in the FBS last year.
Chad Morris is expected to rely heavily on his incoming recruiting talent to rebuild the program this fall. Young, inexperienced SMU looks like no match for national powerhouse Baylor. Last year’s edition of SMU certainly wasn’t up to the task. Bryce Petty led the way for Baylor in a 45-0 drubbing of SMU in Waco.
I say 2015 is going to be different though. The new -look Mustangs are going to make a game of this one. I envision Matt Davis passing for a pair of touchdowns and running for three others. I foresee Courtland Sutton cutting through the Bears’ secondary like butter. I can see the SMU front-seven compiling a bakers’ dozen of sacks. If all of these elements come together like they did last Saturday at the spring game, all of this is possible.
You heard it here first: SMU 35, Baylor 31. Pitchers of Miller Lite and piles of Fiesta Nachos at Milo Butterfingers’ afterwards to celebrate.
(By the way, when can we get back to calling Division I by its proper name? “FBS” rolls off the tongue like cheap cherry cough syrup.)
(Besides, Both the FCS and FBS have championship games now. I never stopped saying Division I anyway. That’s what it’s called and that’s what people call it. FBS always seemed like a euphemism to me. Does anyone really like saying it? If so, write me. I’d love to hear a defense of that clunky acronym.)
(As a further point of reference, I still think of Baylor-SMU as a Southwest Conference game. While I’m at it, I think we should reestablish the Southwest Conference. Bring back all the Texas teams and annex Arkansas back from the SEC. If the SEC tries to stop us, we’re taking Vanderbilt too. It will be nice to finally have a bye-week during conference play.)
(Once we reestablish the SWC, we should create a mirror site here called “swcfootballfever.com.”)
(As a further further point of reference, let’s do away with all this playoff nonsense too. I preferred College Football [capitalized because it is the most important thing in the world] when there was no pretense to fairness. I want bowl games to be a reward for a nice season. Not some cockamamie way to pick the National Champion. That should be determined by the pollsters sometime before Christmas.)
(Clayton’s plan for reforming College Football: The Cotton Bowl is where the SWC champ plays Notre Dame. The Big 8 gets the Orange Bowl, which gets to have the weirdest halftime show. The Big 10 champ and the Pac 10 champ meet in the Rose Bowl with Keith Jackson on the call. The SEC gets the Sugar Bowl and Bourbon Street. What the hell is the Fiesta Bowl? I say abolish the Fiesta Bowl. Or rename it the Blockbuster Bowl. I also say FDR for President).
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