The No. 11 Southern Methodist Mustangs are set to make their College Football Playoffs debut as they take on the No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions in the first round today at 11 a.m. in Beaver Stadium.
Both teams earned at-large selections for the first season of the expanded College Football Playoffs this year after SMU lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship and Penn State lost to Oregon in the Big 10 Championship.
SMU has been one of the most dominant teams in college football this season, with an overall regular season record of 11-1 and a conference record of 8-0 to consistently climb the College Football Rankings throughout the season.
The Mustangs have put together an impressive record on the road over the past two seasons. SMU is in the midst of a 10-game road winning streak, the second longest in the nation behind only No. 5 Texas, per an SMU Press Sheet.
This road-winning streak is also the second longest in program history. During this streak, the team has scored an average of 35 points per game, including a minimum of 26 points in each matchup.
SMU will also face an impressive Penn State team that has a record of 11-2 in a difficult conference and spent the entire season within the Top 10 of the College Football Rankings.
This game will likely depend on the performances of the teams’ two quarterbacks. SMU’s Kevin Jennings and Penn State’s Drew Allar will each be looking to lead their teams to a playoff win.
Jennings has led the Mustangs all season with the 10th-most passing yards per attempt in the country, 8.87, and the 13th-best passing efficiency in the country at 156.9, according to SMU.
Similarly, Allar has paced Penn State this season with 21 passing touchdowns and just 7 interceptions while throwing for 2,894 yards, marking an impressive season for a player who likely could have been selected by an NFL team in the upcoming draft.
This will be just the third matchup between these programs despite their long histories. Penn State holds a slim 1-0-1 all-time record due to a win in 1978 and a tie between the two teams during the 1947 Cotton Bowl, per SMU.
The matchup between SMU and Penn State is just the first College Football Playoff Game expected to occur today. Texas will host Clemson at 2 p.m., and Ohio State will host Tennessee at 7 p.m.
The winner of this matchup between the Mustands and Nittany Lions will then take on Ashton Jeanty and the Boise State Broncos in a Fiest Bowl matchup scheduled for December 31, 2024.