The Southern Methodist University football team’s 2023-2024 season was considered a success. The Mustangs went undefeated in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) and went on to win the conference title, ending a 40-year drought.
Then came the call they would be moving to the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for the 2024-2025 season, a call that SMU’s President Dr. R. Gerald Turner said he was waiting on pins and needles for.
“Oh yeah, I was nervous about this forever,” Turner said. “I knew though it was something we had worked so hard for. It was the effort of so many people over these years. It's been one of those projects that you just keep working on and keep believing that if you're prepared. Eventually, you'll get the opportunity."
Going into the ACC Championship game SMU is ranked eighth in the College Football Playoff Rankings. Turner is one of the people that has been most instrumental in the road to this point.
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When Turner started his tenure as the 10th President of the private university in Dallas, he was walking on a campus that was still fuming from something that happened in the late 1980’s.
It was a football program that was recovering from the now infamous “death penalty” that was levied by the NCAA. The 1987 season was effectively shut down by the governing body of collegiate sports. The NCAA determined that the school had been paying football players. A direct violation of NCAA rules back then, but ironically, a legal practice now through Name, Image, and Likeness deals.
“The very thing that shut the program down back then is something that we have relied on heavily to get to the ACC and to build a program full of talent. It is quite ironic,” Turner said.
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SMU chose to sit out the next season, concerned they would not be able to field a team. But it was during that time that Turner said the university got its footing, academically and athletically.
“During that period of time, the board started focusing even more on the academic quality of SMU. We wanted to improve that nationally and become really competitive. We would not have gotten into the ACC had we not moved up academically. There are some conferences that don’t care about that [academics] one way or the other, but the ACC does.”
Fast forward to now to a team ranked #8 in the final regular season College Football Playoff poll in their inaugural season in the ACC. Something even Turner said, he couldn’t have dreamed.
“It’s been an incredible year and it’s almost like you have to pinch yourself. That’s how I feel when I think about this is happening in our first year. But I look back on it and it was a team effort. 30 years has gone by so fast, but there’s no way any of this is possible without the support of the board and people like David [Miller],” Turner said.
Turner is referring to SMU alumni and Chairman of the Board of Trustees David Miller. The billionaire has been throwing his support behind the university for decades, just like Turner. He said there have been so many visionaries who have helped them over the goal line off the field. He also credits the enhancements and investments in several sports facilities on campus. And of course, people like head coach Rhett Lashlee and his staff. Lashlee returned to SMU in 2022, after serving as the Offensive Coordinator in the 2018-20189 season.
Turner has seen so much in his 30 years on the Hilltop. From multiple head coaching changes to a handful of conference changes. And this season, the Mustangs set a new attendance record of a little more than 228,000, proving the excitement is at an all-time high.
He said the spotlight now is all thanks to the teamwork over decades.
Turner announced in August of 2024 that he would be transitioning to President Emeritus in June 2025, once the university named his successor.
“The main thing I'm proud of is the fact that for 30 years the board and I were on the same page. That would make me very happy to see that everything we started has just continued. The worst thing in the world is for it to fall flat. The Pony Express is full steam ahead full steam ahead,” Turner said.
SMU will play in the ACC title game on Saturday, December 7 against #17 Clemson at 7 p.m. CT in Charlotte, NC.
