SMU eventually modified, which is a professorial word for “lowered,” its standards for potential recruits. What SMU does now is consistent with the rest of major college football. If the Mustangs were going to get real about winning, they had to get real players.

Both Penn State and SMU played in their conference championship games last weekend, and both of them lost in heartbreaking fashion. The Mustangs lost on a last second 56-yard field goal, and Penn State threw an interception on their final drive of the game as they looked to send things into overtime.

For a couple of schools that will play football for only the third time in next week’s playoff opener in Happy Valley, SMU and Penn State share a lot of history. Starting with the ‘48 Cotton Bowl, the first bowl game integrated.