Brashard Smith and ninth-ranked SMU never felt they were finished, even when already locked into the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in their league debut. “It was really important, just being undefeated in the conference,

Over the next two weeks, the warm familiarity of conference championship games could run into the cold reality that comes with the first 12-team College Football Playoff.

Over the next two weeks, the warm familiarity of conference championship games, which began in 1992 thanks to the SEC, could run into the cold reality that comes with the first 12-team College

It is a 15-mile drive from the SMU campus to the Big 12 offices in Las Colinas, but the two might as well be on separate planets. It was to the Mustangs’ never-ending misery that the old amalgam of the SWC and Big Eight never wanted any part of the Dallas private school.

The SMU Mustangs have already clinched a spot in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, N.C. next weekend. Who SMU will face, however, is not yet set. Let's take a look at what the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers need to do to make it to the ACC title game.