The 2024 season wasn’t the first time the SMU football program was at the mercy of a college ranking system built to benefit the big brands. Luckily for the Mustangs, the College Football Playoff Committee did them better than the pollsters 42 years ago. 

The politics of college football in 1982 were on full display when a one-loss Penn State team led by quarterback Todd Blackledge claimed the national championship in the AP and Coaches Poll over an undefeated SMU squad that was perfect outside the 17-all tie with Arkansas in the last game of the regular season. 

SMU claims the national championship that year, too, because it was named No. 1 by the Helms Athletic Foundation in the last year that organization named a college football national championship. Pony Express legends like Craig James and Lance McIlhenny don’t see it that way. They understand why SMU claims the 1982 title – for promotion and flyers – but they never felt like champions.

“It is good for marketing but google 1982 college football national champions and it’ll say Penn State. The AP and Coaches Poll are what mattered,” James concedes. “In today’s world with a playoff where things are more settled on the field, we’d have had a better chance. We just couldn’t overcome the elephant in the room.” 

The elephant in the room wasn’t the impending Death Penalty or the fact SMU was paying players under the table. That was a fact of life in the 1980s, especially in the Southwest Conference. Former Ponies are adamant that those same transgressions – which are legal now with NIL – were offered to them by plenty of other universities in the recruiting process. 

The elephant in the room was status. The status of Penn State compared to SMU, and maybe more importantly, the status of Joe Paterno with an East Coast media that, by and large, crowned champions. James didn’t understand that in 1982, but he started piecing it together as he joined the media following his NFL days. 

“Joe (Paterno) had cocktails with the voters in the northeast every Friday night,” James said. “They gave it to Joe. Not that Penn State wasn’t a great team, but we had a first-year coach in Bobby Collins and were this little, private upstart in Dallas. We didn’t stand a chance.” 

The 1982 SMU team finished 11-0-1 with a 7-3 victory over Dan Marino in the Cotton Bowl. Eric Dickerson ran for 1,617 yards and 17 touchdowns while finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Herschel Walker and John Elway. James ran for 938 yards and four scores, adding three more touchdowns as a receiver. McIlhenny was the engine of the up-tempo, option attack, passing for 1,099 yards and accounting for 12 total touchdowns. 

Penn State was 11-1 after a win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Nittany Lions lost 42-21 on the road to No. 4 Alabama. Blackledge was sixth in the Heisman voting after throwing for 2,218 yards and 22 touchdowns. Warner ran for over 1,000 and was the third pick in the NFL Draft. The Arkansas team that SMU tied was ranked ninth. Both teams beat Pitt. 

“We were aware of how good Penn State was through the newspapers and stuff,” James said. “But we left the Cotton Bowl thinking we were national champions because we were the only undefeated team left.” 

The Mustangs can right those wrongs on Saturday when SMU travels to Happy Valley for a first-round College Football Playoff game at Penn State. The Pony Express isn’t delusional. They know the current players have more at stake than revenge from 42 years ago. After all, some of the parents of the players on the team weren’t born in 1982. That doesn’t mean it isn’t extra personal for the old guard. 

“I joked with the team the other day that, ‘hey, y’all are carrying the bags for some old men out there on Saturday,” James said. “Maybe it is SMU’s turn to get one over on them.”