One SMU Team will be Playing for a 1 Million Prize Pool in Late August

The Mustangs will have one squad participate in a showcase presented by Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide. It will take place on Thursday, Aug. 27, at AT&T Stadium. The festival will include four of the nation’s top teams.

The SMU Mustangs fans celebrate. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The SMU volleyball team is participating in an event in its own backyard that has NIL benefits attached to it.

Spikes Under the Lights will be the first women's college athletic event of this kind at AT&T Arena, which is 23 miles away from where SMU plays its home volleyball games. It will also be one of the first women's sporting events in an NFL arena where the Dallas Cowboys play.

JUST ANNOUNCED: SPIKES UNDER THE LIGHTS 🏐

Nebraska, Penn State, SMU and Florida Women’s Volleyball programs will face off at AT&T Stadium on August 27. This event marks the first ever women’s only sporting event to take place at AT&T Stadium!

🎟️ Tickets go on sale May 8. pic.twitter.com/ZT9OTz8u5j

— AT&T Stadium (@ATTStadium) May 5, 2026

Women's college volleyball will be shown live on a major national network during prime time, making it one of the biggest stages for entertainment and sports, and SMU is one of four teams that will be part of this event. Later, the program partner and the match times will make the information available to the general public.

Nebraska, Penn State, SMU, and Florida, four of the best teams in the country, will fight for the $1 million prize pool. Each team, at a minimum, takes $200K to participate in this showcase, and the winner of this event receives an additional $200K. There will be two semifinal matches, a championship match, and a best-of-three set format in this one-night, prime-time event.

The rise of SMU volleyball over these past three seasons was a key factor in their invitation to play in this showcase.

Under head coach Sam Erger, who took over as head coach of SMU before the start of the 2022 season, he has significantly improved the program. In his four seasons as the head coach of the Mustangs, Coach Sam Erger has achieved a combined record of 100-31 for his team. He has taken SMU to the NCAA tournament the last three years with a 4-3 record. This past season, the Mustangs made it to the regional semifinals of the tournament after defeating Central Arkansas and Florida in the earlier rounds. They were conference champions in 2023 and, since that year, have had a home record of 40-8.

They began ACC play in 2024, giving the program more national attention. They did very well, going 16-4 and finishing in fourth place, and then this past season they went 17-3 and finished in third place. This past season, they defeated No. 4-ranked Louisville on their home court as well as No. 18 Miami and achieved back-to-back victories on the road. Earlier in the season, they beat No. 8-ranked Texas A&M and were undefeated in the DoubleTree Invitational. The Mustangs won their last 11 games before losing to #3 Purdue in the NCAA Tournament. All of their six losses were to teams ranked in the top 25.

Why SMU's participation in this event is significant for the program.

The matches will be televised live on a large national network that will introduce SMU to millions of viewers in a three-hour window. SMU is playing alongside three other “blue bloods” in Nebraska, Penn State, and Florida. This solidifies SMU as a 'growing program with national momentum,' and this is why the event organizers want the Mustangs as one of the four teams. “Playing at AT&T Stadium is a big recruiting and marketing tool and should help bolster recruiting.

SMU is the only local DFW team in this showcase, and the Mustangs have the chance to galvanize their local fan base in one of the world’s most iconic venues that can house up to 100,000 fans.

Being part of such an elite showcase justifies SMU’s recent strategic expenditures and its move to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). It shows that the program is competing at a top-tier conference level and is a destination brand for high-end, national-level sporting events.

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