One of the top dark horses for the College Football Playoff is beginning its 2026 season in the dark — literally.
No. 20 SMU's matchup against Florida State has been delayed due to a power outage at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.
The outage has shut off the stadium lights and the lights in the stadium's press box. With a 7:52 p.m. ET sunset in Tallahassee on Monday night, the stadium is enveloped in darkness, preventing the teams from starting at the scheduled 7:30 p.m. sunset.
The lights have flickered as officials work to get the power back on, drawing some momentary cheers from a crowd that had been booing minutes earlier, but they quickly went back off.
According
to ESPN sideline reporter Taylor McGregor, the stadium's transformer blew when stadium officials tried resetting it.
The teams were planning on staying on the field for five to 10 more minutes as of 7:50 p.m. ET, but if the power is still out beyond that, they will head back to the locker room.
"We waited long enough to play, what's another 30 minutes," SMU coach Rhett Lashlee told McGregor as the teams headed back to the locker room. "They were hoping they could get it back up in 10 minutes, they couldn't. We're going to go back in. As soon as they get it up, we'll come out, do a quick 10 minute warm-up and we'll play."
Fingers crossed.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FSU vs SMU power outage delay: 'We waited long enough to play, what's another 30 minutes'
