Back to today’s briefing

Story perspectives

SMU Stuns Florida State 27–24 After Power Failure

9/8/2026

25 2 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

SMU beat Florida State 27–24 in the season-opening game.
A transformer failure cut stadium lights and press-box power, forcing a delay.
Officials moved kickoff from 7:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. after partial power returned.
The game proceeded without radios, iPads, public-address announcer, scoreboard, or replay.
Teams completed a 10-minute warm-up once enough lights were restored.

History

Historical Context

In 2003 a transformer failure knocked out 1,200 lights at Texas Stadium during a Cowboys-Giants game, forcing a 30-minute delay; a similar outage delayed SMU’s 2024 season opener. Both incidents echo the 2003 Northeast blackout, which showed how aging grids can cripple high-profile events, prompting the NFL and collegiate leagues to require comprehensive power-redundancy audits.

1 of 2

Story summary

SMU beat Florida State 27–24 in the season-opening game.
A transformer failure cut stadium lights and press-box power, forcing a delay.
Officials moved kickoff from 7:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. after partial power returned.
The game proceeded without radios, iPads, public-address announcer, scoreboard, or replay.
Teams completed a 10-minute warm-up once enough lights were restored.

1 / 2