It seems to prepare our boys and remind the, twice a year that scrapey defense can be played by anyone who has tenacity and when all 5 play it, opposing teams don’t score much. I think playing SMU makes us better. I value tough teams in our conference or that play us every year like Boise state in football.
I respect SMU. My only complaint is the weak non conference schedules they have played in the past. Too bad they didn’t take on tough P5 teams in the past when SMU was better, it would have raised our conferences cred a bit.