Sugarcane Mosaic Virus (SCMV) causes one of the most severe virus diseases in maize worldwide, resulting in reduced grain and forage yield in susceptible cultivars. In this study, two association panels consisting of 94 inbred lines each, from China and the U.S., were characterized for resistance to two isolates: SCMV-Seehausen and SCMV-BJ. The population structure of both association panels was analyzed using 3072 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The Chinese and the U.S. panel were both subdivided into two sub-populations, the latter comprised of Stiff Stalk Synthetic (SS) lines and Non Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSS). The relative kinships were calculated using informative 2947 SNPs with minor allele frequency ≥ 5% and missing data ≤ 20% for the Chinese panel and 2841 SNPs with the same characteristics were used for the U.S. panel. The Scmv1 region was genotyped using 7 single sequence repeat (SSR) and sequence-tagged site (STS) markers, and 12 SSR markers were used for the Scmv2 region in the U.S. panel, while 5 of them were used for the Chinese panel. For all traits, a MLM (Mix Linear Model) controlling both population structure and relative kinship (Q + K) was used for association analysis. Three markers Trx-1, STS-11, and STS-12 located in the Scmv1 region were strongly associated (P = 0.001) with SCMV resistance, and explained more than 16.0%, 10.6%, and 19.7% of phenotypic variation, respectively. 207FG003 located in the Scmv2 region was significantly associated (P = 0.001) with SCMV resistance, and explained around 18.5% of phenotypic variation.