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Recently, the college football playoff committee revealed its 12 teams that made the cut for this year's big dance. The only real question heading into the reveal was whether the final spot in the rankings would go to Alabama or SMU, who had lost its conference championship in narrow fashion against Clemson the night prior.
At 12:00 PM on Sunday, fans across the nation got their answer, as the Mustangs were awarded the final spot over the Crimson Tide. Well, actually, some of the nation got their answer even sooner than that, as Brett McMurphy of The Action Network took to X, formerly Twitter, to leak the pick in advance.
Now, college football playoff director Rich Clark is sounding off on who the leak may have been in his camp.
“I was furious,” said Clark, per Matt Hayes of the USA Today Network. “I told all involved, you’ve betrayed the process.”
“There are only a certain number of people who know,” Clark added. “I know one thing, it wasn’t me. There’s the selection committee, ESPN and our staff. Someone in that group (is the leak).”
Clark also added that an investigation will occur to determine the source of the leak.
The college football playoff rankings have long been a source of controversy, perhaps never more so than last year when Alabama was selected over undefeated Florida State and promptly lost their first game of the tournament to eventual champion Michigan.
Clark knows the importance of transparency when it comes to keeping the public informed about the committee's thought process throughout the season.
“We have to have enough (playoff shows) for transparency,” Clark said. “If we go just the last week, there's too much mystery to that. If we take it away and put one ranking out there, I think that's a big mistake.”
In any case, the playoff is slated to get underway with the first slate of games on December 20.
