SMU football has a huge showdown in the making against Clemson for the conference championship on December 7.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips believes that the game shouldn’t fully determine SMU’s bid in the 12-team field.

“SMU is in the tournament,” Phillips told The Athletic, per Chris Vannini. “I don’t see any way you can’t keep SMU in regardless of what happens on Saturday. Playing in a conference championship game, there cannot be a negative residual to that if you are in the field going into that weekend. If you are in the top 12, there should be no downside.”

Sitting on the fence as the nation’s ninth-ranked team at 11-1, the Mustangs are hoping to move past the Tigers on Saturday, and leave no doubt on their CFP bid.

SMU football’s case for the bracket

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SMU football will likely fall somewhere in the playoff, win or lose. That said, there could be other factors that could wind up changing the committee’s approach to how they rank the teams after this week.

The Mustangs fell to BYU earlier this season, who is currently ranked lower.

“We heard from the committee that (FSU was) a different team (without Travis),” Phillips said. “Then I expect them to look at SMU differently. They’re 9-0 with Kevin Jennings as their starting quarterback. They were 2-1 and decided to make a change when they lost one game by three points to a top-20 BYU. SMU is in the CFP. To me, it’s not even debatable.”

Phillips also noted that Clemson could make their way in with a ACC title victory this weekend.  Either way, he wants to see some consistency with how the selections are made.