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The fallout from the final College Football Playoff rankings of the regular season has been massive. Now, just a few conference championship games remain between now and the final reveal of the first 12-team College Football Playoff. One of the biggest games of the weekend is the ACC Championship between SMU and Clemson.
For the last month, Alabama has been right at the center of the discourse seemingly every week because of its puzzling resume. Alabama has hit the highest highs, including an impressive win over Georgia, and the lowest of lows, such as a 24-3 loss to 6-6 Oklahoma in November.
Still, the three-loss Crimson Tide have done enough to slide ahead of Miami after the Hurricanes took their second loss of the season against Syracuse on Saturday. As it stands, Alabama is in the last at-large spot in the projected bracket and will have the weekend off while Georgia and Texas battle for the SEC Championship.
There is one situation that could knock Alabama out of the field. If Clemson, currently ranked No. 17, knocks off No. 8 SMU in the ACC Championship Game, the Tigers would earl an automatic bid into the bracket. If SMU remains above Alabama in the poll, that would knock the Crimson Tide out of the field.
However, despite earning the chance to play an extra game that Alabama didn't win enough games to qualify for, CFP chair Warde Manuel claimed on Tuesday that SMU's spot is not secure, according to John Talty of CBS Sports. Manuel said that Alabama could potentially leapfrog SMU if it were to lose to Clemson.
Understandably, fans are outraged. In response, they proposed that SMU sit out the ACC Championship Game to avoid the risk of losing and falling below Alabama in the rankings.
“SMU should opt out of the game then. Seriously,” one fan posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Give Clemson the CFP AQ and force the committee to judge the Mustangs’ 12-game sample they already deemed being three spots better than Bama.”
Another fan added, “Why wouldn’t SMU just opt out of the ACC Championship game? The downside outweighs the benefit. Notre Dame doesn’t have to play a 13th game, why should anyone else have to?”
Of course, this is all very unlikely to happen. However, the CFP committee would be setting a terrible precedent if it were to leave out an 11-2 SMU team that lost a conference championship game that all of the teams below it did not qualify to play.
