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SMU football head coach Rhett Lashlee made a bold statement on the Mustangs' playoff chances. The latest College Football Playoff rankings have caused a massive stir heading into championship week. Fanbases from Miami, Ole Miss, and South Carolina were crying foul amid Alabama's inclusion in the current twelve-team bracket. However, the Crimson Tide's No. 11 ranking was not what set off Rhett Lashlee and SMU fans. It was the comments from CFP chair Warde Manuel.
The No. 8 Mustangs head into the ACC championship game against No. 17 Clemson as the dominant regular season conference champions. SMU went undefeated in the ACC, and its only season loss came on September 6th to BYU. Manuel, however, suggested that the Mustangs could be punished for playing and losing an extra game on their schedule. A notion that drips in hypocrisy for a committee that is trying to value conference championships as much as possible.
Rhett Lashlee went off on this idea on the “Andy & Ari On3” podcast.
“If our team all got COVID today and didn't play, we're in. We're in. We don't have another data point to drop us below anybody that's behind us. I think if you open that door, you'll see many people do a lot of crazy things. We're not going to. We're going to go play in Charlotte, and we're going to try to compete for our championship cause that's the right thing to do, and that's what competitors do. I'm going to choose to believe that the right thing will be done on Sunday.”
SMU football can make the committee's flawed logic irrelevant
Lashlee makes a fair point about the Pandora's box the committee could open should the Mustangs lose. The new twelve-team playoff is placing an extra emphasis on conference championship games. There's a reason why No. 10 Boise State is a lock to get a bye with a win over No. 20 UNLV. Meanwhile, No. 4 Notre Dame is guaranteed not to get a bye until it joins a conference. SMU has earned the right to play an extra game on its schedule. A game that, if it didn't happen, the Mustangs would be in.
On the other hand, Alabama finished fourth in the SEC and suffered embarrassing losses to unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. The Crimson Tide have more quality wins but were also more inconsistent throughout the year. If the committee leaves the Mustangs out should they lose to Clemson, that will encourage teams in the future not to play in conference championship games. Devaluing the conference championship is not a path this committee wants to take in this new era.
Luckily, Rhett Lashlee and his team can save Ward Manuel from making a huge mistake. The Mustangs can win on Saturday night and lock up the three seed in the bracket. With the way quarterback Kevin Jennings has been leading the fifth-ranked offense in the country, there's no reason to believe that SMU cannot beat Clemson. It's time for this program to fully announce itself to the committee and the rest of college football as legitimate national title contenders.
