CHARLOTTE – The College Football Playoff committee can ruin its credibility on Sunday if they leave out an 11-2 SMU squad that rallied back in the ACC championship game to lose on a last-second field goal to the Clemson Tigers. It was the first loss for the Mustangs since Sept. 6 against a BYU squad that ended up winning 10 games. The Ponies’ two losses are by a combined seven points. 

And for a man who said he didn’t have a message for the CFP committee when asked after the game, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee did a great job laying out his closing argument. 

“It’d be criminal if we’re not in,” he said from the podium. “It’d be wrong on so many levels, and not just for our team. It’d be wrong for what college football stands for, to what it is (as a sport).” 

As any fan of boxing or mixed martial arts will tell you – don’t leave it up to the judges. 

SMU rolled into the ACC championship game Saturday night against perennial powerhouse Clemson with a chance to punch its ticket into the quarterfinal of the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Instead, the Mustangs left hoping the 11-1 regular season record is enough to hold off three-loss Alabama when the playoff committee releases the final bracket on Sunday afternoon following the 34-31 loss. 

The Mustangs went 8-0 in conference play leading into the game. They beat TCU at home. They beat Pitt and Louisville and everyone else on the schedule for three months. It isn’t SMU’s fault the schedule included a Florida State team that stunk and didn’t include Miami or Clemson in the regular season. That loss to BYU in early September was before Kevin Jennings became the starting quarterback. 

“(Leaving us out) would set a really bad precedent,” Lashlee continued. “It would break all the principles of what we’ve been told. We could’ve not shown up, and according to what we were told Tuesday night, we’d be in.” 

The CFP field is officially set Sunday afternoon. Five of the spots are guaranteed. Big 10 champ Oregon will be the No. 1 seed. Georgia (SEC champ), Clemson (ACC champ), Arizona State (Big 12 champ), and Boise State (G5 representative) are locks. Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, Penn State, and Texas are also in. 

That leaves one spot. It’ll come down to Alabama or SMU. The Crimson Tide possess the larger reputation. The Mustangs own the better resumé. The ghosts of 2014 when the four-team playoff committee chose Ohio State over one-loss Baylor and TCU still haunt the college football world. The CFP is a competition second and a money printing machine first. 

“For good reason, (our players’) faith is the system is shaken,” Lashlee said. “I think they’re all in (the locker room) wondering if they’re going to be in (the playoff) tomorrow. Is the fix in or is the right thing going to be done? That’s the truth.” 

The coin toss was the only 50-50 situation that landed SMU’s way. Clemson recovered two of its own fumbles in key spots. The Tigers benefitted from a questionable roughing the passer call that extended an eventual touchdown drive. The refs picked up a flag on an apparent offensive pick play in a drive that resulted in a touchdown to increase the lead to 31-14 late in the third quarter. 

One team looked like royalty. One team looked like an upstart. The win gave Clemson its eighth ACC championship since 2015 and a guaranteed spot in the 12-team CFP. The Tigers didn’t commit a turnover while SMU started the game with a fumble and later threw an interception in the first half. Clemson didn’t commit a single penalty, at least one that was called, in a game for the first time since 1952.  

Conversely, SMU committed multiple personal foul penalties on special teams that set up Clemson drives in prime territory. The reliable Brashard Smith dropped a third down pass in the fourth quarter when the Mustangs cut it to 10 and were approaching midfield. It was one of the team’s five drops.

But the Ponies weren’t done. They erased a 17-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game at 31 with 16 seconds left in the game when Jennings found Roderick Daniels for his third touchdown pass of the game. Clemson didn’t let it reach overtime, however, hitting a 56-yard field goal as time expired. 

The loss hurt an SMU squad that was attempting to win its second straight conference title and first in a premier conference since the 1980s. But the fight back by the Ponies provided probable cause to put them in the playoffs. 

“We responded like a championship team,” Lashlee said. “We responded like a team who could get into this 12-team playoff and win four in a row. So, I’d love an opportunity to do that.”