SMU's ranking might be the most baffling decision yet by the CFP Selection Committee

No team has the shorter end of the College Football Playoff committee’s stick than SMU. The committee obviously values brands when they decide who gets ranked where, even if it’s not a part of their official criteria. 

Even a bump into the ACC hasn’t benefitted SMU this year in the new, expanded College Football Playoff. They’re still treated as a team that hasn’t proven it’s worthy of an at-large spot right now, regardless if we think they can win the ACC title or not. 

They’re the only team with an undefeated conference record in the ACC, yet they are still on the outside of the playoff. Even two-loss Georgia is still ahead of the Mustangs. Clearly, the committee has a sick obsession with the SEC. And it will only punish the Mustangs until conference championship week. 

The College Football Playoff was supposed to fix the former BCS format. It was supposed to settle the debate of who the true best team in college football is and instead brought more scrutiny than clarity. 

Arguably the biggest flaw with the BCS was the imbalance of mid-major teams – now called Group of 5 teams – were at a disadvantage. The playoff was supposed to solve that, giving, at minimum, mid-major conference champions a real shot at being considered one of the top four teams at the time. 

Now with 12 teams, the idea was again to benefit teams in non-Power 5 conferences. Yet here we are, trying to make the argument for one of the top teams in one of the Power 4 conferences. 

SMU is at the mercy of the CFP committee and it looks like they won’t do right by the Mustangs

It’s hard to believe the committee is really disrespecting No. 14 SMU the way they are. Their only loss this season is to BYU. The Cougars are undefeated and projected to hold one of the four, first-round byes. 

Even with Miami losing, while they are rightfully still projected to win the ACC, to move SMU down despite not losing last week is playing favorites. When ESPN is making claims that a three-loss team could land in the playoff, it’s clear what the agenda is. 

The CFP committee loves the Big Ten and the SEC. They are the teams with the most recognizable brands. They play the toughest schedules. And with conference realignment, it’s further separated them from every other conference across all divisions of the NCAA. 

But after Georgia suffered an embarrassing loss, while also struggling against Texas early and Florida, they were gifted with a rank higher than SMU. Make it make sense. 

What we all should have seen coming is an expanded playoff not solving the issues of who deserves to be in, rather it’s more of an excuse to push the have-nots out. All the College Football Committee proved with the latest rankings is that the quality of losses is way more valuable than winning.