CHARLOTTE, N.C. — SMU coach Rhett Lashlee was adamant close to the beginning of his almost 16-minute press convention following his crew’s 34-31 loss to Clemson within the ACC Championship Sport that he didn’t have a message for the Faculty Soccer Playoff choice committee.
In his personal phrases: “They do not care what I say.”
Lashlee then made calculated remarks about SMU’s playoff outlook.
“I haven’t got a message,” Lashlee emphasised.
Adopted instantly by:
“It could be felony if we’re not in. It could be mistaken. It could be mistaken on so many ranges, not simply to our crew. It could be mistaken to what faculty soccer stands for — to what it’s.”
Possibly that is not a direct message, but it surely does sound like a coach banging the drum for his crew because the playoff’s movers and shakers deliberate over what to do with SMU forward of Sunday’s choice present.
Even Clemson coach Dabo Swinney went to bat for the Mustangs.
“That is a extremely, actually good soccer crew,” Swinney stated. “No method ought to they be punished. They’re each little bit of the eighth crew within the nation tonight. Each little bit of it.”
Regardless of the Faculty Soccer Playoff Choice Committee decides might additional shake the foundations of a playoff system that has undergone super modifications in recent times.
It boils all the way down to a not-so-simple query: does the committee punish SMU for shedding by three factors on a walk-off subject objective after it erased two separate 17-point deficits in a thirteenth recreation that just about 90% of FBS groups haven’t got to fret about?
“Our crew deserves an opportunity to be in,” Lashlee stated. “It does not matter what I say, however it will be extremely mistaken. I believe it will be unprecedented. It could set a extremely dangerous precedent. It could break all of the rules of what we have been informed.”
We have been informed the committee is not going to punish groups that play in convention championship video games. Then, after the penultimate Faculty Soccer Playoff rankings reveal — which noticed SMU land at No. 8 — committee chairman Warde Manuel was requested if SMU would drop out of the sector totally with a loss.
“Doubtlessly, sure,” Manuel stated.
Thus, the state of affairs that SMU presently finds itself in was born.
On its face, SMU is the mannequin of a contemporary CFP crew. The Mustangs received 11 video games and went undefeated in convention play of their first yr as a Energy 4 convention program. These 11 wins got here by a mean of 19.4 factors per recreation. Each of their losses had been the results of late subject targets, and their first loss — in Week 2 towards BYU — got here earlier than the Mustangs made a everlasting quarterback change to Kevin Jennings.
“If you are going to take a crew that goes 8-0 in an influence convention, one of many three greatest conferences, solely two groups did that,” Lashlee stated. “We had been in. We might haven’t confirmed up, and in response to what we had been informed Tuesday night time we would be in. So we confirmed up and we competed our butts off.”
So why is there a lot doubt across the Mustangs? Saturday’s end result dropped them to 0-2 towards presently ranked groups. SMU’s power of schedule ranks sixtieth within the nation, per ESPN’s Soccer Energy Index. For context, that is simply behind the likes of ULM (56) and South Florida (59).
Realistically, SMU will likely be weighed towards a trio of 9-3 SEC groups: Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss. Particularly the Crimson Tide, who landed at No. 11 — the final at-large bid within the newest set of rankings.
Alabama has three wins towards presently ranked groups, together with a Georgia squad that beat Texas within the SEC Championship Sport moments earlier than SMU kicked off towards Clemson. Alabama additionally has two losses towards unranked groups, together with a 21-point defeat towards an Oklahoma crew that completed 2-6 in SEC play.
And people losses price Alabama a spot in its personal convention’s championship recreation. These are the information the choice committee should contemplate when shuffling groups.
So, after a heartbreaking loss on the ACC’s greatest stage, SMU now has to attend over 12 painstaking hours to seek out out its destiny.
“We responded like a championship crew,” Lashlee stated. “We responded like a crew who might get into this 12-team playoff and win 4 in a row.
“Would love the chance to do this.”
