CHARLOTTE — Instead of addressing his team, Dabo Swinney stared into an ESPN camera to warn the College Football Playoff selection committee about the squad they had defeated.
“Hey,” he said, “that’s a football team that makes the playoffs.” SMU had better make it to the playoffs.
It is rare for a coach to not only commend his opponent but also advocate for them right after a thrilling victory. But that’s exactly what happened here on Saturday night, right before midnight on the east coast, in this strange new world of playoff expansion.
The story on this night should be how Clemson won the ACC championship game: in a wild, furious final few seconds, on the foot of freshman kicker Nolan Hauser, a Charlotte metro-area native whose title game-record 56-yard field goal as time expired split the uprights and sparked an orange-coated eruption at Bank of America Stadium.
However, there is another, possibly more significant tale here: With its 34-31 win over SMU, Clemson became the first-ever College Football Playoff bid stealer. For some team — SMU or Alabama — the bubble has popped. And for the ACC’s football dynasty — the Clemson Tigers — a playoff spot, improbable just a week ago, is secured.
Bludgeoned by Georgia to open the season, whipped by Louisville midway through and beaten at home by South Carolina just last week, Dabo’s Tigers couldn’t possibly make the playoff, right? Here they are. Swinney is back in football’s newly expanded big dance. The Tigers (10-3) will grab the final of the five automatic bids designated for the five highest-ranked conference champions. We think. We won’t know for sure until around Noon ET on Sunday when the selections are unveiled on ESPN. There’s a good chance that Swinney’s group will be the No. 11 or 12 seed with a first-round game on the road against several possibilities, including Notre Dame, Penn State and Texas.
Things are a bit more suspenseful for SMU. Are the Mustangs still in the field? Ranked No. 8 entering this game, they needed to avoid one thing on Saturday: getting the doors kicked in. Down 24-7 at halftime, it appeared as if the doors were on their way to being kicked in. Alas, coach Rhett Lashlee’s Ponies stormed back with a wild second-half effort, most of it resting on the shoulder of quarterback Kevin Jennings and his 31 completions and 304 yards.
Before a crazy series of events, they stormed back to tie the game with 16 seconds remaining and appeared to force overtime. Adam Randall of Clemson picked the ideal moment for his biggest kick return of the season, which went 41 yards, setting up a 17-yard completion to position the Tigers for the 56-yard boot as the seconds ticked down.
The selection committee’s Saturday night and Sunday morning, when they make their final selections, have become much more intriguing since they returned to Dallas, which is actually not far from the SMU campus.
Two teams are vying for the same spot:
– a 111-2 ACC runner-up with two defeats to top-20 teams, zero victories in the top 25 and a 75th-ranked strength of schedule.
– a 9-3 SEC fourth-place finisher with two wins in the top 15, two losses to unranked opponents, and an 18th-ranked strength of schedule.
SMU is in a risky and historic position, ranked No. 8 and already in the predicted field before to the championship game. Will the committee remove a championship game loss from the playoff field?
As argued by ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and others, such a move might open the door for the abolition of conference title games in an expanded playoff world.
“It would create dangerous repercussions to the sport to reward teams that don’t have to play an additional game,” he reiterated in a statement on Saturday night.
There is much to support the SMU argument. SMU played an extra game on Saturday as a number of playoff hopefuls, including Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Alabama, stayed at home. Why ought it to be punished? Additionally, two weeks ago, Alabama suffered one of the most humiliating losses for any playoff contender when they lost 24-3 to 6-6 Oklahoma.
However, there is also the opposing viewpoint from the people of Tuscaloosa: the Mustangs were defeated on a neutral field by a three-loss team that was defeated by SEC champion Georgia and SEC fifth-place finisher South Carolina.
For Saturday, SMU can rely on itself. The Mustangs lost by 17 points in the first half alone after turning the ball over twice, dropping three passes, and committing three crucial 15-yard penalties.
However, their return cannot be disregarded, Lashlee stated, passionately defending his team and its prospects of making the playoffs.
“I believe that the way they fought back demonstrated their championship makeup,” he remarked.
If we weren’t in, it would be illegal. It would be disrespectful to our squad and to the ideals of collegiate football, he stated.
We would have been in based on what we saw Tuesday night [in the rankings], and we could have skipped [the ACC championship game]. We demonstrated it. We ought to be included. They realise we ought to be included.
Lashlee stated during the postgame press conference that his squad was in the locker room battling not only the defeat but also the prospect of missing out on the playoffs: “They no longer have faith in the system.”
The SMU-Bama debate is essentially an SEC vs. ACC discussion. In one of the most contentious rulings in CFP history—Alabama versus Florida State—the SEC prevailed in that battle last year.
The 13-member selection committee will convene in their large conference room at the Gaylord Texan, a resort in suburban Dallas, on Saturday evening and into the early hours of Sunday morning to make such decisions.
The Ponies and the Tide’s destiny will be decided by six athletic directors, four former coaches, two former players, and a former member of the media. However, there is still a lot to talk about, including a few crucial choices that will make committee members wriggle as they gobble up their free ice cream:
In comparison to Notre Dame and Ohio State, how will Penn State and Texas, the other championship game losers, be seeded? Recall that Texas hasn’t won in the top 25 this season and that Penn State lost to Ohio State at home.
Does Arizona State advance to the No. 3 seed ahead of Boise State?
Does Clemson overtake Arizona State to secure the fourth seed and a bye in the first round? Before this weekend, the Sun Devils were in 15th place and the Tigers were in 17th.
Decisions, decisions.
However, the most significant one might establish a standard for conference championship games in the years to come.
Does SMU entirely slip out of the field?
Rich Clark, the CFP’s recently appointed executive director, was questioned in October about the committee’s potential approach to conference championship game losers.
“Well,” he answered, “it depends on the nature of the loss.”
This is how it appeared: It wouldn’t have been good from 58 to make the game-winning 56-yard field goal.
