CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In this era of college football, everyone has an opinion.
As conversations continue about further expanding the College Football Playoff from 12 to 16 teams, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee was strong in asserting his at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte Tuesday.
“As long as we can’t get a group in a room to decide on a playoff model, then why are we going to have a group get in a room to decide who should be in the playoffs?” Lashlee said. “There’s human error involved. In the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the World Cup, all high school football across America, there’s no committees that pick who’s in. It’s earned on the field.”
Lashlee’s Mustangs secured the final at-large bid in the inaugural 12-team playoff last season, marking their first CFP appearance in program history. After winning the regular season ACC title but losing in the ACC title game to Clemson, SMU almost narrowly missed the field in a tight race between the Mustangs and Alabama for the final spot.
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“The committee let us in last year. I’m thankful for that,” Lashlee said. “Coaches shouldn’t be politicking to get in. Commissioners shouldn’t be politicking to get in. Politics has nothing to do with performance and getting in. In the NFL, no one is ever politicking to get in the playoffs.”
Related:What a 16-team College Football Playoff bracket would look like in 2025: UT, Tech, A&M?
If college football did do away with the committee system that has been the heart and sole of the College Football Playoff for years, a new format would be necessary. Many have shared their proposals for what an expanded 16-team playoff without a committee would look like, and Lashlee shared his Tuesday.
The SMU head coach said he feels the SEC and Big Ten should each get four automatic bids. He would assign four to the ACC and Notre Dame, meaning if the Fighting Irish missed out on the playoff, the ACC would get a fourth team. Then, the Big 12 would have three automatic qualifiers and the last spot would go to the highest-ranked Group of Five team.
Lashlee justified the ACC having a slight advantage over the Big 12 because of revenue and national titles each conference has won in recent years.
In addition to conference championship games deciding the top two seeds from each conference, Lashlee said that conference championship Saturday would have play-in games for the other spots with the teams that finish third through sixth all getting a shot at fighting for a CFP spot.
“Sixteen teams means even four more teams get access. We saw what eight more teams getting access did for the game this year. It was fantastic,” Lashlee said. “All that other stuff is people jockeying for a competitive position, and it’s not their fault. It’s their job, but it’s not what’s best for our game.”
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