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Friedlander: It won’t happen, but it’s wild to wonder whether SMU should opt out of ACC title game
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It’s become the norm for college football players to opt out of postseason games in an effort to avoid injury and protect their future prospects.
So what’s stopping an entire team from doing the same thing?
No, it’s not going to happen, but it’s a question the folks at SMU might be wise to at least ask after the ominous warning issued to them by Playoff Committee chairman Warde Manuel on Tuesday.
The Michigan athletic director stated that teams playing in this weekend’s conference championship games can and almost certainly will be dropped in the final rankings while those idly watching from the sidelines are locked into their Playoff positions because “there’s not another data point” to consider on their resumes.
He specifically mentioned the 8th-ranked Mustangs and the virtual certainty of their being dropped below No. 11 Alabama and out of the bracket should they lose their ACC title matchup against Clemson on Saturday.
“Potentially, yes,” Manuel said. “It just depends on the outcome of the game.”
Warde Manuel basically says that teams currently in the field will not move out after championship Saturday.
“We will not adjust those teams because they do not have a data point”
Alabama is in if SMU beats Clemson. If Tigers win, that’s where final decision comes. pic.twitter.com/AoLhBIOlqT
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) December 4, 2024
SMU can save itself any potential Selection Sunday anguish by taking care of business in Charlotte and capping its debut ACC season with a conference championship and automatic Playoff bid.
But given that there’s so much risk in losing, why should it even show up to play the game?
“If our team all got COVID today and didn’t play, we’re in,” coach Rhett Lashlee said, only half jokingly, during a podcast with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman on Tuesday.
He’s 100% right. It might be more beneficial to opt out, hand the trophy to Clemson and stand pat on its current 11-1 record than go all in on the hope of drawing for an inside straight.
Players do it all the time.
Why stop there? Why not let the ACC send Miami to the championship game in the Mustangs’ place to give Cam Ward and his team another shot at playing their way back into the top 11?
That’s all in jest, of course. No team, especially one that has been waiting for decades to gain power conference recognition, is ever going to give up a championship opportunity it has rightfully earned.
And no Playoff Committee, even this one, would consider rewarding such a deliberate act of defiance.
Still, the premise behind the hypothetical is valid.
Teams that are good enough to finish first in their conference during a 12-game regular season should not be penalized for losing a bonus championship game. Especially since all conferences aren’t treated the same.
You don’t hear anyone suggesting that Georgia should get knocked out of the Playoff if it loses the SEC title to Texas. Or Penn State to Oregon State in the Big Ten.
So why SMU?
Spare me the hypotheticals and analytics that can be spun any which way to prove whatever point of view you’re trying to push. They should be meaningless if you hold Manuel to his word when he said just last week that “teams can only play the schedule that’s in front of them. They can only play the opponents they have.”
That sounds fair in theory, even if in practice it’s actually a bunch of baloney.
Fair or not, SMU will show up at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday knowing full well that there’s no margin for error.
For either team.
With Clemson already eliminated from at-large contention at No. 17 in this week’s poll, the ACC Championship Game has become a winner-take-all affair.
One game for the trophy, the confetti and the league’s very likely 1-and-only Playoff bid.
The Mustangs are a 2.5-point favorite, according to DraftKings sportsbook.
As well they should be.
They’ve proven through their body of work that they’re the better team. Though you’d never know it by the way either they or their opponent is perceived.
This isn’t the same Clemson team that won those national championships in 2016 and ‘18. Or has claimed 7 of the past 9 ACC crowns. It’s a squad that backed into Saturday’s title game because Miami couldn’t hold onto a 21-point lead at Syracuse.
The Tigers have beaten only 1 team with a winning record. And 1 of its 3 losses was to Louisville at home, a team SMU took down on the road.
These Mustangs aren’t the “little team that could” getting thrown into a cage of snarling Tigers. They’re a talented, well-coached unit with a championship pedigree, having won the American Athletic Conference title a year ago before making the move to the ACC.
They have an explosive offense led by quarterback Kevin Jennings, who will present Clemson with the same kind of dual-threat headaches as South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers did a week ago.
SMU ranks 2nd in the ACC behind only Miami in scoring offense and has scored 30 or more points in 8 of the 9 games since Jennings took over as its full-time starter. And its defense, though somewhat overshadowed, is just as good.
Athletic, aggressive and fast.
Good enough for the Mustangs to silence the doubters and take their Playoff fate out of the hands of a fickle committee by winning in impressive fashion on Saturday.
That is, you know, assuming they decide to show up.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
