There are many upset customers in the college football world after the playoff committee’s latest rankings, and athletic directors are having a war of words about it.
No. 8 SMU, which plays No. 17 Clemson this weekend in the ACC Championship, would have a first-round bye in the latest projected bracket, with the Iowa State athletic director calling out the committee for the ranking.
“Disappointing that strength of schedule clearly does not matter for SMU, Indiana, and Boise State,” Iowa State Cyclones athletic director Jamie Pollard said in a post on X. “Message is clear – win as many games as possible regardless of who you play. Time to rethink non-conference scheduling. Very different standards than the basketball committee.”
SMU had the 75th-best strength of schedule according to ESPN’s power index, while Iowa State, which is ranked No. 15 and on the outside looking in at the playoff, is 68th.
“Jamie, respect you but bad take,” SMU AD Rick Hart responded. “ISU had No. D, Iowa, Ark. St. non-con. SMU had Nev., HCU, TCU, BYU. (And scrambled due to Vandy dropping us.) SMU 1 of 2 to win all conf. games, 1 of 3 with 9 P4 wins, trailed a TOTAL of 6+ mins. last 9 games. I could go on… Stay off my lawn!”
SMU lost its lone ranked game to BYU 18-15 in its season opener and has rattled off 11 straight wins since then.
Meanwhile, Iowa State comes in at 10-2 with consecutive losses to Texas Tech and Kansas.
Pollard isn’t buying the land that Hart is selling, though.
“Rick beat Clemson Saturday, and I will respect your ranking. Until then you did not play Clemson, Miami, Georgia Tech or Syracuse AND lost to BYU at home. Looks like your lawn may be artificial,” Pollard quipped.
Should SMU lose to Clemson, the committee will have to decide how it wants to penalize the Mustangs, whether to move them out of the playoffs entirely or give them a reprieve with one of the later spots.
Alabama and Miami are also jockeying for position, with Hurricanes athletic director Dan Radakovich irate that his squad was given a lesser ranking than the Crimson Tide despite a recent loss to unranked Oklahoma.
“Really ?? ….what put Bama over the top of Miami for the last spot in is that Miami went 1-2 in their last 3 games (by an average of 4.5 pts, to a ranked Syracuse and GT team that just took UGA to 8OT),” Radakovich wrote in a post on X. “Bama went 2-1 (to 5-7 Auburn, destroyed by OU, and beat FCS Mercer).”