SMU the ACC and a Potential Bird to the CFP Committee

[Chitownrealist]

While I certainly will be interested in every game that has an impact on who we play in the first round, the most intriguing situation for me is SMU. Currently ranked 8th at 11-1 and the ACC regular season champ (if there is such a thing), SMU stands to lose the most this weekend in my opinion. As discussed in other threads, if Clemson wins the ACC CG, does that mean SMU gets bumped down and potentially out of the CFP. Everyone has tried to interpret Warde Manuel's comments over the last month, as they are often a bit ambiguous, to figure out how this is going to go. For instance, three weeks ago he said that teams would not be "punished" for playing in their CCG in response to a question from Reece Davis. That seemed to address teams playing a 13th game (sort of - depending on how you interpret "punished"). Then yesterday he made the following comment when being asked about teams not playing this coming weekend: “Those teams that are not playing cannot be adjusted where they are compared to other teams that are not playing.” Presumably this means Miami cannot jump Alabama and the committee will not "reconsider" Miami's ranking as Jim Phillips, the ACC commissioner, has called for. Phillip's statement after the rankings were released yesterday was, the ACC is "incredibly shocked and disappointed" that Miami fell six spots to No. 12 and that Miami "absolutely deserves better from the committee... As we look ahead to the final rankings we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field." So it looks like Warde Manuel is telling the ACC and Miami they are screwed. But then Manuel was asked whether a team playing in a CCG could drop below teams not playing, specifically he was asked, if SMU could fall below Alabama, and he responded, "Potentially, yes." Not sure how this jives with his statement about not punishing teams playing a 13th game, but it seems to me, if I was the ACC, I would hold an emergency meeting of presidents and ADs, modify their championship game rules, and allow a team to opt out of the conference championship game without penalty. This would allow SMU to keep their #8 ranking and would pit Clemson and Miami as the 2 and 3 seeds in the ACC against one another for the ACC championship and a first round bye in the CFP. ACC gets two teams in guaranteed, Miami controls their destiny and ACC tells the committee to pound sand. If SMU wants to roll the dice and play in the CG anyway - so be it.

The drama would be too good.

 

[savvyandsassier]

It doesn't jive with it. They're praying for an SMU loss. With every intention of punishing SMU, or possibly Indiana, who is no better than SMU and probably worse, in terms of program stature and pedigree, and their season resumes are nearly identical and SMU's could be stronger. And if the ACC commish has just made a big stink on the conference's behalf, and is portentously calling the committee out, proactively, because he knows what they're up to, they might bump IU, who is already below SMU in the final rankings, even though they hail from the mighty Big Ten.

And that's not too shabby an idea. Naturally, the committee are proving to be unreliable stewards of this playoff format, and so individual conferences have to take matters into their own hands. And Miami can prove themselves one way or the other with a result in the ACCCG. That would be absolutely awesome in fact. SMU are already conference champions. They're not tied with anybody for first. No CCG required. It's almost as if the CCGs now exist not to settle the conference title by pitting the two respective division champions in a battle royale, since such divisions no longer exist for some reason. But instead to generate precious ratings and revenue, and give the truly feckless selection committee the crudest and most transparent selection latitude, even though old boy had to flatly contradict himself ahead of the fact to avoid rendering himself an outright liar when SMU is omitted from the final draw in the event that they lose.