The final playoff rankings didn’t favor Kalen DeBoer and Alabama. Instead, the College Football Playoff committee chose to pick SMU over the Crimson Tide’s tough strength of schedule. After Rhett Lashlee and the Mustangs lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship game, the controversy began as to whether SMU or Alabama would make it to the playoffs. This is the dilemma. Would you rather choose an 11-2 team that made a conference championship appearance or choose a 9-3 team that faced more difficult opponents? 

Dan Pretzel stands with SMU in this controversial playoff decision. In a new YouTube episode on Yahoo! Sports on December 9, he boldly stated, “I believe that if you’re ranked ahead of a team after 12 weeks and then you have to play a 13th game and they don’t, you shouldn’t get knocked down. So philosophically intellectual argument. I agree with SMU staying above Alabama.” But that’s not all. He may have picked the Mustangs over the Crimson Tide for this matter, but he also spoke of the flaws that need to be addressed. 

According to Wetzel, all of these ranking problems stem from the CFP committee’s weekly “mock process.” Here’s what he suggested, “The weekly rankings need to go. There should just be one bracket reveal at the end and then perhaps there is a more holistic approach to ranking these teams at the end because we’re no longer with this argument.” So, how did the weekly rankings lead to this chaos?

Firstly, both SMU and Alabama had a productive season and are worthy playoff contenders. But it’s the mock weekly rankings that had put the Mustangs above the Crimson Tide last week based on incomplete data. So you see, SMU was already higher than Alabama in 12 games, excluding the ACC Championship game.

As Wetzel added, “To say that 12 games and 13 games are automatically equal is not intellectually accurate.” Even CFB analyst Paul Finebaum said, “It’s a flawed system but we need to remember, everyone had to compromise… It’s not the best system but I’m thrilled we have a 12-team system, and I hope and I’m pretty sure they’ll go in there and tweak it immediately.” So let’s see what’s next for SMU and Alabama. 

What’s next for SMU and Alabama?

“I just think America saw SMU belongs,” an elated Rhett Lashlee said following the playoff berth revelation. SMU moved to the ACC conference this year and improved their strength of schedule from last year in the AAC. The Mustangs only had one non-conference loss in the regular season before the final defeat by the Tigers. They currently hold the No. 11th seed and will face No. 6 Penn State in the first playoff round. 

As for Alabama, they failed to secure a playoff berth under their new HC DeBoer. Alabama AD Greg Byrne fumed, “Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country.” We can’t forget that the Crimson Tide had some incredible wins against Georgia and South Carolina.

However, the heartbreaking losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Oklahoma outweighed the good and took a toll on their rankings. Alabama will have to settle for the ReliaQuest Bowl against Michigan on December 31. What are your thoughts on the 12-team playoff format? Do you think it’s fair that SMU surpassed Alabama for the playoff berth?