Rece Davis makes case for SMU in College Football Playoff with loss to Clemson

The College Football Playoff race has tightened up with the regular season in the rearview mirror. Several teams are now putting their faith in the selection committee, hoping to make the field. One team that still has a chance to avoid that fate and clinch its spot in the field is SMU.

The Mustangs play in the ACC Championship Game and, with a win there, would clinch a spot in the Playoff field. A loss, however, would insert Clemson into the field and force SMU to be one of several flawed teams, like Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, competing for what appears to be one final spot.

For ESPN’s Rece Davis, as he explained on the College GameDay Podcast, if SMU were to lose he still thinks they should be in the Playoff over those other, seemingly, more flawed teams.

“Convicted is strong, but I think here’s the thing,” Rece Davis said. “Because of what I just said — so many options with major holes in them, I would find SMU making its conference championship game, albeit against a weak schedule and one close loss prior to championship week, I would find losing the the championship game too punitive and they would be probably the least objectionable option to me.”

There is an exception to putting SMU in regardless of if they win or lose the ACC. That’s if Clemson blows SMU out of the water and the Mustangs don’t look like they belong in the game.

“Unless they get drilled. Things change for me if you’re capable, and I’m not talking they get beat by 17, I’m saying if they get beat 42-7, that’s a different thing, man. That’s different,” Davis said.

“But, otherwise, I think that — I get it, I wouldn’t favor them to win many if any of those games — and I get that that’s part of it, but I think that and I’m not doing best vs. most deserving. I’ve gotten to the point with that last spot that it’s sort of least objectionable. So, I would probably under those circumstances go SMU.”

In the case that SMU loses the ACC Championship Game, the Mustangs will be in a group of teams looking to get an at-large bid that features multiple three-loss teams and an ACC team that didn’t make the conference championship game. The Mustangs would have been the only of those teams to play a 13th game.

The next College Football Playoff selection committee rankings will come out on Tuesday night. That should give some more insight into what the committee thinks of SMU following the regular season and ahead of their championship game against Clemson.