Rhett Lashlee calls out College Football Playoff selection process, shades Notre Dame's ranking

Following Tuesday’s initial College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings reveal, much of the conversation was about Notre Dame and Miami. The Fighting Irish came in at No. 10, while the Hurricanes ranked No. 18 despite a head-to-head victory in Week 1.

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee reacted Wednesday, explaining why he disagrees with the CFP selection process. He also shaded Notre Dame’s spot in the process.

Lashlee argued the “eye test” was why the Fighting Irish were eight spots higher than Miami. But with that, he said he wants to see more concrete criteria with the selection process than risking any bias in the discussions.

“I don’t know how we control a narrative that is kind of controlled for everyone,” Lashlee said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio. “If two teams have the same record, one team has better wins than the other and one team beat a team head-to-head, they shouldn’t be ranked eight spots behind them. If we’re saying now it’s about data driven metrics, it’s no longer about your opinion and eye test as much. But all we heard last night’s an eye test. If I’m Louisville, how am I ranked behind a Notre Dame?

“But every year, there’s going to be – if it wasn’t us, it’d be the other league, right? Someone’s going to have a gripe. And my whole thing is, that’s part of what makes college football great. It’s awesome. I love for the next month, there’s just going to be a lot of great debate. That’s what makes our game great. But let’s take as much out of the human element of picking people as we can. No one else picks people. It’s not a pageant. Earn it. In [the] NFL, you know I’ve got to be one of the seven teams in the AFC or the NFC to get in. It’s not hard. Do that. But if I win my division, I’m in.”

Rhett Lashlee calls for 24-team CFP

The 2025 season marks the second year of the 12-team College Football Playoff format, which debuted last year. Of course, there’s a change this year. The bracket will feature a straight-seeding model, rather than giving byes to the four highest-ranked conference champions.

But Rhett Lashlee strongly spoke in favor of expanding the field. While potential 16-team models have come up, he pushed for a 24-team bracket with four automatic bids for each power conference.

“In the college level, is it 16 teams?” Lashlee said. “I don’t know. I mean, in a perfect world, yeah, with four automatic bids from the four major conferences. But we have all these other caveats we’ve got to try to please. So maybe the one that three of the four leagues back right now with 24 teams is great. There’s 136 teams in college football – 24 of 136 is not watered down. And if right now in the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the SEC, everybody knew they’re competing for four spots? … Think of the parity that you could have and how great college football could be because you earn your way in.

“You earn it. No one has to go politicking for it, no one has to grip it to rank behind or ahead of somebody. Man, finish the top four in your league and you’re in, and you get a chance to go play for it. To me, that would make a lot of sense. It’s out there. And I think three of the four leagues really back it. Until we get to more of a, ‘You earned it,’ and it’s not opinions or metrics or eye tests or committees.”

Lashlee’s greater point centered around moving on from the idea of the committee “picking” the teams in the field. Instead, he wants to see a world where teams “earn” their spots.

“Guys, we’ve got a committees with only three coaches on it and guys that are actually sitting coaches or ADs at other schools – not coaches, but ADs, administrators at other schools,” Lashlee said. “They’re good people. But there’s human bias. So to me, until we get out of this, ‘We’re picking it’ and change it to, ‘You’re earning it,’ we’re going to have this every year.”