Ever since the College Football Playoff teams were announced everyone has been attacking SMU's schedule, but honestly it makes no sense.
Moving up from the American Conference to the ACC is a jump in competition no matter what you think about the ACC. More of the focus of the story should be on how this team moved into a power conference after nearly three decades as parts of several mid-major conferences to the ACC Championship in year one. They came up a few points short of being the face of the ACC and still were able to make the first annual 12-team playoff.
Even when you look at SMU's out of conference games they were tougher than most other programs around the country.
They played both TCU and BYU, who both were well above .500 and bowl eligible teams. Yes, SMU did lost to BYU, but if you remember, there was time when BYU was very much undefeated and almost a lock for the playoff themselves. There are plenty of supposed " big time" programs who don't play against two power four out of conference at any point.
Another popular argument is that they didn't have to play Clemson or Miami during the regular season, but as we saw they hung with Clemson and there is nothing that shows Miami would have beaten them.
Louisville and Duke may not be considered national powerhouses but far from the bottom of the barrel during this 2024 season. They also dominated Pitt, when the Panthers were undefeated and ranked in the the Top 25. It will be interesting to see what the conversation will be if they head into Happy Valley and knock off the Nittany Lions.
I am sure Rhett Lashlee will be able to use this to get his team more than ready to go for the playoff, though I doubt they will need any help getting ready for the biggest game since the Pony Express days.
The committee did right by putting the Mustangs into the field and we will see who gets the last laugh when it's all said and done.