SMU coach Rhett Lashlee thinks the ACC is one of the deepest conferences in the country and wants the College Football Playoff to expand to 16 teams.
Lashlee’s Mustangs were one of the 12 teams to make the expanded College Football Playoff in 2024. SMU won the ACC’s regular-season title but lost to Clemson in the ACC title game. However, the Mustangs got into the playoff with an at-large bid before losing in the first round at Penn State.
At ACC media day on Tuesday, Lashlee boasted about the depth of the ACC, while noting that six teams have won an SEC title since 1964.
“The ACC, you can’t have an off week or you’re going to get beat,” Lashlee said at media day. “It doesn’t matter if you’re playing at Clemson, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing whoever that last-place team is at home. If you have an off week, if you play like we did in the playoff game, you’re probably going to lose. Look at our Duke game. It was a miracle we won. We went out and turned it over six times. We should have lost. And that was a good team.”
“It’s just a week in, week out — that’s the league you want to be in, that’s where you want to be. You look at our league, we had like four 10-win teams, two playoff teams, a handful of nine-win teams, 13 bowl teams, there’s just not a lot of easy wins on the schedule. And there’s other leagues that claim depth. But like, the SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964. The same six. Not a single one has been different since 1964. That’s top-heavy to me. That’s not depth.”
Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee have all won SEC titles since the conference championship game was implemented in 1992 while Arkansas, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Missouri have made the title game and lost in that timeframe.
The ACC has had six champions since it added a conference title game in 2005. Florida State won the first ACC championship game and Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Pitt and Clemson have gotten wins since then. Going back to 1964, 12 teams can claim ACC titles including South Carolina.
However, the number of different winners over the past 60-plus years isn’t the best indicator of a conference’s current depth or excellence. There are coaches all over the SEC, Big Ten and even the Big 12 — the conference that may have most parity in the country — who would also tell you that you’re going to lose a conference game if you have an off week against any other league opponent.
Lashlee also advocated for the ACC to get four automatic bids along with the Big Ten and SEC in a 16-team playoff during his media days appearance. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips favors a 16-team playoff with five conference champions and 11 at-large bids like Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark while the Big Ten’s Tony Pettiti stood firm Monday in an interview with Yahoo Sports on his conference’s desire for imbalanced multiple automatic bids for conferences.
“When it comes to our league, it should be easy,” Lashlee said. “I just shed some light, There’s only three leagues to win a national championship that have teams in their league since 1990. All the teams that have won a national championship [since Colorado’s 1990 title are currently] SEC, ACC or Big Ten. Since I mentioned in the last 15 years, we’re tied for the second-most championships with three with the Big Ten. I don’t know why that’s not talked about more. We have national brands. We’ve won championships. The revenue is almost double who’s fourth [the Big 12]. We have our own network, the competition, the investment, I just think it speaks for itself.”
