CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- SMU coach Rhett Lashlee went to bat for reigning ACC champion Duke, saying the Blue Devils should have made the last College Football Playoff instead of Sun Belt champ James Madison.
Lashlee, speaking Friday at the ACC Kickoff, congratulated Duke on its title and said the team "easily" should have made the CFP despite five regular-season losses and not being ranked in the CFP standings. The previous CFP formula called for the five highest-rated conference champions to receive automatic berths, which allowed James Madison, ranked No. 24, to join American Conference champ Tulane (No. 20) in the CFP.
Duke finished outside the final top 25 despite upsetting Virginia in the league championship game. James Madison lost 51-34 at Oregon in a first-round CFP game.
"When you win the ACC the way they did, and who they beat, they should have been in instead of a team from the Sun Belt," Lashlee said of Duke. "Hopefully, things get learned, and that doesn't happen again. We should have been a two-bid league."
Beginning this season, the champions of the four power conferences -- ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC -- will receive automatic berths, including the highest-rated team from a Group of 6 conference (American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, Sun Belt). The ACC on Wednesday announced a new tiebreaker formula for its championship game, which will rely on head-to-head results but also a team's "body of work," determined by the Team Success Ranking from SportSource Analytics, also used by the CFP.
"You have to do everything you can to position your championship game with those two best teams," commissioner Jim Phillips said. "Head-to-head matters. That's always most important. Then we will look at the grouping and how teams fared. It will come down to body of work."
