Joel Klatt explains why SMU's schedule in 2024 was 'incredibly flawed'

While not necessarily disagreeing that SMU should have been in the College Football Playoff, Joel Klatt thinks some of the justifications to have them in were wrong by the selection committee.

Klatt made several points about the seeding of the playoff field during his show on Monday. One of those was about why the committee decided to benefit those who were in conference championship games, win or loss, despite some contenders having a much easier path to get there by season’s end.

“Do we really just want to value (conference championships) and the participation in this game over everything?” Klatt asked. “I would argue you can’t. You can’t because of the imbalance in schedules. It’s vast. It’s vast.”

“This idea that the committee is going to just value getting to these championship games above all else when, clearly, the paths are so different? Like, listen, you should take a nuanced approach to this,” said Klatt. “You’ve had six weeks of sitting in this room, analyzing these schedules, and really understanding what these teams are dealing with on a week-in and week-out basis. Yet you didn’t apply it and you certainly didn’t apply it consistently to the way you were ranking teams in the regular season, in particular after losses.”

That’s where the Mustangs come into this. Klatt noted SMU as one of those teams that, despite being 11-2, didn’t play much of anyone during their year, especially during their conference schedule in the ACC. They still won the games but did do so against one of the lesser strengths of schedule within the playoff discussion. That got them a spot in the ACC Championship and, in turn, earned them a berth in the CFP.

“SMU? SMU played only two of the six ACC teams with a winning record in conference play. That’s wild. So, only eight conference games to begin with – which I think there should be nine, maybe even ten but they play only eight. Six of their eight are against teams that are at or below .500 in ACC play,” Klatt said. “So they didn’t play any of the top opponents, none of the top opponents. They didn’t play Clemson, they didn’t play Miami. Quite honestly, neither of those teams played the others either. So it was an incredibly flawed ACC schedule from the get-go.”

Klatt also made that argument against Texas and Penn State in how they earned berths in the SEC and Big Ten Championships before becoming the first two at-larges in the playoff despite losses in those games.

All anyone can do is win their schedule, which Southern Methodist did. However, with the differences in difficulty in them all both in conference and then nationwide, Klatt would like to see the conference title games and those who participate in them be considered differently.

“We need a better effort from the committee when you get into these things that need nuance,” said Klatt. “All these paths are different. The imbalanced schedules were different. It was very clear they were going to value these championship games over everything else.”

“I understand that and, in previous years, I’ve been in that camp. I really have. But, this year, the paths to those games are just vastly different,” Klatt said. “This year? The path was created for you by the conference office. In some cases, in many cases in these championship games, it was so favorable. So favorable.”