Warde Manuel addresses importance of conference championships after College Football Playoff reveal

On Sunday, the College Football Playoff selection committee unveiled their final rankings and official 12-team bracket. All eyes were on SMU and Alabama, who were competing for an at-wide berth in the tournament.

SMU finished the regular season 11-1 and lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship. Meanwhile, Alabama went 9-3 and missed the SEC Championship but had a stronger strength of schedule.

Ultimately, the selection committee rewarded SMU, naming the Mustangs the No. 11 seed in the CFP. On Sunday, Michigan athletic director and selection committee chairman Warde Manuel pulled back the curtain on their difficult decision.

“On the conference side, you can’t control who you play,” Manuel said during an appearance on ESPN. “You can’t control how those teams will be playing and how highly ranked they will be or not. But what we also value is competition and playing competition in the non-conference — if you schedule that way — or in the conference.

“We look at who these teams play. And from my perspective, I think what we did and what we said is, we’re going to look at these last games and use it as a data point to determine how we will rank teams.”

SMU didn’t face a difficult conference schedule this season, with the ACC down as a league in general. Nonetheless, the Mustangs also lacked strong opponents in its non-conference schedule, facing only two Power Four foes outside of conference play.

While Alabama’s non-conference schedule wasn’t particularly strong either, it faced a gauntlet in conference play. Alabama finished the regular season with wins over Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri; each of which finished in the selection committee’s top 25 rankings.

Despite Alabama’s undeniably better wins, SMU had fewer losses. Moreover, denying SMU a spot in the CFP would’ve set a precedent for the future that teams will be punished for losses in conference championship games.

“It just came down to watching the games,” Manuel said. “We watched those games together, seeing the outcome of those games and how those teams played. They earned the right to be in those conference championships, and we value watching those games and seeing the results and the outcome.”

While Warde Manuel said that the eye test was important, he also emphasized that numbers played a large role in the committee’s decisions, particularly strength of schedule statistics.

“I want to just make sure everybody understands, we value people’s strength of schedule,” Manuel said. “Again, Alabama has three losses. They’re ranked 11th in the country. We have to see them the way we’re asked to see them. But Alabama is the 11th-ranked team in the country with a strong schedule, even with some unranked losses.”