CFP Decision Leaves SMU Fans with Unanswered Questions

DALLAS — SMU football fans should be upset. After having to give up substantial revenue for several years by their new conference just to get in, the Mustangs get the second snub from the College Football Playoff in just over 60 days.

The Mustangs may once again be the program a governing college football body is using to set a new precedent. Only thing different this time is that it’s now legal for college players to get paid. The only thing kept still in the gray area now is whether they receive anything before they can officially be considered eligible to start receiving NIL funds.

The College Football Playoff management committee announced an undisclosed amount of money for SMU as it enters the ACC. However, that amount is less than what the CFP distributes to Power 5 schools, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said.

SMU has already agreed not to receive any conference television revenue for the first nine years in the ACC. And now they will bring in less money than what SMU and ACC were expecting. Two years ago, the CFP voted to give the full Power 5 revenue to incoming Big 12 schools UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, and BYU.

So, why is SMU so special? Why limit a school moving from a Group of 5 conference to a Power 5 league? Is it because SMU is joining the ACC, whose undefeated conference champion was kept out of the playoff? And why is the amount undisclosed? How much less is it? A lot? A little?

Not surprisingly, Hancock did not specify the monetary agreement. Both ACC commissioner Jim Philips and SMU athletic director Rick Hart are silent on the whole matter right now. The whole thing may be beside the point anyway. This whole SEC-Big Alliance may just be trying to change everything on the CFP, too.

The college football landscape is changing drastically with each rotation of the Earth around the sun and with each change comes consequences, especially when there’s a $1.3 billion price tag being discussed for ESPN to broadcast the playoff games. And the CFP is trying to figure out how to handle the sudden growth of the Big Ten and SEC and the sudden demise of the Pac-12.

But what has changed in the last two years to warrant the ACC and SMU receiving less money from the CFP? Or is the CFP setting a new precedent that schools moving from the Group of 5 to the Power 5 will be receiving less money?

For now, these questions remain unanswered. How long it takes to find out, nobody may really know. Considering how fast things are changing these days, there's no telling what else can happen.