SMU May Have Moved Up Some, but Big Boys Still Trying to Bully Others

Before the Mustangs could even officially begin in ACC, entire conference shoves them down in playoff money

SMU Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee before the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and the SMU Mustangs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS — At least now, SMU is in a league that can get more than one team in a college football playoff game. That's another not-so-subtle jab at the College Football Playoff committee after snubbing the Mustangs last year for Liberty.

In a couple of weeks, the Ponies will officially join the ACC and be eligible next season for an expanded 12-team playoff. It's part of a playoff system, though, where the SEC and Big Ten bullied their way to a bigger cut of the money. So much for unity among college football teams.

That is a clear example of how nobody can do a thing to slow down the runaway train that college sports is on now. The courts won't take action and you're never going to get a majority of teams to agree on anything.

None of that should be new to anyone if you'd read a little history. In 1929, the Carnegie Report on college athletics basically said something was going to have to be done to regulate college sports, and the NCAA was born. It was an organization that had selective enforcement of rules, almost from the very first day. SMU knows all about that, and Oklahoma can probably back up any arguments.

At the time there was a lot of talk about the SEC and Big Ten partnering to form an organization separate from the NCAA. The talk was enough to apparently create some degree of leverage. The CFP folded without drawing a card, giving them 29% each of the annual playoff money. The ACC gets 17% and the Big 12 just 15%. Do the math and there's an extra 10% for a lower-division team plus the cost of things for VIP.

It's not particularly surprising, since with NIL, the overall money paid to each school may be enough to pay two top-level players in this day and age. Shoot, SMU already waived media rights for nearly a decade and a disproportionate split to join the ACC. It doesn't appear the Mustangs are chasing nickels and dimes.

There is a sneaking suspicion there will be more changes before it is all said and done. SMU might be smarter (and make more money in the long run) by seeing what happens and trying to be one of the 64 or so teams. It won't be a surprise to see a break-away from the whole NCAA, and the Ponies would probably have no complaints about that.

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