'Furious' College Football Playoff will investigate leak of SMU edging out Alabama

For the first time ever, the College Football Playoff had a leak ahead of the official rankings reveal, and the selection committee is determined to root out who did it.

This year found the College Football Playoff making history not just for its first 12-team field, but that one of those teams was leaked before they made the announcement. / USA Today Sports | Imagn

For the first in the history of the College Football Playoff, information about what team made the field was leaked to the public before the official bracket was revealed.

And it was the most lucrative information there was: news that SMU had edged out Alabama to take the final position in the 12-team field.

Now, the CFP is on the case to find who squealed.

“I was furious,” College Football Playoff director Rich Clark told USA Today. “I told all involved, you betrayed the process.”

Moments before the selection committee revealed the highly-anticipated bracket, Brett McMurphy of Action Network revealed that a source told him SMU received an at-large berth in the College Football Playoff and that Alabama did not.

Those two teams were the center of an intense debate between what team the committee would prefer: the two-loss ACC runner-up, or the three-loss SEC powerhouse and far bigger brand.

It was that intrigue around what the committee would do that amplified the interest around the playoff bracket reveal.

And the fact that their decision was leaked early took some of the drama out of the scene as ESPN revealed the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.

“There are only a certain number of people who know,” Clark said. 

“I know one thing. It wasn’t me. There’s the selection committee, ESPN, and our staff. Someone in that group [was the leak].”

College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Warde Manuel said that he and his colleagues ultimately believed SMU did enough to warrant the spot over Alabama.

“We felt like, in this case, SMU had the nod above Alabama, but it’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule,” he said.

While the Mustangs had the nod, the playoff would have preferred to have that announcement all to itself.

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