SMU came within three points of an ACC championship in 2024 and still made the playoff. What the Mustangs got for getting in was a trip to Penn State. Monday’s expansion vote makes that experience worth remembering. A wider field gives a team more room to qualify, and it can still ask a great deal of the last few teams through the door.
The CFP Management Committee voted unanimously Monday in Irving to expand the field from 12 teams to 24. That announcement directly affects the Mustangs, who play ACC football at Gerald J. Ford Stadium near Richardson and have already experienced the difference between reaching the playoff and reaching it with an advantageous path.
SMU’s 2024 season remains the cleanest example. The Mustangs lost 34-31 to Clemson in the ACC championship game, then received an at-large bid. Their reward was a first-round trip to Penn State, where they lost 38-10.
The conference-title route had taken them within one possession of an automatic place. The committee route got them into the tournament, but not into a friendly neighborhood of the bracket.
Under the 2027-28 format, the ACC winner gets a reserved place. So do the champions of the Big 12, SEC and Big Ten. Another guaranteed entry goes to the top-ranked team in the group of six other named conferences. The committee’s remaining 19 picks offer more room for teams with strong seasons that fell short of winning a league title.
That structure gives SMU two credible avenues. Winning the ACC remains the cleanest way through because it guarantees entry and puts the Mustangs in position to pursue one of the top eight seeds. Those seeds receive byes through the opening round and host their next playoff game.
The other route is the one Monday’s announcement expands: build a résumé strong enough to survive outside the conference championship. A team can lose a title game and still remain in the field, provided its full season holds up against the committee’s comparisons. The quality of the opponents still matters.
A crowded field does not turn every respectable record into an invitation, and a schedule filled with strong ACC teams offers more for the committee to weigh than a soft path padded by comfortable Saturdays.
SMU has already shown why that route can be both valuable and uncomfortable. In 2024, the Mustangs were close enough to Clemson to remain in the playoff conversation after the loss. Yet the at-large place also placed them on the road against Penn State. The bid preserved the season; the seeding determined how abruptly it ended.
The first two rounds account for 16 campus games. Teams seeded ninth through 16th host an opener. The eight teams with byes get the next set of home games. From the quarterfinals through the semifinals, the tournament moves to the partner bowls, with the championship still played at a designated site.