Ad Disclosure
Dan Mullen calls on CFP committee not to punish conference championship game losers
Published:
Dan Mullen, the former Mississippi State and Florida head coach turned ESPN analyst, doesn’t want to see teams contending for conference championships get left out of the College Football Playoff.
In the latest CFP rankings revealed Tuesday night, the highest-ranked Big 12 team was Arizona State at No. 16, which seems to be setting up a scenario where the Big 12 gets the winner of its conference championship game into the field, but no other team. Somewhat surprisingly, the ACC has three teams ranked in the top 12 this week, with Miami at No. 6, SMU at No. 9 and Clemson at No. 12. The Tigers, in this scenario, would get squeezed out of the field because of seeding.
Mullen in particular pointed to the ACC and the Big 12 in a post on X that he sent out Tuesday night. In his opinion, if Miami and SMU both win this weekend to set up a meeting in the ACC title game in Charlotte, North Carolina, then both should be in the 12-team CFP field.
#CFBPlayoff poll thoughts. You should not be punished playing in a championship game so if miami and SMU win this weekend both in playoffs. With 5 top 25 teams big 12 not getting enough respect with 9-2 games. Wild weekend ahead.
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) November 27, 2024
Mullen never made the four-team playoff while in charge in Starkville and Gainesville, although his Mississippi State squad was projected into the field at one point in 2014, and his Florida team appeared in a playoff projection in 2020.
Both SMU and Miami – and Big 12 contenders in Arizona State and BYU – are all jockeying for their first-ever playoff appearances.
