SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee disputes Arkansas having toughest schedule in 2026
Published:
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee has nothing personal against Arkansas. Quite the contrary, actually.
Lashlee wasn’t just born in Arkansas, he played quarterback for the Razorbacks from 2002-04, so he actually has a ton of love for the Hogs and their pursuit of college football relevancy. But the 43-year-old is in the business of winning games at SMU, where he enters his fifth season as the head coach.
He knows what winning looks like, too, carrying a 38-16 record into the 2026 season with the Mustangs. Lashlee has had to deal with plenty of tough battles along the way to win those 38 games in 4 seasons, and he believes that tough schedules are proven out on the field, during the fall, and not in preseason strength of schedule rankings.
That brings us to what Lashlee said Friday on the Andy & Ari On3 show. He saw that Arkansas, his beloved alma mater, was ranked first in preseason strength of schedule, according to the ESPN FPI. Lashlee just doesn’t understand why preseason strength of schedule rankings should matter at all, because it’s only taking into account what everybody knows from the previous season.
“No offense to Arkansas, they can’t have the hardest strength of schedule in America to start the season because no one’s played a game,” Lashlee said. “We don’t even know who’s good, so we don’t know what a good and an easy schedule is right now.”
While the strength of schedule will work itself out as the season plays out, those tough games that every team has will play a big factor into who gets into the College Football Playoff. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the odds for the top teams in the mix to be among the elite 12 playing for a national championship in 2026:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
