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On Sunday, we learned which teams will be competing in the College Football Playoff and those that had missed the cut shortly after a report surfaced that correctly asserted SMU was in and Alabama was out. It’s unclear who leaked that information, but the man who oversees the selection process has made it his mission to find out.
2024 marks the first year the College Football Playoff will feature 12 teams, and if you thought the expanded field would reduce the intensity of the debate concerning who earned the right to compete for a national championship, you probably only started paying attention to the sport a few months ago.
One of the biggest topics of debate was whether or not the Alabama Crimson Tide would be able to overcome their 9-3 record and sneak into the postseason at the expense of a non-SEC team that boasted more wins but found itself comparatively lacking on the strength-of-schedule front.
We were supposed to find out if that was going to be the case shortly after the College Football Playoff selection show kicked off at noon on Sunday.
However, Brett McMurphy (the Action Network insider who has an axe to grind with The Worldwide Leader after the network fired him in 2017) dropped a major spoiler literally one minute before it got underway when he revealed the SMU Mustangs remained in the hunt despite their loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game while Alabama was left on the outside looking in.
Breaking: SMU is in @CFBPlayoff and Alabama is out, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 8, 2024
That marked the first time the College Football Playoff had been scooped by a reporter since its inception in 2014, and according to USA Today, director Rich Clark is understandably less than thrilled with that development.
The outlet spoke with Clark (who replaced Bill Hancock as the CFP’s head honcho last November) on Tuesday during a conversation where he says he quickly turned his attention to a list of potential culprits and plans to investigate the matter in the hopes of rooting out the rat, saying:
“I was furious. I told all involved, ‘You’ve betrayed the process.’”
There are only a certain number of people who know. I know one thing, it wasn’t me. There’s the selection committee, ESPN and our staff. Someone in that group.”
Clark added he didn’t know about McMurphy’s tweet until he got a text from his son asking him how the reporter got privy to the information, and while he doesn’t currently have an answer, that could end up changing depending on how serious the powers that be are about getting to the bottom of things.