Smu -coach Rhett Lashlee calls ESPN ranking ‘rigged’ after the latest update
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Smu -head football coach Rhett Lashlee doubles his conviction that ESPN is presenting certain conferences with their rankings.
ESPN released his first rankings of Football Power Index in June. The Mustangs came out as number 20 among university football teams that enter the 2025 season, although ACC teams such as Miami (no. 9) and Clemson (no. 11) were higher on the list.
The Football Power Index is a “measure for team strength that is intended as the best predictor of the performance of a team for the rest of the season.”
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Southern Methodist -Head coach Rhett Lashlee answers questions from the media during ACC Media Days in Hilton Charlotte Uptown. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
Now ESPN has updated those rankings on Friday, and the Mustangs, which came out of a surprising play-off journey from the Football Institute after last season, only one place moved to No. 19. Miami and Clemson, however, took a tumor to no. 17 and no. 16 respectively.
This led Lashlee to call ESPN’s ranking system a farce.
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“Because the whole thing is rigged,” he wrote on X.
Lashlee was also vocally during the previous season, where he questioned his conviction that the ACC and the Big 12 were not respected compared to the Big Ten and the SEC, and the last ‘top-heavy’.
Head coach Rhett Lashlee of the Smu Mustangs speaks with an official during the first half of the ACC football championship 2024 in Bank of America Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Grant Halverson/Getty images)
“There are other competitions that claim depth,” said Lashlee, according to the New York Post. “The SEC has had the same six schools win since 1964. The same six. Since 1964 there has been none other. That is top -heavy for me. That is not a depth.”
Lashlee clearly not only believes in his Mustangs to have more success on the way to 2025, but he wants more respect for the schools he is going against.
Clemson, led by experienced head coach Dabo Swinney, was the school that Smu defeated during the ACC Championship 2024, 34-31, although the Lashlee group was the favorite in the Tilt in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Head coach Rhett Lashlee of the Smu Mustangs watches for the ACC Football Championship 2024 in Bank of America Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Grant Halverson/Getty images)
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Lashlee’s search to lead his Mustangs to more success in 2025 starts with their first match against East Texas A&M on August 30.
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