The 42-year-old Lashlee is entering his fourth season as SMU's head coach and has been excellent during his time in Dallas. In 2022, he led the Mustangs to a 7–6 record, but since has authored back-to-back 11–3 seasons and led them to the first round of the College Football Playoff in 2024.

Months after his Mustangs made the College Football Playoff, Lashlee wants to do away with the selection committee altogether.

SMU made a bold bid to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, and that bet is paying off. The Mustangs gave up nine years of media revenue to leave the American Conference, where they won the 2023 championship.

The Mustangs were the final team into the 2024 playoff because the committee took into account the subjective things college football says it cares about.

At ACC Media Days, SMU's players and coached spoke about their successful 2024 campaign and how they hope it inspires an even better year in 2025.

Now you know when SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee threw shade at the SEC, that it wouldn’t go unchallenged, especially from SEC host and college football analyst, Paul Finebaum. Let’s just say Finebaum took offense to what Lashlee had to say about the conference he covers. At the ACC Media Days, Lashlee called out the SEC for being top-heavy.

From the Big 12’s Brett Yormark calling his league the “deepest” conference in the sport, to the Southeastern Conference’s Greg Sankey passing out analytic packets at the SEC spring meetings, to the Big Ten’s obsession of how many conference games the SEC mandates, there is as much politicking in college football as in politics itself.

Shortly after Finebaum’s on-air rebuke, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin added his voice to the fray via Instagram, sharing Lashlee’s original comments and tagging Finebaum’s show account with the message, “Get him @finebaumshow.”