Jon Sumrall calls for the CFP to continue allowing access to at least one G5 team

Debate over non-power conference teams qualifying for the College Football Playoff has raged after two Group of Five teams made this year’s field. It will continue heading into the offseason as both Tulane and James Madison lost their first-round matchups to Ole Miss and Oregon, respectively.

Following the 41-10 loss to Ole Miss, former Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall shared his perspective on the debate. Notably, his team finished the year with 11 wins — and won their conference championship.

“I mean, look, (we won) our conference champion and the rules are what they were, and I think there should be access for at least one G5 team moving forward,” Sumrall said. “I do. I think you should have given the American champion an opportunity before the ACC champion this year because we beat the ACC champion. So Duke won the ACC Championship; we beat them.”

Duke finished the year as a five-loss ACC champion, causing Tulane to move up to the No. 11 seed, while James Madison was given the nod as the 12th seed as the fifth highest-ranked conference champion.

This left teams like Notre Dame, Texas, BYU and others out of the playoff field when those programs believed they had done enough to make the tournament. Instead, there was even more controversy when Miami was given the last at-large bid over the Fighting Irish.

This had been after Notre Dame had been ranked ahead of the Hurricanes since the CFP rankings began. This was despite Miami having a head to head win over the Irish during the season

Some have argued that the playoffs should be between the 12 best teams. According to the final CFP top 25 rankings, Tulane ranked No. 20 overall and JMU was No. 24.

“I do understand the gripe. By how we played (against Ole Miss), we maybe didn’t help the critics of that,” Sumrall said. “But I think there should at least be one G5 representative. But I’m not in charge of the playoff. I need to coach whatever team I’m coaching better than what I did tonight. That’s what I’ve got to worry about.”

It remains to be seen what types of changes will be made to the College Football Playoff moving forward. Talk of potential expansion to 14 or 16 teams have been rumored, which could help the argument to continue to include non-power conference teams in the College Football Playoff moving forward.