Rhett Lashlee has done the math. It rolls around in the SMU coach’s head every week. The more he thinks about it, the more it doesn’t add up.Why, Lashlee wonders, is the Atlantic Coast Conference fighting what seems to be an uphill battle for respect from the College Football Playoff committee? “To look at our league and say, ‘Well we may be a one-bid league,’ but you look at another league (the Big Ten) that we have a winning record against, and say ‘Oh they’re going to get four in,’” Lashlee said Tuesday, a few hours before the latest CFP rankings had the Mustangs (8-1 overall, 5-0 ACC) as the second team out of the coveted top 12. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”Over the summer, the college football paradigm shifted following the latest round of realignment, with the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference adding bluebloods like USC, Oregon and Texas and the ACC welcoming less-revered programs SMU, Cal and Stanford. What ACC officials and Lashlee’s coaching brethren feared seems to be playing out.“The disrespect (was) there preseason,” Pittsburgh coach Narduzzi said. “I’m sure it’s there midseason.”Narduzzi, whose team is at 7-2 overall and 3-2 in the league with nonconference wins over Big 12 members Cincinnati and West Virginia, believes the ACC is the best league in the country, pointing to parity as proof of its competitiveness. Shouldn’t Georgia Tech toppling Miami and Louisville taking down Clemson in Death Valley be proof of the depth of the league as a whole?Apparently not.“It hurts when you’re beating each other up, no question about it,” Narduzzi said. If you play in the ACC anyway.It doesn’t appear to be much of an issue in the SEC, where Alabama and Ole Miss find themselves inside …
