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SMU -in -chief soccer coach Rhett Lashlee is doubling his belief that ESPN favors certain conferences with his classifications.
ESPN launched its first soccer power index ranking in June. The Mustangs came out as the number 20 among the university football teams that entered the 2025 season, although ACC teams such as Miami (No. 9) and Clemsson (No. 11) were higher on the list.
The football power index is a “measure of the strength of the team that must be the best predictor of a team’s performance in the future for the rest of the season.”
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The southern Methodist coach Rhett Lashlee answers questions from the media during the ACO media days in Hilton Charlotte Uptown. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn images)
Now, ESPN updated those classifications on Friday, and the Mustangs, leaving a surprise journey of university American football playoffs after going 11-3 last season, only ascended to a place to No. 19. Miami and Clemson, however, they demolished the No. 17 and No. 16 respectively.
This led Lashlee to call the ESPN classification system a farce.
Arch Manning, Texas sits at the top of the American football survey AP
“Because everything is manipulated,” he wrote in X.
Lashlee was also a member during the last season, where he questioned his belief that the ACC and Big 12 were failed compared to the Big Ten and the SEC, calling the latter “first category.”
Chief coach Rhett Lashlee of the SMU Mustangs talks to an official during the first half of the ACC 2024 soccer championship at the Bank of America Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Grant Halverson/Getty images)
“There are other leagues that claim depth,” Lashlee said, according to the New York Post. “The SEC has had the same six schools that won the championship since 1964. The same six. Only only one has been different since 1964. That is very too heavy for me. That is not a depth.”
Lashlee clearly not only believes in her Mustangs to be more successful in 2025, but wants a little more respect for the schools she will face.
Clemsson, led by veteran coach in Chief Dabo Swinney, was the school that beat SMU during the ACC 2024, 34-31 championship, although Lashlee’s group was the favorite at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Chief coach Rhett Lashlee of the SMU Mustangs observes before the ACC 2024 soccer championship at the Bank of America Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Grant Halverson/Getty images)
The search for Lashlee to take her Mustangs to the most successful in 2025 begins with her first game against East Texas A&M on August 30.
