No way Jim Phillps' lobbying for the ACC moved the needle any, right?
Maybe Phillips had a quick convo with Swinney at halftime of the championship. Went something like this: "Dabo, looks like y'all are gonna be a lock for the CFP. So I need you to do the right thing for the conference. Make SMU look like they deserve to be here. If you do, I won't forget it."
The payout for each team the conference gets in is $4M (participation) + $3M (expenses) to the conference, and that's if they only make it to the first round. That's a swing of $14M between the ACC and SEC just for selecting SMU over Bama.