SMU spent every waking minute following its 34-31 loss to Clemson in the ACC championship game wondering and worrying about whether it would earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

In the anxious final moments leading up to the playoff bracket reveal, Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee found relief from an unexpected source.

One minute before ESPN’s playoff selection show, college football reporter Brett McMurphy posted a seismic scoop on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — SMU had earned the final at-large spot in the 12-team playoff field, beating out Alabama, with McMurphy citing unnamed sources.

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For Lashlee, seeing the news did him even more good than a visit to a cardiologist.

“It probably took my heart rate from about 200 to 160,” Lashlee said in an interview with ESPN after the bracket was released. “Until we saw SMU up there, you’re just hanging on the edge.”

While tipping news from a made-for-TV event isn’t anything new in sports — it happens annually with NBA draft selections before they’re announced — it is believed to be the first time any bracket information has been leaked in the playoff’s 11-year history, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.

McMurphy, who now works for sports gambling outlet the Action Network, was previously a college football reporter for ESPN.

Alabama had been projected to make the field after the playoff committee’s penultimate rankings, which had the Crimson Tide at No. 11. But Clemson’s victory against SMU, which came on a 56-yard field goal as time expired, gave the Tigers an automatic spot in the playoff field as the ACC champion, bumping Clemson ahead of Alabama despite being five spots behind the Tide in the committee’s final rankings. The Mustangs’ last-second loss, meanwhile, only knocked it back two spots to No. 10, keeping it one spot ahead of Alabama.

At the very least, the much-debated development led to a jubilant coach.

“Just really, really happy,” Lashlee said. “Thankful to the committee for rewarding our guys for their total body of work.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rhett Lashlee says tweet revealing SMU made CFP lowered his heart rate