College Football Playoff: Paul Finebaum accuses committee of double talk in Alabama vs SMU debate

Alabama was left out of the College Football Playoff in favor of SMU, causing consternation among some given the selection committee’s tone on the Crimson Tide entering the final weekend of action.

For ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, there was a little bit of ‘double talk,’ which made Sunday’s reveal a bit harder to swallow if you were an Alabama fan.

“It’s not a big surprise when you factor in what they did recently, the just humiliating loss to Oklahoma,” Finebaum said. “But it is a little bit of a surprise if you listen closely to what Warde Manuel said on Tuesday night to Rece (Davis). So I think that got a lot of people at Alabama who were down fired up and then we all started thinking Alabama’s in, Miami‘s out, all Alabama needs is SMU to win or a blowout the other way.”

That’s obviously not the way things played out. Instead, Alabama got the worst case scenario of a narrow Clemson win.

That prevented SMU from falling far enough in the College Football Playoff rankings to work in Alabama’s favor, leaving the Mustangs as the last team in the field rather than the Crimson Tide. But it was that bit of talk from the selection committee that perhaps lent some false hope.

“I think there’s a little bit of confusion,” Finebaum said. “I think there’s a little bit of double talk coming from Warde Manuel. I think more than a little bit, because he set one criteria and then I think everybody watching the ACC game last night could see what was happening. That amazing comeback, the last-second walk-off.

“And you start thinking if I’m in a room with a bunch of people, we’re all watching that, we’re probably going to gravitate toward SMU. And I think that’s what happened. But I think they forgot their criteria on the way toward awarding SMU the berth.”

There was one other major factor that worked in SMU’s favor in the College Football Playoff rankings, Finebaum said.

The ESPN analyst explained that outside influence do impact the committee, particularly when it comes to the long-term sustainability of the College Football Playoff itself.

“They’re being spun non-stop, even though they say they’re not,” Finebaum said. “There’s all kinds of tributaries that go into that room and all kinds of people that represent other people, and I also think they thought about one more thing that was even more important than the hangover.

“They thought about if they give this to Alabama, yeah the hue and cry nationally is going to be how come Alabama got in, poor SMU. And on top of that, they would have almost been issuing a Supreme Court edict rendering these conference championship games null and void. And the commissioners really can’t afford that, even the Southeastern Conference commissioner who lost out today. And I think that’s what this was really all about.”