Paul Finebaum: College Football Playoff committee took easy way out with SMU over Alabama

Paul Finebaum isn’t at all surprised with SMU getting the final spot in the College Football Playoff over Alabama.

Finebaum gave his immediate reaction to the Mustangs being the No. 11 seed in the CFP over the Crimson Tide during ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. With that, he thought the selection committee did what they could to avoid the overall effects of what would have happened had they put ‘Bama in over Southern Methodist. That was then easier to do once SMU only lost in a walk-off in the ACC Championship.

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“Well, I think what this committee did is what committees in intercollegiate athletics do. They try to pick their poison,” said Finebaum. “In this case, they did not want to be responsible for killing conference championship games just yet. You know, video may have killed the radio star years ago. But they did not want to be the ones who ended it because there’s so much money involved and there’s so many people on that committee that are connected to big conferences.”

“They took the easy way out. You know, they could have easily analyzed this differently,” Finebaum said. “But, clearly, they decided that SMU did enough on Saturday night by coming all the way back from a blowout to nearly win the game. They sat there as committees do and go, ‘You know what? We really appreciate their courage.'”

Again, the reaction is what Finebaum believes the CFP Selection Committee was eventually most concerned about. Regardless of resumé, he thinks they didn’t want to deal with anything similar to what happened last year, although in different scenarios, when Alabama got in the playoff over a team that played in the ACC Championship.

“I think, another thing? If I had to – I heard this on Friday in Atlanta among some SEC people. Their biggest concern, if that scenario happened on Saturday night, was that SMU would get in over Alabama. Could have been Ole Miss, could have been South Carolina, as you said. But, because of what happened a year ago when Alabama got in over FSU and everybody started threatening and filing suits? They didn’t want to go through that again,” Finebaum said.

We could certainly keep debating between SMU at 11-2 or Alabama at 9-3. It’s done now, though, with what the committee decided this weekend as the Mustangs headed to Happy Valley while the Crimson Tide are accepting what has looked like would happen after their third loss.

“I mean, listen, anyone, everyone – and we all saw this coming today. I mean, I’m not surprised. You’re not surprised. I don’t think Kalen DeBoer is surprised. This was built into the cake,” said Finebaum. “I think, other than people in Alabama? Nobody’s feeling sorry for Alabama. Quite frankly, I don’t know that many Alabama fans who feel like they got screwed. I mean, they did it to themselves. Two weeks ago, we’re sitting here talking about the blowout in Norman. I think that haunted them.”

“I mean, as people that serve the intercollegiate athletics world, they did (make the right decision) because of what I said in relation to the fallout.”