Paul Finebaum debates College Football Playoff worthiness of 3-loss SEC teams, Penn State

The SEC was already a mess considering how many teams were looking at finishing at 10-2 ahead of the College Football Playoff. Now, after the results of this last weekend, it’s even more muddled as to how many from the league will end up in the playoff.

Paul Finebaum assessed the state of the Southeastern Conference within the CFP now on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. With road losses for Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M, he doesn’t see but one scenario where more than one of their three-loss teams make the field. He couldn’t blame the committee either, as he might normally would, with the outings by the Crimson Tide and Rebels.

“I think what you’re going to hear from the vox populi is we better not get a three-loss SEC team,” said Finebaum. “The only way I could advocate that is if it’s Georgia in the championship game, it’s a very tight game, and they lose. Then I think what the committee does is they just check the box with the best league in football saying, ‘You earned the right in there and whatever.'”

“Beyond that? I mean, I apologize,” Finebaum said. “For those who are interested, I’m not going to stand up and advocate for Ole Miss and Alabama. Would you?”

Alabama losing at Oklahoma and Ole Miss losing at Florida will have a huge effect on this week’s playoff rankings. Going into the final week of the regular season, it will allow for other at-large options to be in the field from the Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12. That’s without even mentioning that Texas A&M removed itself from the conversation completely by losing at Auburn.

This is the case now regardless of if you think any of those three-loss teams from the Southeastern Conference are better, whether by eye test or resumé, than the remaining teams vying for spots in the CFP. That includes the opinion of Finebaum who still thinks some of that is disputable.

“Now, listen,” Finebaum said. “If we had a debate, if we’re sitting there trying to decide Alabama, Ole Miss, Indiana, and Penn State? That’s a different story but we’re not being asked because we would never get on that committee.”

After entering this weekend with four teams in and a way for five to get in, the SEC could have just three teams in now for the CFP. That’d be what they’re looking at, though, with still a week to go and conference championships to determine the possibility of another team of theirs, which would be likely to have three losses, being in the bracket.