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Paul Finebaum, Heather Dinich debate LSU, Tennessee as CFP committee's biggest headache

Stephen Samraby:Steve Samra11/16/22

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Josh Heupel (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) | Brian Kelly (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich of ESPN believe the College Football Playoff could be crashed by the LSU Tigers.

It’s no guarantee the Tigers make it, even if they win the remainder of their games — including the SEC Championship Game — due to their two losses on the season. Still, the ESPN analysts believe Brian Kelly and company could be a massive headache for decision makers.

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“LSU winning the SEC,” answered Dinich, asked which scenario would cause the committee the biggest headache moving forward. “That’s because they would be the first two-loss team in the College Football Playoff. Think about this, they beat Georgia, what do you do with Georgia? Georgia’s sitting there with a win against Tennessee, which at the time was the committee’s No. 1 team. Well, wait a minute, what do you do with Tennessee, who beat LSU at Baton Rouge 40-13? They hammered them.

“So you’ve got three of those SEC teams, what do you do with undefeated TCU? It’s that — that is just the worst thing.”

In response, Finebaum agreed with Dinich’s sentiment, but added he believes the final spot in the College Football Playoff will come down to either the Tennessee Volunteers or USC Trojans.

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“Well, I think at that point you started wondering where does everyone go, and I think what happens is TCU is going to work it’s way in,” added Finebaum. “TCU controls it’s own destiny. Tennessee is the wild card though, and as much as we want to push USC, don’t forget, Tennessee won by 27 at Baton Rouge. LSU is really an interesting card right here. They still need to win at A&M. That’s important, because if they don’t win there in a week and a half, and I don’t know why they won’t, A&M has lost seven games after being the preseason No. 6 team, they change the direction of everything.

“But I think it should come down to Tennessee and USC, because Michigan, should it lose to Ohio State, is going to go bye bye.”

Regardless, we’ve seen stranger things happen in the College Football Playoff era. Time will tell which programs get a ticket to the dance, but LSU will be looking to have their fingerprints all over it either way.