Paul Finebaum rejects potential for six SEC teams to make 2024 College Football Playoff

The SEC has made an extremely strong impression early in the college football season. Entering Week 4 with six programs from the conference ranked within the top seven of the latest AP Poll.

The introduction of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff this season has many curious about how many teams will be represented in the postseason per conference. With the conference champions from each of the Power Four leagues receiving an automatic bid and the top four seeds of the CFP with one Group of Five team also getting an automatic bid.

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This leaves seven more sports in the College Football Playoff that could be represented by several different combinations of conference representation. And with the SEC’s current dominance early in the season, ESPN host Mike Greenberg asked college football analyst Paul Finebaum if he believes six total SEC teams could make the College Football Playoff on Get Up.

“No,” Finebaum said. “As much as I want to believe it, and I did not do that ranking by myself, that’s a bunch of people around the country, it’s not going to happen Greeny.”

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Finebaum is an SEC Network host known for his affinity for the Southeastern Conference, but he even believes six teams from the league is a stretch for this year’s 12-team College Football Playoff. Revealing which number he thinks is more realistic for the debut of the new CFP.

“I still think four is the number depending on the Big Ten. If the Big Ten slips, then it could go to five. But right now the operative number is four, it’s just too complicated to make it more,” Finebaum said.

Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Missouri are all currently ranked in the top seven of the AP Top 25 Poll and the top eight of the Coach’s Poll heading into Week 8. All starting off the season on the right foot with undefeated records and impressive wins as they’ve all displayed traits of a potential playoff contender.

But looking forward to the remainder of the season, teams like Missouri, Texas, and Ole Miss are only set to face one opponent out of the top six. With Georgia facing all but one of the SEC’s current top teams ahead of a challenging conference slate.

Inter-conference play within the SEC will ultimately hurt the records of the league’s upper-echelon teams and others. But when the dust settles on the regular season, it will certainly be fascinating to see which teams from the conference will have a College Football Playoff case.