Paul Finebaum takes aim at College Football Playoff frauds, 'lousy' committee

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum took his latest shot at the College Football Playoff committee and “frauds,” as in, Indiana and SMU.

With the first round of the playoffs looking like a majority of the first round (or semifinal games in the four-team playoff) since the CFP’s inception, Finebaum took the opportunity to take more shots at deserving teams or undeserving teams. Indiana and SMU were nearly non-competitive against Notre Dame and Penn State, respectively.

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“Well, it obviously helped to be at home, but it would have been a lot better if we had some real teams playing in the playoffs, as opposed to a couple of frauds,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “And that’s the disappointing part. I know it sounds a little bit like crying over spilled milk, but the committee did a lousy job. And you know, we as college football fans paid for it Friday night and all day Saturday. And I know the worst loss was Tennessee, but Tennessee did something to get into the playoff. Indiana did nothing. SMU did nothing. And that’s really what my biggest beef is on this Sunday.”

With just the first round in the rearview mirror, in the first year of the 12-team playoff mind you, Finebaum and Barrie played a little revisionist history.

Paul Finebaum attacks CFP committee once again

It did beg the question though, would six or eight teams in a playoff be better than 12? The sample size being what it is probably draws an inconclusive result as of now.

“Most years there’s really barely four and maybe five, and on that rare year, you could even argue six, as we saw last year,” Finebaum said of national title contenders. “But most years there are not. So I don’t think we should have been surprised by this. And by the way, I don’t think I would have minded as much if Miami had gone up to Penn State and gotten blown out, or South Carolina to Ohio State or something like that. But it just bothered me to hear Curt Cignetti run his mouth, talking like he’s actually done something. What he’s done is beating Purdue 66-0 and beaten a bunch of middling teams, but he hasn’t beaten a good team. 

“And the two games that he had against quality opposition, he got his head taken off. You know, SMU is a little different. I mean, we just like that story, not to rehash three weeks ago. But yeah, I don’t think it would have been dramatically different, because everybody had flaws. And I know Lane Kiffin is everyone’s favorite pinata this morning, but at least he spoke his mind. I mean, he was speaking yesterday and Friday night as a college football fan.” 

Being fine with blowouts is a curious take from anybody, but it seems Finebaum would’ve been fine with the teams that just missed out. That’d be Miami, or perhaps an Alabama, South Carolina or Ole Miss, playing a non competitive game against the CFP’s home teams in the first round.

Overall, Finebaum said he saw this coming regardless of who was in.

“You knew that the Indiana game wouldn’t be good, you knew the SMU game wouldn’t,” Finebaum said. “The two games on Saturday afternoon, and they had a chance, but they didn’t deliver. So, in other words, you know, Ohio State, you know, we read too much into one loss, but you can’t just say, ‘Well, you have to throw the Michigan game out.’ It’s only the biggest game of the year they blew it. So they’re capable of doing that again.”