Paul Finebaum: 'We're stuck with same, boring tournament'

Paul Finebaum isn’t happy with the decision to keep the College Football Playoff at four teams for the foreseeable future. On Monday in an appearance on Keyshawn, JWill and Max on ESPN Radio, Finebaum sounded-off on the decision.

“I think it’s pretty sorry,” Finebaum said, asked about the state of college football at the moment. “I was sitting here trying to come up with a reaction to the news that broke on Friday afternoon, and I was really sad. Because this is a sport that I love. It has tens of millions of followers across the country, if not more. It’s sad that a group of people — who are all smart, who are all supposedly well-meaning — a group of academicians and commissioners, can’t sit in a room.

“They spent three days in Indianapolis six weeks ago trying to figure this thing out, and they can’t figure this thing out. And they can’t do it. Because they all have their own leagues they’re representing. And they just can’t come to an agreement.”

Continuing, Finebaum placed a lot of blame on the Rose Bowl for holding the College Football Playoff down.

“A lot of it has to do with the Rose Bowl,” added Finebaum. “You always hear the Rose Bowl at four o’clock on New Year’s Day, and the broadcasters talking about the sun setting over the San Gabriel mountains. That means something to the people of the Pac-12 and the Big Ten. I’ve been there. It’s a nice event. I’ve been to better.

“The point being, they won’t come off of that. They will not move the game for the betterment of college football. As a result, we get stuck in this conversation.”

Finebaum: ‘Stuck with the same boring tournament.’

Finally, Finebaum dug his heels in even deeper — wondering why the country isn’t more upset with the decision.

“The 12-team Playoff wasn’t going to guarantee excitement, but it was going to be similar to the NFL Playoffs. Where there’s competition to get in. There’s competition to be in the Wild Card, to have a bye, to have home field,” stated Finebaum. “That’s all gone. We have the same, boring Playoff that we’ve had since 2014.

“It’s interesting that the audience has not groaned. .. We’ve had two Alabama-Georgia games in the last four years. Does the country really want that? No. And when you have a playoff, you open the door. As we just got done watching with the Super Bowl, for upsets. For exciting games.

“Now, we’re stuck with the same boring tournament for the next four years.”