Did the selection committee get it right by favoring the SMU Mustangs over the Alabama Crimson Tide for the final at-large berth in this year’s 12-team College Football Playoff?
That’s a topic being discussed around college football after the series of events that led to Alabama (9-3 overall) missing the CFP for just the third time since the playoff’s original four-team debut in 2014.
At least one prominent college football analyst thinks the committee made the wrong choice. ESPN and SEC Network commentator Paul Finebaum appeared on “Get Up” with host Mike Greenberg Monday morning. Finebaum was asked if he believed the committee had made the right call by picking SMU over Alabama.
“I don’t, Greeny, but I also don’t want to waste the audience’s time with a lot of fake outrage. SMU has a very good record (but) they don’t have a very good resume. Alabama has a good resume and record, but they also have so many bad moments that I think they cost themselves.”
Finebaum mentioned Alabama’s brutal 24-3 loss on Nov. 23 to an Oklahoma Sooners team that finished 6-6. It was a game the Crimson Tide were heavily favored to win. Instead, Alabama failed to score a touchdown in a game for the first time since 2011.
Greenberg said that he believed the committee had no choice but to take SMU after the Mustangs reached their conference championship game. He claimed that, had Alabama been ahead of SMU in the final CFP rankings, it would have set a precedent and led to a scenario where teams would begin “boycotting or forfeiting” conference championship games.
“This was a decision that was made last Tuesday much more than it was made (Sunday),” Greenberg said.
Finebaum agreed and singled out Warde Manuel by saying that the CFP committee chairman “completely blew it.”
“The biggest problem this committee had is that Warde Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan, got up on Tuesday night and completely blew it. He said things that committee chairmen never say… He put a road block up and he essentially said what you alluded to.
“And the reason why the committee went in their direction is there are people that represent college football and, to make it easy for the audience, conference championship games bring in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, and (the committee) would have, in essence, issued a Supreme Court ruling by saying that they are null and void.”
Finebaum closed by saying that Alabama got “jobbed,” but he added that the Crimson Tide had no one to blame but themselves.
He also offered a prediction on the future of conference championship games moving forward.
“So Alabama got jobbed, but again, Alabama did it to themselves. (The committee) preserved the conference championship games at least for another year, but they’re not going to be around long. You and I both know that.”
Alabama will face Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised by ESPN.
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