The College Football Playoff committee is going to have some difficult decisions to make after the conference championship games conclude this weekend, and Paul Finebaum may play an indirect role in how things play out.
After some comments he made about Dabo Swinney drew a strong reaction from the Clemson coach early in the week, Finebaum decided that the next program he wanted to insult was Utah. During an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up” Wednesday morning, Finebaum bluntly stated that Oklahoma will get into the CFB playoff over Utah if all of the favorites win this weekend because “the country does not want to see Utah in the College Football Playoff.” Utah Football responded on Twitter by thanking Finebaum for the motivation.
Thanks for the bulletin board material, @finebaum. Keep it coming. https://t.co/wiB0V7C3VJ
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) December 4, 2019
Finebaum isn’t wrong. Most fans would much rather see a one-loss Oklahoma team get into the CFB Playoff over a one-loss Utah team, and a lot of that probably has to do with East Coast bias. That said, Utah is currently ranked No. 5 in the College Football Playoff, which might suggest they will be the next team in if they beat Oregon this weekend and Georgia loses to LSU. Or, perhaps the committee will argue that the winner of the Big 12 Championship Game between No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 7 Baylor had to defeat a much tougher opponent than Oregon, which would allow them to justify putting the Big 12 champion in the playoff over Utah.
No matter what happens, a very tough call will have to be made after Saturday. We’ve already laid out how a number of crazy scenarios could play out, and some of them would rightfully leave either Utah (assuming they beat Oregon) or the Big 12 champion feeling slighted.
