Paul Finebaum explains why he’d have Alabama in CFP over undefeated FSU, Washington

Paul Finebaum believes a 1-loss Alabama team should be in the College Football Playoff over an undefeated Florida State or Washington.

Finebaum joined First Take Wednesday morning alongside Stephen A. Smith and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Finebaum argues that an a 1-loss Alabama team has a better resume than undefeated Florida State or Washington because it will have beaten several great SEC team, including Georgia in the SEC Championship. He also says that Michigan should not make the Playoff if it  loses to Ohio State.

Here’s a transcription of the segment:

Stephen A. Smith: Paul, piggybacking off of Doggy’s point, Washington runs the table or Florida State runs the table, do you leave them out in favor of Alabama because you think they’re better?

Paul Finebaum: You better believe it. Stephen A., I’m not trying to sell you on Alabama because you’ve been selling the country on Alabama for years. You think about the accomplishment. So Florida State would’ve had to have beaten Louisville, a team that lost to Pittsburgh. You’re talking about Alabama losing to Texas, yeah, it was Sept. 9. But Alabama would have beaten Georgia and you’re going to leave them home, and quite frankly, I don’t think you can leave Georgia home either. Doggy makes a really good point about Michigan-Ohio State except 1 thing. Michigan would have lost to Ohio State at home, and Doggy, you know Michigan played a garbage schedule. I mean absolutely trash.

Stephen A.: Should Michigan lose to Ohio State, even in a nail biter, should they be among the 4 teams?

Paul Finebaum: I don’t think so, I don’t agree with that because I think you have to have accomplished something. At least Florida State went out and played somebody, they played LSU, which was a top 5 team when they lost. We get so caught up in all this and thank goodness next year we’re moving on. But we should’ve had a 12-team Playoff this year, except the commissioners of the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12, they didn’t like the SEC getting Oklahoma and Texas, so they threw a fit. But the point being, we get caught up in all this and then we listen to that chairman on Tuesday night drone on about all these things, and our head’s about to explode. And this isn’t because I’m coming at this from an SEC perspective, but you better believe Alabama’s one of the 4 best teams in the country if they beat Georgia. That’s not even debatable. And Georgia is a powerful team, you can lose a one-off. But when you start trying to bring Florida State into the picture without Jordan Travis, we are going to have another TCU if we let Florida State in there over somebody else.

Andrew Peters