Paul Finebaum dissects favorites to win first-ever 12-team Playoff

Paul Finebaum and the rest of the college football world are already beginning to make their predictions for what team they think will win the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.

However, the ESPN analyst doesn’t think there is a clear-cut favorite and said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning that he could see a few different teams making a run and winning it all.

“I don’t think it’s clear-cut. I like Georgia from one side and Oregon from the other side,” Finebaum said. “Oregon is that quiet team, and I don’t mean that we haven’t been watching them all year. We spent so much time talking about Ohio State. I think Ohio State’s path is rather difficult on that front. I don’t think there’s an overwhelming favorite. Georgia and Oregon to me are the 2 most likely.”

While Finebaum is leaning toward either Georgia or Oregon, there are a couple of other teams he thinks could be interesting because of easier paths to the championship.

“You can make a case for Texas on one hand, you can make a case for Notre Dame,” Finebaum said. “Penn State probably has the easiest path but trusting James Franklin is not something I’m willing to do.”

The first round of games in the CFP will be on either Dec. 20 or 21, with the higher-seeded team hosting those games. Those matchups are:

• Indiana at Notre Dame (Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ET ABC)
• SMU at Penn State (Dec. 21, 12 p.m. ET TNT/MAX)
• Clemson at Texas (Dec. 21 4 p.m. ET TNT/MAX)
• Tennessee at Ohio State (Dec. 21 8 p.m. ET ABC)

Mark Kern