College Football Playoff rankings: Paul Finebaum, Heather Dinich preview the most important thing
By Keith Farner
Published:
College Football Playoff rankings will be revealed for the first time on Tuesday night, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich offered their thoughts on what to expect.
The ESPN commentator and reporter agreed on what they think will be the top 4 during an appearance on “Get Up” on Tuesday morning with Mike Greenberg.
“Today, right now, Greeny, I would go with Georgia No. 1 for obvious reasons,” Dinich said. “No. 2 Alabama, even though they have 1 loss, they’re in the top 5 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. I’m curious though, what their best win is, watch tonight, where is Ole Miss ranked. And then at 3, I have Michigan State, Kenneth Walker III should be on everybody’s Heisman Watch right now. What he did against Michigan was outstanding. And then at 4, I’ve got the Bearcats. Their win against Notre Dame to me trumps anything Oklahoma has done to this point. But I’m very curious to see what the committee does with them because their strength of schedule right now is 100th in the country and their past 2 wins against Navy and Tulane, those teams are 3-13.”
Finebaum said that the committee’s opinion on the nature of the rankings will likely be revealed by one team.
“It’s Election Day in America and you always hear the same things, Florida, Florida, Florida. It’s Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Cincinnati. Where do they land, Greeny?,” Finebaum said. “If they are at the 4-line or below, forget about it. They need to be high because their schedule does not help them the rest of the way. They have 1 good game left and even that game against SMU has been devalued. The Notre Dame game, it’s very big, that’s a huge win, and Notre Dame has helped them, but nobody else has. The Indiana win now is pure garbage and they had better watch out. So keep your eye on Cincinnati, and as Heather said, and other opponents like Oklahoma, Ohio State, Oregon, there are a million other things to keep your eye on but Cincinnati’s the key.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
