Paul Finebaum, Heather Dinich say Texas’s CFP hopes not dead yet
Published:
Most college football teams would be eliminated from playoff contention upon suffering their third loss of the season, but ESPN’s analysts believe that Texas could become an exception to that notion.
The Longhorns were handed their third defeat by Georgia on Saturday night in 35-10 fashion, but with Arch Manning & Co. still eyeing a home date with unbeaten Texas A&M on their schedule, they have one more chance to truly impress the committee.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich and Paul Finebaum discussed that point Sunday morning, with Dinich being asked if Texas’ CFP hopes are truly dead.
“No, they’re absolutely not because they still have another opportunity against a Top 5 team when they play Texas A&M,” Dinich said. “A lot can still happen above them…remember the conference championship games still have to be played! They’re right on the bubble.”
Dinich added that had BYU lost to TCU on Saturday night, Texas would have moved back into her projected field.
Finebaum agreed with Dinich’s idea, explaining that while he’s personally not encouraged by what he saw from UT on Saturday night, he does see a path for them to win out and sneak into the CFP.
“I think Heather makes a great point, and we can be prisoners of the moment and say that ‘Texas is dead’ when they’re not,” Finebaum said. “And when you saw A&M play yesterday, you can begin to think that Texas has a chance to win that game. But they just looked so bad last night, it’s hard to imagine them overcoming all of this.”
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
