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Paul Finebaum predicts number of SEC teams in the Playoff after ‘body blow’ of Week 13
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Paul Finebaum has seen plenty of glorious weekends for the SEC over the years, probably too many to count.
But Week 13 of the 2024 season wasn’t one of them, and the ESPN college football analyst went on the McElroy & Cubelic In The Morning show for his weekly appearance Monday to share all the gory details.
There were 3 SEC teams in particular who found disaster on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Alabama stumbled hard in Norman, losing 24-3 to Oklahoma in a primetime party for the Sooners that just might have dashed the Crimson Tide’s Playoff hopes. Early in the day, Ole Miss fell at Florida, suffering its 3rd loss of the season like Alabama and possibly seeing its Playoff hopes die in The Swamp.
Then there was Texas A&M, which had 0 margin for error heading into Week 13 but also left town with a 3rd loss, falling in a 4-overtime thriller at Auburn.
Three games and 3 road losses for 3 SEC teams, who all suffered that cruel 3rd loss. Finebaum was asked just how hard the SEC was hit in terms of number of teams he now thinks will make the College Football Playoff.
“It was a body blow. Because we were hoping, expecting for maybe 5 schools in, and today I don’t see it,” said Finebaum. “Everybody can argue about the paths and things can change, I get all that, but it’s hard for me to believe that you could argue with a straight face for the inclusion of Ole Miss and Alabama this morning. Texas A&M is a wild card, but other than that, I think the number is pretty well settled on 3 (teams).”
We’ll see if the final week of the regular season changes that number for Finebaum.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
