Paul Finebaum pushes back against proposed 24-team Playoff: ‘It’s a terrible move’
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Paul Finebaum let loose on Wednesday morning with a bold opinion on the newly proposed 24-team College Football Playoff.
To cut to the chase, the longtime ESPN college football analyst and historian of the sport does not like it one bit. On the morning of Day 2 of the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, Finebaum appeared on ESPN’s Get Up to talk all things college football and was asked to give his 2 cents on a Playoff idea that would double the size of the current 12-team field.
“I don’t understand how 8-4 teams playing in November are going to drive big numbers on TV. You devalue the regular season, and college football has the best regular season in sports,” Finebaum said. “Until 3 years ago, there were four teams in the Playoff, now there’s 12, and if you suddenly go to 24 (teams) you’re letting a lot of average teams get a bid to the CFP as opposed to a bid to the ReliaQuest Bowl. That’s not what playing for a championship game is all about.”
Finebaum’s theory on Playoff expansion is really simple. Too many teams simply means too much excess.
“The first round of the tournament, half of those games are not worth watching anyway,” Finebaum said. “Now, you’re just going to blow it up, make it more bloated. I think it’s a terrible move for college football.”
Here is Finebaum’s full rant on the 24-team Playoff idea:
Finebaum is dead set against the 24-team Playoff proposal, but for now the Playoff only consists of 12 teams. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the best odds to make the 12-team derby of teams who will compete for the national championship in December and January:
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.
