Paul Finebaum blasts ‘utterly ridiculous’ 24-team CFP

Credit: Crain & Cone

Battlelines have been drawn for several weeks now over the possibility of the College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams.

While some have argued that it’s a decision out of step with what makes college football great, others see it as a fantastic solution to some of the sport’s glaring problems.

You can put ESPN and SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum in the former camp.

“First of all, at the risk of upsetting all the people at the AFCA, when did they get a vote in any of this?” Finebaum said on Wednesday’s Crain & Cone On3 show. “I mean, they’re a nice organization, they have a good convention every year … but I don’t really care what their opinion is about (Playoff expansion).

“I do not understand why people in the sport of football like the AFCA – and I interviewed their president (Craig Bohl) a couple of weeks ago, he’s a perfectly nice guy, but he ought to keep his nose out of this – how they could endorse a 24-team Playoff — it’s utterly ridiculous,” Finebaum continued. “It’s one thing for college basketball to go to 76, it’s not really changing anything. … But this doesn’t make very much sense (in college football). … It’s not even a money grab; it’s an access grab that should not happen in the sport of football, where we used to have two (finalists), and a couple of years ago, we had four, and now we have 12. And to double that and let 8-4 teams in a Playoff when they don’t belong there is completely absurd.”

The Big Ten has long been the leading proponent of expansion and reportedly has everyone on its side except the SEC.

“This really comes down to two people, and that’s the (commissioners of the) Big Ten and the SEC, and the problem right now is they can’t get along,” Finebaum added. “Because Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, was willing to go to 16 but isn’t willing to go to 24. And you can criticize some of his rationale. The conference championship games are over; I don’t really think that’s a debate any longer. It’s just a matter of unwinding them, because the SEC has a very profitable deal worth about $100 million, and they have contracts.”

While the 24-team model has strong support, no formal decision on expansion is expected soon. The CFP committee has until Dec. 1 to decide on any changes to the CFP format for 2027.

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