Paul Finebaum rips Group of Five inclusion in 12-team playoff: ‘Sick and tired of it’

Among the features of the new 12-team College Football Playoff format is a guaranteed spot for the highest-ranked champion from a Group of Five conference, which will offer an opportunity for a program from outside the sport’s traditional power structure to compete for a national championship.

One of the most prominent voices in college football isn’t pleased with the development.

In an interview this week with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic on their Birmingham, Alabama radio show, longtime college football analyst Paul Finebaum harshly criticized the Group of Five being automatically included in the new playoff format, which will take effect this year.

“I’m just sick and tired of it,” Finebaum said. “I don’t want to watch those games. I want to see the best. We’re still not exactly getting the best versus the best, but as the tournament moves on, we will be. I know the media loves the underdog, but there just aren’t very many underdog stories. That’s for Hollywood. Let’s leave college football to the best trying to play the best.”

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The ESPN analyst’s critique centers around what he sees as a competitive gap between teams from the sport’s Power Five (soon to be Power Four) conferences, particularly the SEC and Big Ten, and the five other FBS leagues — the American Athletic Conference, the Sun Belt, Conference USA, the Mountain West and the Mid-American Conference.

“Every time you criticize the Group of Five, you get the three or four fans from Tulane coming after you and then the Boise State crowd, everybody in Cincinnati,” Finebaum said. “But the fact of the matter is they have played great football and they have been outliers and have made noise occasionally. But the Group of Five just…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/paul-finebaum-rips-group-five-193255101.html

Author : The Tennessean

Publish date : 2024-03-05 19:32:55

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