Monday on Birmingham FM radio's "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning," SEC Network's Paul Finebaum reacted to the College Football Playoff Committee announcing its final four teams of Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State.
According to Finebaum, the committee got the four playoff teams correct. He argued Alabama did not deserve a spot, despite head coach Nick Saban's last-minute attempt to make a case for the Crimson Tide.
Co-host Cole Cubelic asked the longtime SEC radio host if Alabama deserved to be in the playoff.
"No, they didn't," Finebaum replied. "And I certainly understand fans' frustration, but fans are fans for a reason, Cole. They look at everything through a narrow prism of how it affects them, and I had just not heard a convincing argument to why Alabama deserved to be in."
Finebaum acknowledged that he had been a "flag-waver" of Saban since he arrived in Tuscaloosa but called his ESPN appearance begging to be included in the playoff "disappointing."
"We're trying to identify four teams on the season - not on the Las Vegas point spread -and I thought that was the most disappointing thing I heard," he stated. "For a coach of Nick Saban's intellect to go on national television and use the point spread as the reason for entrance when he was ... a big favorite in the two games he lost. He was an overwhelming favorite in the game at Texas that where he needed a last-second field goal. That probably is the game that may have cost him the berth in a TCU head-to-head comparison.
"[I] understand Nick Saban standing up for his program. I mean, I've heard people say every coach would do that. Well, I didn't see Ryan Day doing that. I didn't see Josh Heupel doing that. I saw Nick Saban doing that, and that's what was so startling to me."
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