When the College Football Playoff selection committee chose SMU over Alabama despite the Mustangs losing to Clemson in the ACC Championship game the day before, it surprised many fans and analysts.
ESPN’s Paul Finebaum was among them, as he seemed to indicate he fully expected the Crimson Tide to sneak into the 12-team field.
On Sunday, Finebaum accused the selection committee — and more specifically chair Warde Manuel — of some slightly shady behavior as he laid into them both for hinting Alabama would make the final playoff bracket if SMU lost the ACC Championship game only to reverse course less than 24 hours later.
“I think there’s a little bit of confusion,” Finebaum said, via On3. “I think there’s a little bit of double-talk coming from Warde Manuel. I think more than a little bit, because he set one criteria and then I think everybody watching the ACC game last night could see what was happening. That amazing comeback, the last-second walk-off.
“And you start thinking if I’m in a room with a bunch of people, we’re all watching that, we’re probably going to gravitate toward SMU. And I think that’s what happened. But I think they forgot their criteria on the way toward awarding SMU the berth.”
Finebaum even went a step further, claiming the selection committee made its decision based on which option would create the least amount of blowback not only this year but in the future.
Had Alabama gotten in and SMU been left out, many believe it would have been the committee’s way of saying what happens in conference championship games don’t really matter for determining the playoff field.
But because SMU lost on a last-second field goal to a playoff team, the committee deemed that more impressive than anything Alabama had done during the regular season.
“They’re being spun non-stop, even though they say they’re not,” Finebaum added. “There’s all kinds of tributaries that go into that room and all kinds of people that represent other people, and I also think they thought about one more thing that was even more important than the hangover — they thought about if they give this to Alabama, yeah the hue and cry nationally is going to be how come Alabama got in, poor SMU.
“And on top of that, they would have almost been issuing a Supreme Court edict rendering these conference championship games null-and-void. And the commissioners really can’t afford that, even the Southeastern Conference commissioner who lost out today. And I think that’s what this was really all about.”