College football analyst Paul Finebaum heaped praise on the Big Ten and SEC conference recently on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show. With the 2024 season slowly creeping in, several changes are coming into play with the biggest one being the shift from the 4-team playoffs to a 12-team playoff format.
There have also been reports of further expanding the playoff format to 14 teams with proposals to give the Big Ten and the SEC three automatic berths in the playoffs. There have also been reports of allegedly awarding the champions of these two conferences first-round byes, although Heater Dinch of ESPN stated last week that this idea is slowly starting to fade away.
Paul Finebaum pushed back on the backlash these alleged reports have received and went on to talk about how the end goal of the Power 2 was to go ahead and get more money through these negotiations for a better deal.
"I think the goal of the Big Ten and SEC from Day 1 was to go in there and grab more money. That's the most important thing here is quit giving money to leagues that don't show up and are representative."
Paul Finebaum further talked about how he never strongly supported automatic byes. But he went on to applaud the Power 2 for their efforts in seeking more in terms of money distribution and showcasing their strength as the two most powerful conferences in college football.
"As far as byes, I was never crazy about that. I think we ought to have a representative tournament, and if you give the Big Ten and SEC automatic byes it would skewer the view of it. But I'm sure that was something that was thrown on the table to get everyone else to simply move off trying to go for an equal share. That's just not the way the world works anymore, and I complement the SEC and Big Ten for flexing its muscles in that regard."
Paul Finebaum opens up about which teams should not be in the playoffs
During another appearance on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show, Paul Finebaum shared his opinion about how the Group of Five schools should have eligibility to participate in the playoffs.
He went on to justify his statement by talking about the challenges these schools would face against Power 5 conference teams and how they would have a more realistic chance of winning a championship if they had their own separate title game.
"But let's quit kidding around. We have the haves and have nots now, and for the Group of Five now, they don't need to be bidding for the one spot. I think they would be a lot happier, and their fanbases would be a lot happier trying to have their own championship."
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