PAUL FINEBAUM MAKES STANCE ON ALABAMA QUITE CLEAR

This fall, the brand new conference realignment sets in most notably with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC. Four years ago, their announcement set a tectonic shift in the sport as USC and UCLA followed suit to the Big Ten, which led to the destruction of the Pac-12. 

There are now two clear super conferences with the SEC and Big Ten filled with 34 of the top programs in the country. There are no longer divisions in these conferences in football to determine who makes the conference title game. 

Other than those two headlines, this fall is also the inaugural season of the 12-team college playoff, which might not even exist for more than a season or two as an expansion to 14 or 16 has already been discussed. 

Predicting what is going to happen with all these new teams, the committee's views on each conference's resumes, and winning multiple playoff games is utterly impossible.

Nonetheless, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum revealed on The Paul Finebaum Show his prediction for the SEC. 

"As far as right now in the SEC game, I would go with everyone else saying Georgia and Texas," Finebaum said. "I think Alabama will make the (playoff) field, though."

Getting to this point would be interesting. Georgia plays both Texas and Alabama during the regular season, but the Longhorns and Crimson Tide don't match up. 

Georgia would need to at least split those two contests and run the table through the rest of the SEC gauntlet to make it to Atlanta. 

Texas will be favored in every other SEC game of their season except for the Georgia game, so either beating the Bulldogs and going undefeated in SEC play or losing to Georgia and winning every other game would give the Longhorns a strong chance of advancing to the conference title game. 

As for Alabama, it seems as if Finebaum is predicting a 10-2 regular-season finish. With Georgia coming to Bryant-Denny Stadium and road trips to Wisconsin, Oklahoma, LSU, and Tennessee on the schedule, two losses seem imminent. However, a 3-2 record over those five games and 7-0 throughout the rest of the season would surely be good enough for an at-large bid into the 2024 College Football Playoff. 

2024-07-02T22:54:41Z dg43tfdfdgfd