Paul Finebaum leans toward Texas beating Washington in Sugar Bowl
It is officially three weeks from when the College Football Playoff Semifinal games kick off on New Year’s Day, with one of the matchups featuring Texas and Washington squaring off in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
The Huskies and the Longhorns have been dominating in different ways this season, as their contrast in styles will clash in New Orleans with the winner advancing to the national championship game. College football analyst Paul Finebaum joined ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday and was asked who he believes will come out on top in the Sugar Bowl, providing an answer that’s absolutely on brand for the SEC Network television host.
“I have a Texas lean, maybe because I want to see that rematch,” Finebaum admitted. “I’m so tired of hearing about Texas beating Alabama on September 9th, I would like to change that before we shut the door on college football this year.”
Alabama will first have to defeat No. 1 ranked Michigan in their CFP Semifinal game to face the winner of the Sugar Bowl, which likely will not impact who wins between Texas and Washington.
But the possibility of a rematch between Texas and Alabama in the national championship would be exciting following the Longhorns’ 34-24 win over the Crimson Tide in Week 2 at Tuscaloosa. Since that loss Alabama has won 11 straight games, running the table and defeating Georgia in the SEC title game to break their winning streak of 29 consecutive games, showing steady improvement throughout the season.
“And I I think Alabama would be in a significantly better position to beat them, I don’t want to regurgitate all the things you’ve heard now for three months, but with a near Heisman finalist in Jalen Milroe leading the parade I’m really curious to see what the game looks like,” Finebaum explained. “Because I’ve always felt that mistakes were made prior to the game that created what we saw there and if that game had been on the final weekend of the year there would have been a different result.”
Texas is currently a 4-point favorite over Washington while the Crimson Tide are 1.5-point underdogs to Michigan in their respective semifinal matchups. Both games are expected to be close, making any combination of matchups realistic for this year’s national championship game, including a potential rematch.
The Sugar Bowl between Texas and Washington kicks off at 8:45 p.m. ET on January 1 and will be airing on ESPN.