Paul Finebaum reveals biggest story coming out of National Championship game

On3 imageby:Jonathan Wagner01/22/22

Jonathan Wagner

It appears that college football is still pretty far away from potential expansion of the College Football Playoff. Despite optimism in recent months, talks have seemingly come to a crushing stalemate. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum talked on The Opening Kickoff on 105.5 WNSP radio after the National Championship, where he called the sport a “wreck” due to the inability to come to an agreement on CFP expansion.

“No, it’s not,” Finebaum said on if seeing the same teams in the College Football Playoff over and over is good for the sport. “College football is a wreck at the moment. I know if you’re a Georgia fan, you don’t want to hear that. You’re celebrating and you should be. But to me, the story out of Indianapolis wasn’t Georgia winning. It was the fact that the commissioners met all weekend long and came out of it in worse off than they were when they started.”

There were hopes of a potential 12-team playoff being approved and in place within the next season or two. But to Finebaum, the decision makers’ inability to compromise has resulted in a major step back when it comes to hopes of expansion.

“There are so many divisions in the sport,” Finebaum added. “There are so many obstacles to progress. Exactly six months ago, we were all giddy. We were two years away from a 12-team playoff. And we’re nowhere near that right now because everyone is more concerned about their own fight. When I was interviewing (SEC Commissioner) Greg Sankey at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday night, I felt like I was interviewing one of the party leaders in Congress. These guys just refuse to compromise on any point. It is really shameful to watch the leaders of college sports in action.”

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff shares Finebaum’s frustrations with expansion talks

Like Finebaum, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff is frustrated with where things are right now regarding playoff expansion. Kliavkoff believes that fans were “misled” with the early optimism that came in recent months.

“The fans were misled,” Kliavkoff told Paul Finebaum. “They were basically shown a format in June, that did not have the approval of all the people that needed to approve it.” He called this a mistake that fans and media alike took to heart and ran with it. There was never any validity to it.

“I hope we don’t ever do that again. It’s a self inflicted wound,” he said. “… I just don’t think that’s the way we should be doing business.”