Paul Finebaum makes wild suggestion for Alabama rooting interests on Championship Weekend

Paul Finebaum knows the contentious history between Alabama and Clemson.

The SEC Network host – like most Crimson Tide fans over the age of 8 – remembers the Tigers’ infamous Deshaun Watson-to-Hunter Renfrow “pick play” touchdown with one second remaining to win the 2016 national championship. He remembers hotshot true freshman Trevor Lawrence out-dueling Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa to win the 2018 title in blowout fashion two years later.

Given that history, it makes Paul Finebaum’s suggestion about who Crimson Tide fans should be cheering for in Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game between No. 8 SMU (11-1) and No. 17 Clemson (9-3) all the more perplexing.

“They need Clemson to win,” Finebaum said during an early Friday hit on ESPN’s SportsCenter, “and frankly they would like to see Clemson win big, because if that happens then it would possibly, maybe even likely, knock SMU out of the Playoffs.”

With no more games on its schedule, No. 11 Alabama (9-3) currently stands in prime position to secure the College Football Playoff‘s final at-large bid following Tuesday night’s penultimate CFP Top 25 rankings reveal. Of course, with Championship Weekend starting Friday night, there will be movement ahead of Selection Day on Sunday.

CFP committee chairman Warde Manuel may have opened the door for Finebaum when the Michigan athletic director was directly asked if an SMU loss to Clemson could drop a two-loss Mustangs below a three-loss Crimson Tide.

“Potentially, yes,” Manuel said Tuesday night. “And (SMU) can move above teams, as well. Again, it just depends on the outcome of the game.”

Still, given Alabama’s current position, as well as the 17th-ranked Tigers facing a do-or-die situation necessitating a win Saturday to secure its own Playoff bid, the easiest path for the Tide to make the final 12-team field would be little to no movement in front of them.

That would mean No. 8 SMU remaining unbeaten against ACC competition, and even No. 10 Boise State claiming a second-straight Mountain West Championship and the No. 4 overall seed as the Playoff’s highest-ranked Group of Five champ. The winner of the Big 12 Championship between No. 15 Arizona State (10-2) and No. 16 Iowa State (10-2) would then round out the 12-team field.

Greg McElroy predicts ‘dangerous precedent’ if SMU drops below Alabama

Given the implications at stake during Championship Weekend, ESPN’s Greg McElroy predicted one outcome and subsequent move by the CFP selection committee could set a “dangerous precedent.”

If the Mustangs drop below the Crimson Tide on Selection Day, McElroy worried what type of impact that decision would have on future rankings.

“I think the situation … is a bit of a slippery slope because, now, you’re basically de-incentivizing participation in these conference championship games,” McElroy said on Thursday’s SportsCenter of SMU potentially falling out of the bracket. “SMU’s resume is eerily similar to Miami’s where their best win right now is against a Duke team that is not currently ranked. Their second-best win is against Louisville – also outside the committee’s Top 25. … So if the committee punishes SMU (out) for playing that 13th game, I do think that is a dangerous precedent to set knowing the value of conference championship games to the sport, and I just don’t know if the committee’s real comfortable with doing that at the moment.”

Nick Schultz contributed to this report.