Paul Finebaum Names 'Ultimate Flaw' With College Football Playoff
01/03/2025 01:54 PM
The College Football Playoff semifinals are set and none of the teams that got a first-round bye are in the final four.
All four teams that got a bye to the quarterfinals lost, including Georgia. Georgia, who won the SEC, got crushed by Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, 23-10.
The Bulldogs were lethargic offensively and couldn't do much against the Fighting Irish's stout defense.
ESPN's Paul Finebaum watched each quarterfinal game and thinks the "ultimate flaw" with the College Football Playoff is the automatic bye system.
"I think you have to remember that two of those bye teams really had no business getting byes, and that was the ultimate flaw in the system," Finebaum said, via On3. "Arizona State and Boise State should not have — should have been playing on the road the very first weekend, and we wouldn't even have this conversation."
While the Sun Devils and the Broncos lost to lower-seeded teams, they still earned their seeds by winning their respective conferences. They were two of the top teams in the country but got beat by two other very good teams. Sometimes, that happens in a playoff field.
The CFP Committee will definitely fine-tune this format but it's still too early to tell if the automatic bye system is a fatal flaw or not.
The CFP semifinals will see the Penn State Nittany Lions play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Orange Bowl on January 9 while the Texas Longhorns and Ohio State Buckeyes play in the Cotton Bowl on January 10.
These are expected to be two great games, with the winners moving on to play in the CFP National Championship Game on January 20.
Both semifinal games next week will get going at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Related: Paul Finebaum Knows Who To Blame For Georgia's Loss To Notre Dame
