Paul Finebaum on G5 teams in College Football Playoff: 'They'll be sacrificial lambs'

We are entering a new era of the College Football Playoff in 2024. The playoff will expand from four teams to 12 and for the first time, Group of Five teams will be guaranteed access to a chance at winning the national championship.

One of my biggest complaints about college football and the College Football Playoff, was the not every college football team could win the national title. That's different in college basketball. Regardless of what team you are or what conference you play, if you win all of your games, you'd end up as the national champion.

That wasn't always the case in college football. We have seen teams like Utah, UCF, and Boise State go undefeated in a Group of Five conference, only to settle for a major bowl bid and a top-5 ranking at the end of the season.

Now, with the top five conference champions guaranteed a berth in the College Football Playoff and only four major conferences, one Group of Five is guaranteed a shot at the national championship (with a playoff invite).

Not everyone thinks it's a good idea though. Cue notable SEC homer Paul Finebaum, who doesn't think that the Group of Five teams will stand a chance.

“There is no way they can compete,” Finebaum said via On3. “They are simply going to be sacrificial lambs."

“Knowing these commissioners, they try to be collegial,” he added. “I wouldn’t be. You wouldn’t be. But that’s why we’re in the fields that we’re in and they are able to get people to coalesce in a room around them like that.”

Finebaum also isn't correct 100 percent of the time. In fact, he's been wrong a lot, especially about Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines. Finebaum said Jim Harbaugh would never beat Ohio State. He did it three straight times by an average of 14 points and won three straight Big Ten titles.

Finebaum picked Alabama to beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl and was wrong again. Basically, he kept picking against Michigan because he has some weird vendetta against Harbaugh.

Point being, Finebaum isn't the end-all-be-all authority on college football. Most of the time, Group of Five teams will lose, but they deserve the chance to prove themselves and eventually, one day, cinderella will slay a giant.