Paul Finebaum Is Angered By The First College Football Playoff Rankings

As much as ESPN’s Paul Finebaum may love seeing his beloved SEC teams in the College Football Playoff, he was not at all amused by the wild first ranking released last night.

Appearing on Get Up, Finebaum gave his thoughts on the ranking and was aghast. He called the entire rankings “discombobulated” and joked that the Selection Committee might have been “drunk.”

“I don’t really know if I can make much sense out of it because it is about as discombobulated a ranking as I’ve ever seen. I would use words like the committee was drunk, but that would be inappropriate for such an august group of people, but it really doesn’t make any sense,” Finebaum said.

“It is about as discombobulated a ranking as I’ve ever seen.”@finebaum shares his thoughts on the latest CFP rankings ???? pic.twitter.com/fvgBwP1rQv

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 4, 2026

As for specifics, Finebaum stated point-blank that he feels Alabama being No. 5 was terrible and that they should not be nearly as far ahead of No. 13 Tennessee as they are after the way the Volunteers wrecked the Crimson Tide a few weeks ago.

“Trying to make sense out of this would literally drive me crazy because there isn’t really a lot of sense. Even though I’m sitting in Alabama today, Alabama has no business being where they are. That is truly absurd to have Alabama that far ahead of Tennessee, a team that just disemboweled them a couple of weeks ago in Neyland Stadium,” Finebaum said.

The Insanity

Alabama has already become one of the highest-ranked two-loss teams in College Football Playoff history for the first ranking of the year. At that position, they can probably even afford to lose a third game and still comfortably find themselves inside the postseason tournament.

They play LSU on the road this weekend in what is by far their most difficult remaining game on the schedule. After that it’s a road game against last-place Vanderbilt, a home game against FCS Chattanooga and finally the Iron Bowl against a 4-4 Auburn team.

So even if Alabama loses to LSU, they appear to have a straight shot to the College Football Playoff.

Insanity.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Nov 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.