Paul Finebaum: ‘Everything On the Line’ in Week 7 College Football Rivalry Game

The Alabama Crimson Tide have a few notable rivalry games that get circled on their schedule every season.

Auburn and LSU are two of Alabama’s biggest adversaries, but the Third Saturday in October rivalry against the Tennessee Volunteers is just as fierce of a game as any, which is why ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is so hyped for this year’s meeting.

During a weekend appearance on “SportsCenter,” Finebaum couldn’t contain his excitement when talking about the Week 7 matchup, stating the clash between No. 7 Alabama and No. 8 Tennessee is one of the more important matchups of the college football season.

“I am so Paul in on this that I can’t even breathe right now,” Finebaum said. “This is such an important game. It always is. Everybody knows about the third Saturday in October but there is everything on the line.”

The Crimson Tide are 5-1 coming off a rebound win over South Carolina after getting upset by Vanderbilt the previous week. Conversely, the Vols also rebounded from a 19-14 upset by Arkansas a week ago with a 23-17 overtime win over Florida on Saturday.

Both teams will likely be ranked in the top 10 heading into next weekend’s matchup, and Finebaum didn’t undersell the importance of that game in terms of College Football Playoff implications.

“Let’s say Tennessee loses this game,” Finebaum continued. “That would be two losses. They have Georgia later in the year in Athens. Okay, let’s move Tennessee off the board. What about Alabama? Alabama has looked so poor the last two weeks I can’t even believe we’re talking about them as a Playoff team but we are.

“A loss by Alabama, that’s two losses, and they still have to go to LSU, they have Missouri at home, and then they go to Oklahoma. That LSU game will be their undoing if they can’t beat Tennessee.”

With games remaining against No. 21 Missouri, No. 13 LSU, No. 18 Oklahoma and Auburn, Alabama needs to stack as many impressive wins against quality opponents as possible to stay in CFP contention.

The same can be said for Tennessee, which plays Mississippi State, No. 5 Georgia and Vanderbilt in the weeks after Alabama.

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