Finebaum Rips Swinney

During his annual media outing Tuesday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney discussed “unintended consequences” of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff format that is set to begin this season.

“I think there’s probably unintended consequences for that, too, just like everything, in that probably as we see guys opting out of bowl games and things like that, you’ll probably see some guys if you’re 4-4 and probably out of the playoffs, you’ll probably see some guys head off to Arizona and train (for the NFL Draft). That’s probably an unintended consequence,” Swinney said.

“You’ll probably see some situations where, like you see in the NFL — the Ravens are in the playoffs, they’ve got it locked up, they’ve got the bye or whatever, and well, they’ve got one more game that really means nothing because it’s all about the playoffs. So, do you play Lamar in that game?That’s probably an unintended consequence in college from a tradition standpoint is maybe you’re 11-0 and you’ve got that rivalry game, but you play your biggest foe next week in the conference championship, and if you win that game, you’re going to get a bye. So, those are decisions you’ll probably see play out all throughout college football.”

On Wednesday, during ESPN’s Get Up show, Paul Finebaum reacted to Swinney’s comments on the new playoff format.

Unsurprisingly, the ESPN personality took the opportunity to blast Swinney, with Finebaum calling Swinney’s take “dumb” and saying he is becoming the “get-off-my-lawn” guy with his criticism of the 12-team playoff format.

“No, he’s not right. Dabo, that is just plain dumb,” Finebaum said. “What happened to you? You used to be a voice of reason in college football, and now you’re the ‘get-off-my-lawn’ guy. Everybody knows what we’re doing here. Everybody understands this is essentially the NFL playoffs. Of course, there’s unintended consequences. That is not breaking news, Dabo. Your goal isn’t to find problems with this system. Your goal is to get back in the playoff – some place you haven’t been in a while.”

You can check out the commentary from Finebaum, as well as Get Up host Mike Greenberg and ESPN senior writer/insider and national college football reporter Heather Dinich, on Swinney’s comments below:

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