Oregon getting a rematch against LSU in the national title game if Okie State loses? Absolutely not, says Paul Finebaum. The Ducks have had their chances and whiffed twice.
Um, twice, Paul? I thought Oregon only has one loss this season.
So tell me why some now think Oregon, which has had two shots against the SEC (remember the Auburn loss in January), deserves another opportunity, assuming the BCS meltdown scenario plays out.
So a loss to last season’s Auburn team combined with a loss to this year’s LSU team disqualifies them from consideration. And that’s different from Alabama’s resume exactly how?
Of course, I’m kidding that he’s even engaged in a rational discussion here. SI.com ought to use this photo on the header of his e-magazine page and be done with the pretense that he possesses a shred of objectivity.
(By the way, since we’re on the topic of pundit logic and the title game, note that Herbstreit is poised to modify the Herbstreit Doctrine… again. You’ve got to admire a man who keeps an open mind like that.)
Get The Picture 
So does the Bama loss to ULM come into play? How far we going back?
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Utah Sugar Bowl anyone?
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How about Bama blowing a 24 point lead at home to Auburn last year too!
And losing the “game of the century” at home as well…..
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In bad taste, given the damage wrought by the bastards in Penn State, but I am gonna say it anyway. That pic of Finebaum got me wondering if anyone walked into the showers on he and Saban and if so was it reported to Mal Moore?
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I know you’re probably right, it probably is too soon but that picture made me think the exact same thing.This is the boy someone in the Bama program is grooming to be his boy toy. God is there not an exercise that people can do to cure those limp wrists, I’m just say’in
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Can he not wear a shirt that at least fits him?
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He has Raptor arms.
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“I’m an excellent driver, excellent driver.”
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“Almost time for Wapner.”
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Looks to me like a doggie beggin’ for a biscuit. I’ve got one for him.
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His stature reminds me of a certain character on the Andy Griffith Show. Just nip it…….
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Did you catch the show a couple of weeks ago where he interviewed the dude who wrote a book about Finebaum? Classic radio:
Finebaum: I’m great, but let’s hear you tell me I’m great.
Author: OK, you’re great.
Finebaum: Thanks. That’s great. Now to a caller.
Pauwwwwwlll: Ur grate, man!
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Looking at that picture makes me think, “Because I have little arms, and a big head”
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Meet the Robinsons ,i like that
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Alabama’s ranked in the top five and Auburn is getting their asses handed to them by everyone they play who’s remotely decent? Looks like it’s time to leap back on board the Bama bandwagon!
Seriously, Finebaum’s worse than the AJC’s sports columnists when it comes to switching bandwagons in midstream.
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Doug, you mean “between phone calls”, bc he can switch on a dime between two immediately subsequent calls.
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How about this scenario: Before the season began it was widely assumed that the SEC champ would have a clear path to the BCS title game. What if the Dawgs win out, including beating a number one ranked LSU in the Dome. USC beats Oregon, Oklahoma beats Okie State, etc. Why couldn’t the argument be made that a two loss SEC champ should play Bama for the BCS title. I know this won’t happen, but I could see it at least being argued. UGA would be the hottest team in the country and would have beaten the #1 team.
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Still have to account for Oklahoma.
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With Oklahoma’s history of gagging in big games I think I could argue that a two loss UGA was a better option than the Sooners. Again, I know this won’t happen, but the argument could be made. All I am saying.
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So, what you are saying is we have a chance?
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Any chance we had evaporated when we didn’t at least split our first two games.
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Any chance we had evaporated when our AD, against the wishes of our HC, booked an opening game against the #5 team in the country when we were coming off a 6-7 season. If we had played a walkover team as the opener we would be a 1 loss team right now and in the mix for the BCSNCG.
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You make a legitimate point. But who knows if we hit the same hot streak without a humbling loss to Boise.
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You advocate turning us into Florida. That is something I will never agree to.
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Perhaps, Llloyd, perhaps.
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I’m with you! Unfortunately the media and the voters wouldn’t go for it.
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On an only partly related topic, did anyone happen to notice at halftime Thursday night Tirico completely dismissed the thought that the Dawgs had any chance to beal LSU?
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Rece Davis was giving UGA high praise toward the end of the game.
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Short memories. Alabama wasn’t been a power forever, only in spurts. Same for Florida; same for anybody. If Notre Dame put in an 11-0 season next year, we’d be hearing all about the Irish dynasty.
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Yeah, it’s been a nice little spurt since the 20s. 🙂
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Bammers are no different than the rest of SEC fandom … only remember the high points well and blast them with megaphones, but sketchy memories and silence on the low points.
Oh, and we remember the low points of our rivals well, too.
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Well, I’ll give you great years under the Bear, and recently under Saban. But in between, the spurt at times turned to a trickle, wouldn’t you agree?:)
But I admire the Tide. Wish we still played you guys every year.
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Well, I like UGA a pretty good bit and I think that’s because of two things: 1) you play AU every year and 2) we didn’t play y’all much during my formative years (the 70s). We had 11-0 streaks against UT and LSU and 9-0 vs. Auburn. That will definitely create a superiority complex that lasts for life. 🙂
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Pawlasaurus Rex
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PAWWWLLLL, they ain’t no way some team called de Ducks from sissified Oregon should be in no national championship game. Roll Tide!!!!
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Well if last’s year’s bowl is to be considered part of this “year”, then this year’s bowl will have to be considered part of next year so everybody’s unbeaten and deserves a shot.
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While we are conveniently mixing 2010 results into the equation do we also add into Bama’s record the three losses they piled up last year?
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This is man who has referred to himself as the “Coach Killer.” He predicted that he would get Mark Richt fired.
He also predicted last year tht David Pollack’s career would derail because if his association with 790 The Zone.
Everyone should always remember that he is a man of middling intellect who graduated from an inferior institution, living in a second rate city.
Paul Finebaum is a f****** idiot.
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Actually, Birmingham is quite nice.
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Nice, but still second rate.
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Whatevs.
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…and he’s a UT grad. Still an inferior institution, but the man knows who his audience is and how to hop on a bandwagon.
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While I agree that Herbstreit shouldn’t have said that a team that doesn’t even for it’s own Conf champ shouldn’t play for the national title a few years back and now change his thought process, I do think that Bama this year has a much better case than UGA in 2007. We lost by 3 TD’s to UT and at home to SC. Very nearly lost to Vandy as well. On the other hand, Bama has been dominant most of the year and their only loss has been by 3 points to the team currently ranked #1 in the country.
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And, in fairness, Bama for the most part outplayed LSU.
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That’s exactly my issue. Herbstreit made an attempt at ‘objectifying’ his reason for excluding UGA and as you state it’s not necessarily a good metric for this year’s selection process.
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So James Carville’s brother thinks that Oregon shouldn’t have a chance to play LSU again because they lost twice to SEC teams this year. Yep, we are now into counting last year’s Oregon-Auburn game as a reason Oregon shouldn’t get a shot and Alabama is most deserving. Seriously? Ummmmm, didn’t Alabama lose to Auburn last season too? Didn’t they blow a 24 point lead in hallowed Bryant-Denny?
Oh Paul, what about Bama against the PAC 12 this decade? They got swept by UCLA in 2000 and 2001. Makes as much sense. How does this “hillneck” get taken seriously?
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Because we respond to his drivel.
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+1
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Last night during the VT/NC game, they started talking about this. Craig James said Oklahoma is the best team. I’m sorry but when you lose at home to Texas Tech, your season is over. Even if they beat OSU, they still lost at home to Texas Tech.
So if LSU goes undefeated plus Bama and Oregon win out, then there is going to be some craziness going on trying to decide between Bama and Oregon. Seems to me Oregon would be a conference champ and should play LSU again. I just don’t see how OU has any claim.
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I don’t see how Oregon or Bama have any claim if LSU is the other half.
LSU beat UO on a neutral field; beat Bama on their home field. As far as I can tell, if anyone is effectively eliminated from the title game should LSU get there, it’s these two teams.
And it’s ESPECIALLY Alabama. They lost at home to LSU AND they didn’t even win their division. They get no consideration in my book. I don’t give a rat’s ass how good everyone thinks they are. They’re 3 points worse than LSU.
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Yeah, but the Herbstreit rules have been revised so it’s all good.
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F*CK Herbstreit!
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Uh, Kemo Sabe, you don’t have enough stars in Fstars. But I’m just a friggin Indian to you and….wait a minute…”friggin”….hmm.
Tonto
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Thank you Masked Man.
Yes, Tanta…I want Tanta the Indian.
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+3
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The bottom-line here (and let’s all keep in mind LSU has at least three more games, two of which aren’t going to be push overs – that is, assuming The Hat can put two and two together w/r/t Nutt’s new signalling strategy) is that should LSU get to the BCS title game, they’ve already beaten both Oregon and Bama. Putting the focus on what’s justifiable between those two teams is wrong-headed. LSU deserves the chance to play someone they haven’t beaten already – 3 point losses at home to Texas Tech notwithstanding.
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Agree Stoop. That loss to TT was ugly. But they also have more Top 20 wins than either Oregon or Bama if they beat Okie State.
Besides, by Finebaum’s logic, shouldn’t the fact that LSU has beaten Bama two years in a row end that rematch talk.
Lets hope the Dawgs throw a further monkey wrench into the whole thing.
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My sense of the voters is that OU controls their destiny, but the TT loss was even worse than the 3-point result. Tubs had a 24-point lead in the second half, but kept running the hurry-up instead of salting the game away, which allowed OU to pull close. That game is also the first and only time I have ever seen the victory formation out of the shotgun. I was actually surprised a bad snap didn’t giftwrap the victory for the Sooners.
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Finebaum says Pinkel will be the best coach in the east when Missouri gets to the SEC. I guess records and integrity don’t factor in to Finebaum’s analysis.
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Gary Pinkel’s a pretty good coach, Hatch. If you take CMR out of the equation and objectively look at the rest of the East, who’s better than Pinkel? Dooley? Muschump? Joker Phillips? James Franklin? Pinkel beat the Ol’ Ball Sack in a bowl about 4 years ago, which admittedly is a small sample size but it at least shows Pinkel won’t get outclassed by Spurrier..
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And unlike Spurrier, he’d apparently have tossed a few down with Garcia.
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There is a minute chance for a better argument in addition to beating LSU, hang 80 – 90 on both UK, GIT, plus 50 on LSU with a near shutout, then some more voters may look at the Bama and UGA possibility even though it is remote and would be a miracle both ways.
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But Bama wouldn’t have even played for the SECC. I’ll consider just beating Ken will be sufficient, hang the window dressing. The insects will be problematic past halftime, but hanging 50 on a scoreless Lousyanna would be an early Christmas featuring a 2-ton wrench for the BCS. No one would even look at Ken /GT results after that.
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But Miracles can still happen during the christmas season though it can be a delusion of a homer fan like me.
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It’s Christmas time Theo, it’s the time for miracles.
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One point that Finebaum actually sounded objective on – Bama’s wins just aren’t that impressive. Beating Arkansas at home is less impressive than the Ducks beating Stanford on the road. If we’re going to talk resumes, it can be argued that Bama doesn’t have a great one. Similar to the line used against UGA, they didn’t play either of the good teams in the East (and neither did LSU for that matter).
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Man, y’all are getting played by Finebaum. I’ve been reading/listening to this guy since the 80s and you are playing right into his hands.
He’s no more of a Bama fan than the Senator. He plays both ends against the middle in order to fatten his wallet.
He’s national now, so he’ll play the homer card in order to hack off whoever he needs to for ratings. So chill…
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I think most know this. It’s just fun to have a d-bag like him as a receptacle for our football-angst-fueled-discharge. (I have no idea what that means.)
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and yet we all know what you meant
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I know I did….I think.Maybe
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BD is 100% correct…….Love him or hate him…..and oh how I hate him….he’s good at what he does.
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Oregon actually scored a touchdown on LSU at a neutral field. That is something the Tide couldn’t do at home.
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I dont think about what could have been if we hadn’t scheduled BSU because everything that happened lead us to this point. you can’t go changing 1 thing and expect the same outcome. Dawgs are where they are because of where they were.
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“And the answer is…. whatever it is?” Did we both have Dr. Whitten for PChem????
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Didn’t know you were a scientist, Homer.
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I heard Finebaum on a sports talk show in Los Angeles a couple of days before this article hit. He told the hosts the same thing, and they bought his logic.
Of course, they had to buy it because in 2004 all they talked about was how USC deserved the title shot over Auburn because they had beaten Auburn in 2002 and 2003.
Both arguments are stupid and reek of homerism, as you say, Senator. Auburn was 9-4 and 8-5 when USC beat them. The one USC really hung their hats on was the beating in Auburn, which occurred exactly one week before Reggie Ball ‘n them had their way with the Tigahs. But Finebaum’s logic ain’t much better. Oregon doesn’t deserve a shot because it lost to a DIFFERENT team from the SEC? Weird.
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Even weirder is that it’s a loss from a different season.
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I think you get his point. Oregon is known for their offense and in back-to-back games (albeit in two different seasons) they got handed their heads.
Like it or not, this is the same type logic that some will use to put the Big 10 in its place.
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The Los Angeles hosts bought his logic. There’s a shock. In the land of fruits and nuts you can convince them of almost anything . Hell in LA OJ and Micheal Jaskson were both innocent. Sandusky needs a change of venue to LA. My point is that convincing people in LA of the logic of your position is not any kind of proof that your logic is logical.
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Who do you think Les wants to play – the team he dominated without Jefferson and Shepard or the team that shot itself in the (kicking) foot three times and still took you to overtime?
Oregon’s 0-5 in their last 5 out of conference games against quality opponents. 0-5. How they don’t have a Choklahoma or Slowhio U rep yet is beyond me. Some of my clients out there actually fear that sort of label if they get tapped to play LSU and lose again and what it might do to recruiting.
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