Paul Finebaum is Right, America Doesn't Want Utah in the College Football Playoff

Paul Finebaum appeared on Get Up this morning and, as always, weighed in on the state of college football. Among the topics was who gets the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff if all the favorites win in their respective conference championship games.

In that scenario, LSU, Ohio State and Clemson would be locks for the CFP as undefeated teams. But with Georgia having suffered its second loss in this scenario, the No. 4 spot opens up-- presumably for Utah, which is currently No. 5 with Oklahoma No. 6.

Well, Finebaum thinks in that scenario, with the Sooners beating No. 7 Baylor, they would leapfrog Utah and get the final spot in the CFP. Why? America doesn't want Utah in.

What can you say? When he's right, he's right.

The perception for many east of the Mississippi is the Pac-12 is garbage and no team from that division deserves to be in the CFP. You can tell me about Utah's top-ranked defense all you want, but that doesn't change the fact it lost to 8-4 USC, nor does it change the fact that only three Pac-12 teams have eight or more wins this season.

Is it Utah's fault that its conference is mediocre? No. But if you compare the resume to Oklahoma's (again, assuming the Sooners beat Baylor for the second time this season), you have to give the Sooners the edge. In this scenario, they would have three wins over Top 25 opponents to Utah's one, which would be over a trending-down Oregon squad.

Yes, Utah's loss to USC is (slightly) better than Oklahoma's loss to Kansas State. But two wins over a top-10 team in Baylor means more, at least in terms of perception. Right now, that perception is Utah isn't deserving of a Top-4 spot.