Full Transcript for Mac & Bone Show - Paul Finebaum Interview

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Paul Feinbaum, ESPN, the SEC Network, joins us on the Mac and Bone show. Hey, Paul, how you been, man? What's going on? 00:00:09 Speaker 2: I've been doing great. Good morning, guys. 00:00:11 Speaker 3: It's a great pleasure to be back on. 00:00:13 Speaker 4: What's up, Paul? 00:00:14 Speaker 1: We appreciate you being here, brother. You're very kind to us with your time. I do want to start by asking you about the CFP rankings from last night. I feel like I feel like you should have Heather Dinich sitting next to you to do this segment with us. But like, they really went with the big moves up, up and down the rankings. Like, did you find that weird or have a problem with it? Or did you feel like, no, there was a lot of big results this weekend? 00:00:42 Speaker 2: By the way, do you know what it's like three times a week to sit next to Heather Dennis and have Mike Greenberg say, nobody knows more about college football than Heather Dennis. And then, and then there's false. That's not right. 00:00:58 Speaker 3: It made about as little sense. 00:01:00 Speaker 2: As last week. Now, last week they got away with it because I thought Alabama was too high, ranked too high, and they ended up beating LSU. But I just cannot, you know, the headline for me is how do you drop Miami that far after, you know, playing without your best player at Notre Dame, you know, maybe getting screwed on an officiating call. You know, Indiana doesn't play and they get jettisoned the wrong way. I mean, there's just so many inconsistencies. How does Texas with losses to Oklahoma and Florida end up as high as they are? and really probably should have lost to Missouri. I mean, there's just so many weird idiosyncratic moves. But then again, that's what happens when you get 13 people in a room. They start geeking out on data points that do not matter at all. And by the way, this ranking doesn't matter at all either because I think there's about four more. 00:02:00 Speaker 4: That's true. Paul, to me, it looks like when you're talking about the Miami and the Notre Dame move up, the Miami moved down. It's almost like, maybe I'm wrong here. Miami almost got punished in a way for losing to Notre Dame, but yet Notre Dame gained something in that by beating Miami. So was it a bad loss for Miami or a great win for Notre Dame over Miami? It seems like there's a little confusion there in the hallway. They were both treated. 00:02:24 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:02:24 Speaker 2: And by the way, maybe, maybe I'm a little caught up in tradition, but you, uh, How do you penalize the team for going to Notre Dame on a Saturday night and losing in a one score game? I mean, it's just like, maybe, maybe they've been watching, maybe they think Brian Kelly is still at Notre Dame. I don't know. But it, I just don't. And, and I, I mean, I used to be on that show, but I got was so critical of the, the goofball that they bring on that they finally said, I don't think we can afford to let you be on the show anymore. If we want to keep this car. I mean, I, I, I mean, I just want to almost, almost accused the guy of criminal intent. And they said, no, we really, that's not really fair. But I mean, where, where, where does that, by the way, where does that guy go after he finishes? I can tell you where he goes. He goes back to Arkansas where he's doing a miserable job as the athletic director. 00:03:16 Speaker 4: That's a great point people have brought up. We have the guy from Arkansas leading the charge here. Hey, the committee chairman, that might be his best work, actually, that he does. He doesn't want to go back there, Paul. Don't let him go back. And Malachi Toney didn't play in the game, too. To your point, Paul, to add that in there, too. We're talking Paul Feinbaum, ESPN, and the SEC Network. Now, obviously, the other news of the week, and we knew it was coming, but now we know exactly how it will work, the 2014 playoff. Where do you stand on this, and were you as amused as we were at Rich Clark, the executive director of the CFP, that said, yes, we considered what the fans had to say, but we did this anyway. You didn't consider for one second what we think. 00:04:03 Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you a little bit about Rich Clark. I've had the fortune of getting to know him. He's a retired Air Force general. And thank goodness he's retired. Can you imagine that guy leading our armed forces right now? I mean, the point is, and he has nothing to do with it, by the way, and they shouldn't have let him in front of a microphone because that does sound like a guy in the military. Hey, I'm sorry that my men are starving, but that's their problem for not being a general. You know, no, college leaders do not care what we think. That's why... I finally just changed my mind. I was against this like you were and like everybody listening was. And then they announced it a couple weeks ago that it was coming, and I came out and tried to find some positivity, and I got criticized. You change your position. 00:04:56 Speaker 3: People in Washington change their position every day. 00:04:59 Speaker 2: So what? We have it. Yeah, I work at ESPN. 00:05:03 Speaker 3: Who owns it? 00:05:05 Speaker 2: Does that have any influence on me? No. But the bottom line is ESPN, Here's the key word. You guys ready for this? It gives more programs access. 00:05:15 Speaker 3: What does that mean? 00:05:16 Speaker 2: So, so Clemson and South Carolina and Duke and North Carolina now have a better, more access to the CFP. Does that mean they get a better seat when they watch it? Does that get them in? I have no earthly idea what that means. 00:05:30 Speaker 4: Paul, what do you think of the roller coaster that the Gamecocks have been on this year? They now find themselves actually in a pretty decent spot in the CFP compared to what it was or what it could have been weeks ago. They have Georgia coming up after Arkansas. Do you think that they have any chance against