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Kirk Herbstreit predicts final spot in inaugural 12-team Playoff

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Kirk Herbstreit is plugged into the sport of college football as much as anyone else, and he understands the dilemma facing the College Football Playoff committee.

Late Saturday night, Clemson won the ACC Championship in walk-off fashion, blasting a long-range field to beat SMU as time expired. Ahead of Sunday’s Selection Show, Herbstreit joined ESPN’s Mike Greenberg and admitted that outcome is the one domino that could create chaos and drama for Sunday.

Now, it’s a discussion that will be had between SMU and Alabama for the final spot in the initial 12-team Playoff:

“The one big issue is from last night in the ACC Championship Game. Clemson and Dabo Swinney, last-second field goal, a lot of drama, they knock off an 11-1 SMU, and that was the one thing that could have happened, the one domino to create the chaos,” explained Herbstreit. “It’s an SMU, Alabama discussion for the most part.”

Herbstreit went on to say the committee will set a precedent with whichever team gets that final spot. Alabama played a much tougher schedule this season but dropped 3 games, including one late in the year to an unranked Oklahoma team.

Meanwhile, SMU had much greater consistency and made its conference championship game but while playing a lesser schedule. At a different point in his appearance, Herbstreit went on to predict that Alabama will pay the price for that late-season loss to OU.

Herbstreit concluded that he’s “guessing” SMU gets the bump but we will all have to wait for the live reveal to see how the committee feels:

“Bama has no one to blame but themselves. They lost Oklahoma when they were a 3-touchdown favorite. The ball was in their court, and they lost late in the year,” explained Herbstreit. “I think that’s going to be the thing that costs them, and I think SMU had consistency, whether you want to knock their schedule or not… I’m guessing SMU but we’ll see how it plays out.”

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.