PHOENIX — Less than a day after attacking the credibility of Oregon athletic director and College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Rob Mullens, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum apologized personally to the Ducks AD and at the start of his nationally televised radio program.

During his Thursday broadcast Finebaum said, “I frankly don’t know if I trust this guy being in charge. I don’t trust him because he’s not honest, and I just think he has an influence on that committee."

While opening his broadcast Friday afternoon from the campus of the University of Georgia, Finebaum called those remarks “wrong and inappropriate" and said he “could not have been more incorrect” about Mullens.

“I want to address something that occurred here last night; we were having a conversation about the College Football Playoff and about its chairman, Rob Mullens, who is the athletic director at the University of Oregon,” Finebaum said on the SEC Network and ESPN radio. "I have been critical of the process. I have been critical of the fact that Mr. Mullens is representing Oregon as the athletic director, although officially he’s not representing them as the chairman of the College Football Playoff. I said some things that quite frankly were wrong and inappropriate.

“This morning, on the way over to Athens, I called Rob Mullens out in Oregon and personally apologized to him, telling him that it doesn’t matter what I intended to say, I am responsible for what I said. He was magnanimous in accepting my apology. We both agreed to get together soon and hope to get to know each other better because he could not have been kinder in receiving my call, and I could not have been more incorrect in what I had to say about him last night.”

Reach for comment by The Oregonian/OregonLive Friday afternoon, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said, “I’m glad Paul did the right thing and apologized."

Asked if there is any non-disparagement language in the College Football Playoff’s contract with ESPN, which could’ve possibly made Finebaum’s remarks a breach of contract, Hancock declined to discuss terms of the contract.

Oregon athletics referred a request for comment from Mullens, whose term on the CFP committee ends in February, to the CFP, whose protocol includes recusal of any of the 13 selection committee members from being in the room during deliberations about the institution(s) they represent or voting for those teams. That protocol has forced Mullens to leave the room anytime No. 6 Oregon (9-1, 7-0 Pac-12) is among the teams being discussed, which had been at the same time as No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Alabama for each of the last two weeks, and prevented him from providing much insight on discussions involving those teams other than what had been conveyed by those in the room at the time.

During the Nov. 12 CFP top 25 rankings show, Finebaum expressed his initial frustrations with the predicament involving Mullens, saying “the credibility is going to lie somewhere in the balance” for the CFP if Oregon is in the final group of teams being considered and Mullens can’t address the selection committee’s thoughts because he was not in the room. Finebaum expanded and clarified that criticism at the time.

“Please don’t misunderstand me, I know him (Mullens) and I like him," Finebaum said Nov. 12. "I’m just saying It puts that committee in the crosshairs though. I’m a big believer in transparency and I’m not sure we’re going to get it if he’s sitting outside having a soft drink.”

During Tuesday’s teleconference with reporters following the release of Week 3 of the CFP top 25 rankings, Mullens provided a bit more context and response regarding Oregon, Georgia and Alabama compared to the week prior and Hancock answered some questions specific to Oregon, particularly its ranking relative to No. 7 Utah in the eyes of the committee.

Last week, Hancock told The Oregonian/OregonLive the predicament involving Mullens will have “no effect” on the selection committee being composed in part by sitting athletic directors or the chair of the committee being a sitting athletic director.

Hancock would not say how the CFP will handle Selection Sunday should Oregon, which plays at Arizona State (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12) Saturday night (4:30 p.m., ABC) and hosts Oregon State next week before playing in the Pac-12 Championship Game, be involved in the final deliberations for the four-team playoff field.