Paul Finebaum is done with the SEC excuses and rationalizations. Following Texas‘ 28-14 loss to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl national semifinal Friday night — in the Longhorns’ home state no less — the SEC Network host and ESPN personality isn’t pulling his punches ahead of a second-consecutive SEC-less College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Finebaum on SEC’s National Championship Drought
Paul Finebaum was devastated after Friday evening, once it became official that the SEC would be shunned from the College Football Playoff National Championship Game for the second consecutive season. The Texas Longhorns couldn’t come through for the conference, as Steve Sarkisian’s team fell to Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes, who will now face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the finale. The 12-team, expanded CFP was supposed to be a showcase for the SEC, and it’s burning Finebaum up that the conference couldn’t get the job done during the 2024 iteration.
Finebaum reacts to Texas loss
“I managed to hear that this morning on a plane from Dallas, sitting with 225 of my closest friends and Ohio State fans,” Finebaum said sarcastically, regarding the SEC not making it to the CFP National Championship Game, via The Matt Barrie Show. “That is significant. Everyone always thinks that those of us that live in SEC country try to hide things like that. Even today, we’re still arguing for Alabama to get it. But that’s a dramatic moment. It’s a seminal moment in time that I didn’t expect, especially with a 12-team Playoff.”
The Mouth of the South wasn’t done. Finebaum refused to capitulate to any narrative that provides cover to the SEC’s two-year national championship drought, especially the argument that the road to the College Football Playoff was tougher for SEC teams than their Northern peers. “There’s a lot of reasons why it didn’t happen, and I’m not going to even offer them because they’ll sound like excuses, and I’m not going to do that on the day-after. It’s not right, and it’s not accurate. Everybody has the same issues. It’s just how you deal with them,” Finebaum continued.
Notre Dame vs. Ohio State in the Championship
With Friday night’s win, No. 7 seed Notre Dame will play No. 8 seed Ohio State in the CFP National Championship Game on Jan. 20 from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which last hosted the 2018 National Championship Game between SEC powers Alabama and Georgia. This matchup is a stark reminder of the SEC’s absence from the title picture, raising questions about the conference’s dominance in recent years.
Finebaum critiques Georgia’s performance
“I don’t care what any of my colleagues say in the South, there’s no way to sugarcoat this year for the SEC,” Finebaum said on Saturday’s special edition of The Matt Barrie Show. “There’s no way to alibi it, there’s no way to say anything other than ‘We’ve got a team from Indiana and a team from Ohio playing for the national championship in Atlanta.’” Finebaum’s frustration is palpable, especially when he points to the struggles of the SEC’s top team this season.
“You start out with who was No. 1 in the country when the season began, and it was Georgia. That was probably a little inflated. Carson Beck didn’t have a very good year. They didn’t really have elite receivers. They had a bunch of injuries, but so did everybody else. Cry me a river because Georgia has a couple of players that were banged up. And Quinn Ewers was banged up. Well, he was 100-percent last night, and it still wasn’t enough. I’m not even blaming Quinn Ewers, I’m blaming Steve Sarkisian. I don’t know what in the world he was thinking.”
The Future of SEC Football
“It’s really amazing when you think about [it]. [The last time the SEC didn’t make the national title game two years in a row] was before [Nick] Saban,” Finebaum continued. “Urban Meyer had just arrived at Florida. Les Miles was about to start roaming the sidelines. To think that we’re in that moment is cause for a lot of concern, at least in the southern part of the world.”
As the dust settles from this year’s playoff, questions loom large about the SEC’s future in college football. Will the conference regain its footing and return to the national championship stage? Or is this a sign of a shifting landscape in college football where other conferences are rising to challenge the SEC’s long-standing dominance? The answers may unfold in the coming seasons, but for now, Finebaum’s sentiments echo the frustrations of many SEC fans: the time for excuses is over. The conference must step up and reclaim its place at the top of college football.
