Paul Finebaum is an SEC shill, why play games

ESPN personality Paul Finebaum has been around forever and put together a storied career spanning several decades. He’s a living legend. But in recent years, Finebaum has left any semblance of reason or logic behind to become a full-time SEC fanboy. 

The past few months, Finebaum has continually disrespected and trashed every non-SEC conference in the country on First Take and other ESPN shows. The Memphis, Tennessee, native continually upholds double standards and false narratives to support putting as many SEC football teams as possible into the College Football Playoff. 

“[The CFP] is already a convoluted system before we let the Group of Five or whatever in,” Finebaum said on First Take in early November. “That division has no business playing. 

“That’s like letting the Triple-A best team into the MLB playoffs.” 

By making this claim, Finebaum is actively ignoring the multiple concrete instances where Group of Six teams will beat Power Four and SEC teams, including a few notable examples last season alone. 

Just last season, USF downed Florida 18-16 at The Swamp and Memphis beat Arkansas 32-31. Neither of those teams are even playing in their conference championship, so acting like the top Group of Six squads doesn’t deserve a seat at the table is asinine.  

In mischaracterizing the Group of Six as a “minor league” competition level, Finebaum completely glosses over any time a power-conference team loses those matchups and refuses to give G6 teams any credit. 

Group of Six teams aren’t the only ones Finebaum disrespects in his shameless defense of the SEC – other P4 conferences are targeted as well. 

“Georgia Tech being 9-1 is great, but everyone knows that’s really a 1-9 record the second they line up against an actual SEC football team,” Finebaum said. “Call me when they play someone with helmets and real athletes.” 

Finebaum is so convinced the SEC is the best conference he demeans other Power Four teams and pretends their success doesn’t count. For what it’s worth, the Yellow Jackets took Georgia, the SEC’s top team, down to the wire in a close 16-9 loss on Friday. 

While the SEC is 56-8 in out-of-conference matchups this season according to Sports Reference, most teams didn’t schedule solid opponents from P4 conferences. Notable losses this season include Alabama’s loss to Florida State – which finished 2-6 in ACC play – and losses from Florida and Texas to Miami and Ohio State. 

Although the SEC has generally performed well against other conferences, it’s not invincible, and Finebaum again exaggerates to act like the SEC is head and shoulders over everyone else. Part of this is because of his double standards when it comes to in-conference play. 

Because of his bias towards the SEC, Finebaum constantly props up double standards in terms of “good” or “bad” teams and losses. One recent example is his advocacy for Texas to make the CFP. 

Because Finebaum has arbitrarily decided the SEC is clearly better than any other conference, he simply writes off in-conference losses when it’s convenient. Texas is a three-loss team and fell to Florida, which isn’t even bowl eligible this season. 

However, Finebaum said Texas deserves a playoff spot despite the loss. The double standard is blatant when you look at Florida’s loss to USF – Florida is a terrible team because they lost to a G6 squad, but when they beat Texas, it just shows how deep the SEC is? Finebaum wants it both ways. 

Let’s end with this: if you predetermine the SEC is the best conference and should put 12 teams in the playoff every year, why even play the games?