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Paul Finebaum points to the College Football Playoff as to why B1G doesn’t trump SEC
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Want to hear some of the least surprising news in the history of sports media?
Good, I thought you might.
SEC Network talking head Paul Finebaum joined Mike Greenberg on Get Up! on Monday to talk about college football, now that the season is just around the corner. Greenberg made reference to the B1G being the strongest conference in the sport headed into the 2018 season, but Finebaum wasn’t buying it.
Shocker, right?
But Finebaum backed up his statement with a few good points. And while B1G fans won’t like what he had to say, most of what Finebaum pointed out was accurate.
“That’s not possible to make that statement right now for a couple of reasons,” Finebaum said. “In college football, what you do at the end of the season matters. I need not tell you, in the final game last year we had two SEC teams playing for the national championship. We did not have a Big Ten team in the Playoff for the first time. In fairness, the Big Ten won the first Playoff with Ohio State, but since then, the Big Ten has been in the Playoff two times. Michigan State and Ohio State. If my math is correct, the combined score of those two games on the losing end was 69-0. You have to look at the College Football Playoff.
“The top of the Big Ten is fantastic, but the top of the SEC isn’t bad either. There are good teams at the top. Now there’s drop-off in the middle. On the next to the last of July, that’s great statement to make (Big Ten is better), I’m not buying it though.”
Finebaum has long been the voice of SEC football, and though he tries to present an unbiased opinion, he often can’t go a few sentences without bringing up Alabama or Nick Saban.
No, Finebaum may not be well-liked by fan bases in the Midwest, but he made a pretty good argument for now. We’ll see if the conference can change his mind when the season actually kicks off.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB