Paul Finebaum Reveals Uncertain ESPN Future as Contract Nears July Expiration

The SEC Network host plans to weigh his next move in January, one year after ESPN pulled him from shows over a possible Senate run.

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ESPN and SEC Network host Paul Finebaum’s 13-year run with the company could reach a crossroads after this college football season, with his contract set to expire in July and the longtime radio host still undecided about what comes next.

“I don’t know yet,” Finebaum said on the Awful Announcing Podcast when asked whether he wants to stay with ESPN, adding, “I would also be foolish to tell you I know what I’m going to do next.”

Paul Finebaum’s ESPN contract timeline

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Finebaum brought his call-in show to ESPN Radio in 2013, and the SEC Network began simulcasting it when the channel launched in 2014. ESPN signed him to a multi-year extension in August 2024, and ESPN president of content Burke Magnus called him “one of the leading voices across college football.”

“The contract technically runs out in July, but I’m a college football analyst,” Finebaum said. “So at the end of January, I will probably start contemplating exactly what is next. But I would be foolish to tell you anybody who is in the last year of a contract doesn’t think about it.”

How did the Senate run talk start?

In late September 2025, the Memphis native told Clay Travis, then of OutKick, that he was “seriously considering” a Republican run for the Alabama Senate seat held by Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn coach running for governor.

About a week later, Travis reported that ESPN had pulled Finebaum from its programming. ESPN sources pushed back, saying he was never banned and was set for a previously scheduled First Take appearance.

Finebaum now says he was kept off his usual shows.

“Of course, I was sidelined,” Finebaum said. “I’d done the same shows every day for 13 years, and the next thing you know, I’m not on there after a college football weekend.”

He announced in December 2025 that he wouldn’t run, and he later said political operatives wanted him to campaign against “woke Disney,” the parent company of ESPN.

“They were saying you have to trash Disney, your employer,” Finebaum said on the podcast.

Finebaum’s place in ESPN’s lineup

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The Tennessee graduate’s daily show still airs on SEC Network, and he remains a regular college football voice on Get Up and First Take, where he named Texas the team to beat in the SEC ahead of this season.

That standing looked unlikely early in his tenure. Finebaum has recalled that before the SEC Network launched, “they were thinking about firing me.”

He plans to stay on the air in some form whether or not he re-signs.

“I intend to continue doing what I’m doing, which is doing a show of some sort, but I don’t know how it will be constructed,” Finebaum said. “These are always awkward situations that are probably best not discussed in the public airwaves, but then again, here we are.”

That leaves his decision on hold until after the College Football Playoff wraps up in January, about six months before his current deal expires.