Paul Finebaum shovels dirt on the grave of SEC college football dominance

Long noted as a champion of all things SEC, ESPN personality Paul Finebaum swallowed some bitter medicine on ESPN's First Take, Finebaum admitted that the league is in big trouble in terms of its lengthy run of college football dominance.

In the last 20 years, the SEC has legitimately claimed 13 national titles. Long noted as the centerpoint of dominant college football (witness the "It Just Means More" advertising campaign from the league), the SEC is in the midst of an unprecedented run of turmoil.

Finebaum was called on to answer for the SEC's struggles on First Take and must have felt strangely confessional. Asked whether SEC dominance was over, Finebaum admitted, "I'm under contract to disagree with you, but I don't really care about the contract."

"I have been on that hill and I am getting destroy," Finebaum said of his defense of the SEC. "There's no way to defend the SEC. It has been terrible."

Unless No. 6 seed Ole Miss brings home the CFP crown, the SEC will have lost out on the last three College Football Playoff titles. The last time the SEC went three straight seasons without a national title was 2000-2002.

The SEC is just 5-7 in the era of the 12-team CFP. That includes two games in which two SEC teams faced off, making an SEC win inevitable. In both seasons, SEC champion Georgia took a loss in its first game. The SEC has also taken some embarrassing beatdowns. Tennessee lost 42-17 to Ohio State in 2024 and Alabama fell to Indiana 38-3. Of course, it's worth noting that both of those losses came to Big Ten teams-- and that league has won the last two national titles and has the top remaining team this year.

Finebaum particularly admitted the flaw in his reliance on Alabama. "I kept wrapping my arms around Alabama and saying... 'Do you remember what they did?' They went through that gauntlet in the middle of the year. Well, a lot of those teams they beat weren't very good at all. They lost in bowl games and they looked terrible. So it's a rough year for the SEC."

Overall, the SEC is 4-9 in bowl games this off-season. Other than Alabama and Ole Miss's SEC-on-SEC Playoff wins, Ole Miss's first round CFP win over Tulane and Texas's Citrus Bowl win over Michigan are the sole highlights of a difficult postseason.

Sure, Lane Kiffin is now at LSU and an Ole Miss title run, as Finebaum acknowledged, would certainly help the league's image. But barring that unlikely event, consider Finebaum as shoveling yet more national dirt of the buried legacy of SEC football dominance.