With Ohio State’s win over the Texas Longhorns on Friday night, the SEC has now been eliminated from national championship contention, marking the second consecutive season that an SEC program has not appeared in the title game. And it sounds like Paul Finebaum is concerned.
Paul Finebaum built his career on discussing SEC football and SEC dominance, even writing a book titled “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference” several years ago.
Needless to say, he was not exactly pleased to hear the news that the SEC will not be competing in the national title game this season.
“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 on 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.
This marks the first time since the 2004 and 2005 seasons that an SEC has not been a part of two consecutive national title games. This trend has Finebaum concerned about the state of the conference.
“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. 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,” Finebaum said.
To make matters worse for the SEC, the Big Ten finished 5-1 against the SEC this postseason.
Obviously, this is just a couple of seasons, but it seems like the SEC’s dominance in college football might be coming to an end.
