Paul Finebaum explains why he's impressed with Auburn looking ahead to 2025

Of a few teams that Paul Finebaum has interest in for next season in the SEC, Auburn is right towards the top.

When asked on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday for teams that he’s interested by in the Southeastern Conference, Finebaum went with the Tigers amongst others like Tennessee and Georgia.

“I’m also strangely bullish – and I don’t think it’s strange but, every time I bring this up to somebody, they shoot me down. But I like what I see from Auburn,” Finebaum said.

Auburn is coming off of their second season under Hugh Freeze where their record actually worsened by a win with a finish at 5-7 despite winning three of their last five. That has Freeze at 11-14 overall going into year three on The Plains.

Still, there’s a lot of interest going into next fall for Auburn, specifically because of where the roster stands through that span because of recruiting. The Tigers have brought in a pair of top-ten recruiting classes in each of their two full cycles under Freeze, including the incoming one at No. 6 in On3’s 2025 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings for their highest-rated class since 2016. They’ve also supplemented that with two-straight Top-20 classes in the NCAA Transfer Portal, including this current one that sits at No. 6 in On3’s 2025 Team Transfer Portal Rankings with 16 commitments as seven are in the Top-200 of On3’s 2025 Top Transfer Portal Players.

“I think they went out and landed a quarterback that I think can help them, even though he maybe didn’t do much for Oklahoma,” noted Finebaum

“I’m very impressed with the recruiting of Auburn. And I know some people say that, you know, the state doesn’t matter as much anymore, we’re in a national, global world. I realize all that but I think, from an internal pride standpoint, what Huge Freeze is doing is very impressive,” Finebaum added.

To be clear, none of that will matter much if Auburn finishes with six wins or less for the sixth straight season through the 2020s. As for intrigue, though, Finebaum has some when it comes to the Tigers in ’25.

“Now he still faces a critical season. I’m not washing that away. And it really doesn’t matter and it won’t matter if he doesn’t have a big year but I do like the momentum there,” said Finebaum.