Paul Finebaum says voters who picked Vanderbilt to win SEC don't deserve a credential

There were a few surprises when the 2023 SEC Preseason Media Poll was released last week. Perhaps the biggest one was that Vanderbilt received multiple votes to win the league.

The Commodores received five votes to win the SEC, tying Tennessee for the fourth most in the conference. Vanderbilt was picked by five media members to win the SEC, despite going 5-7 (2-6) last season and ending the year with a 56-0 loss to the Vols.

SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Monday and shared that he has a problem with the media members who picked the Commodores to win the conference.

“I appreciate what media days is. But when I see that, I really begin to wonder about people’s right to vote,” Finebaum said. “And I know that sounds crazy, because I’ve always been a big believer in democracy, but democracy has nothing to do with being qualified to vote for the SEC.”

Finebaum already knew that Vanderbilt was going to have at least one vote to win the league prior to the poll being released, based on a conversation he had with someone at SEC Media Days.

The Commodores ended up receiving more votes to win the league than South Carolina, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida and Missouri, teams that all finished higher in the SEC standings than Vanderbilt did a year ago.

“I had somebody come up to me during the week. I’m not going to identify him, but obviously he was credentialed. And he told me he was voting for Vanderbilt,” Finebaum said. “And I shrugged my shoulders because I’ve been to this thing for 40 years. Things like that don’t surprise me. But if you vote for Vanderbilt to win the SEC, you don’t deserve to be credentialed. Because that proves that you’re just making a mockery out of something that we take seriously.”

While Paul Finebaum didn’t agree with Vanderbilt receiving votes to win the conference, he does believe it’s a program on the rise. However, picking a team to win the conference that hasn’t had a winning record in the SEC in more than a decade is more than a bit of a stretch.

“I just think it’s ridiculous. And I don’t want to go in there and say, ‘You have to go home,’ Finebaum explained. “But I just think there has to be a better way. … It makes the SEC look dubious that you could have at least that many people do something that ridiculous. Vanderbilt is really an ascending program, but come on. Let’s keep this thing real. Let’s no ruin the week by shenanigans like that at the end.”

As for the top of the SEC Preseason Poll, Georgia was picked to win the conference with 181 votes, followed by Alabama with 62 and LSU with 31. Then came Tennessee and Vanderbilt with five each. Arkansas and Auburn received two votes, while Mississippi State, South Carolina and Texas A&M each received one.