Paul Finebaum debates whether Big Ten has passed SEC as best college football conference

Paul Finebaum remains firmly in the SEC’s corner when it comes to the great debate over which conference reigns supreme in college football.

During a Wednesday morning segment on ESPN’s First Take, where the discussion involved whether the SEC deserves more than three bids in the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff after three ranked teams – Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M – suffered Week 13 losses to unranked foes in league play, ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith proposed the unthinkable.

“Is it time, Paul Finebaum, dare I say, for us to stop calling the SEC the best conference in college football? I think it’s a fair question,” Smith asked.

For his part, Finebaum toed the company line, even if he’s admittedly down on the SEC deserving more than three CFP bids after to last weekend’s Bloody Saturday.

“It is a fair question. Top to bottom, 1-16, it is the best league in college football, but their top teams are flawed,” Finebaum said. “And Stephen A., the problem in the SEC is that it is balanced. You go on the road, even to an unranked team – we saw it happen in Ole Miss-Florida, we saw it in Alabama-Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Auburn (where) three unranked teams beat ranked teams – it’s different than what we see in the Big Ten.

“The Big Ten has the best two teams (Oregon, Ohio State) in the country, but what happens after that is different. When Penn State has to struggle at a Minnesota, schools like Illinois are in the Top 25 that wouldn’t be in the upper division in the SEC, and Indiana skates with essentially – not essentially – a one-game schedule, that’s all they had to play. And in that one game, they were terrible.”

To Finebaum’s point, Week 13 also saw the Nittany Lions escape unranked Minneapolis with a 26-25 win and previously-undefeated Indiana get trounced 38-15 by No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus.

‘Mad Dog’ Russo: ‘A road game in the SEC is 50-times harder’

Finebaum’s reasoning is simple. The SEC is far more competitive top-to-bottom than the top-heavy Big Ten where 13 of the league’s 18 teams have four-or-more losses and only five ranked programs. The SEC, meanwhile, has eight ranked teams and just eight programs with four-or-more losses.

New York radio personality and First Take contributor Chris “Mad Dog” Russo doubled down on Finebaum’s point, making the case that playing on the road in the SEC is far more challenging than anything the Big Ten has to offer.

“Listen, a road game in the SEC is 50-times harder than any road game in the Big Ten,” Russo said. “How about winning at Rutgers, is that a big deal? How about at UCLA in front of 30,000, is that a big deal? How about at Maryland, is that a big deal? You mentioned Minnesota, and I’ll throw Northwestern and Purdue in, that conference stinks! They’re going to get that fourth team in because (Big Ten commissioner Tony) Pettiti is going carry the Big Ten. … Let’s be honest, Paul, … let’s put Ole Miss and SMU on a neutral field, who’s going to win the game? Ole Miss is winning the game.”

Comparing the Big Ten vs. the SEC

With one week remaining in the regular season, the latest College Football Playoff Top 25 featured Big Ten powers Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State ranked first, second and fourth, respectively. The one-loss Hoosiers dropped five spots to No. 10, due in large part to the aforemented SEC losses, to give the Big Ten four teams currently in the 12-team field.

Meanwhile, the SEC is led by a one-loss Texas at No. 3 with two-loss Georgia and Tennessee at 7 and 8, followed by Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina among the first four out at 13-14-15, respectively.

There are still games to be played, including in next week’s conference championship games, and the CFP field will evolve before the final rankings are released in two weeks on Selection Sunday.

But in the meantime, the case for the SEC as college football’s premier conference continues to remain a topic of great debate.