Paul Finebaum praises Jim Harbaugh's 'clarion call' for student-athlete revenue sharing

Paul Finebaum praised Jim Harbuagh for his “clarion call” for student athlete revenue sharing and even the ESPN commentator was a little surprised he sided with the Michigan head coach.

All jokes aside, Finebaum pointed out how the greatness of college football, i.e. the players, are still getting very little of the sport’s revenue. In the case of the Big Ten and SEC, both conferences have humongous television deals.

The players? Well they get crumbs based on NIL deals in comparison. Finebaum found himself in agreement with Harbaugh, somehow.

“He’s right, he’s absolutely right,” Finebaum said on First Take. “I had a major head coach texted me last night with the Harbaugh article and he said we better watch out for this and he is right too because college football has completely ignored the people that make it great. And those are the players on the field. Now we feel better in college football that they’re making some money, but they’re missing out on the biggest pot and that’s the television revenue.”

Finebaum pointed out how the Big Ten added Oregon and Washington in expansion and practically said it was all about the money.

“And we saw two weeks ago where one network Fox admitted ‘Yeah, we paid Oregon and Washington to join the Big Ten,’” Finebaum said. “I mean, they didn’t even try to deny it … And then people may not like this, but these conferences now basically are like Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.

“They print money. But the people that are on the field let’s give them a couple of bucks. 100 bucks for doing a radio interview or $200 for signing autographs. No, the big money is in the billions that companies like (ESPN) and FOX funnel into college football.”

Paul Finebaum echoes Jim Harbaugh’s comments regarding athlete revenue sharing

When you boil college football down to brass tax, there is no revenue sharing. It’s about the television money as of late.

That’s the nature of the beast in realignment. Finebaum agreed with Harbaugh.

“There are basically two leagues that matter in college football: the Big Ten and of course the SEC,” Finebaum said. “There are a few other leagues trying to make themselves relevant. And the money coming in is where it’s all about. I’m surprised, quite frankly, it has taken this long. I thought some athletes would try to form some sort of pseudo union, even though that would be somewhat illegal with the way the system works. 

“But trying to start demanding this. And I think what Harbaugh did, he send out a clarion call to every athlete out there. Hey, the time is now.”