Paul Finebaum stresses importance of SEC beefing up team schedules

Some are not too pleased with the SEC considering they’re staying within an eight-game model for their conference schedule. That’s why Paul Finebaum is going to have his eyes on the schedules for 2024 upon their June 14th release.

Finebaum talked about the importance seeing strong schedules announced during his appearance on Monday’s episode of ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’. He said that the league needs to give the appearance that they’re still committed to scheduling the best games now that they’re not going to go to nine games.

“It’s going to be fascinating,” Finebaum said. “I’m going to be looking at every single schedule and (wondering) what would the ninth conference game have been? I’m betting, more likely than not, it’s going to be a weaker game.”

“I think they have to do it. The SEC took a lot of heat last week. It’s got so much capital that it can shrug a little bit. But I think, on the morning of the 15th, if the nation is going, ‘What’d we just see last night? What is this league trying to pull?’? Then I think that’s a more serious problem,” continued Finebaum. “That’s more important than what we heard last week because that’s tangible. That’s the real schedule. It’s not it could be this or it could be that.”

“Someone is going to take a hit a week from Wednesday night. And I, frankly, hope it’s the schools on top because those are the games we want to see,” Finebaum said.

None of the teams are ‘dodging’ one another by any means. They make no buts about the fact that their football is some of the best in the nation, if not the best by far.

Still, many don’t see it that way with them staying at eight games in 2024 rather than nine. Even with the rotating schedule where every program will face another in a two year span, a ninth game would’ve added yet another level of competition to the league and to some, be more in keeping with the SEC’s usual standard.

We’ll have to wait and see what the next wave of takes on the SEC scheduling discussion will look like once the league announces them later this month. Still, in Finebaum’s opinion, more criticism could be on the way if the schedules aren’t up to the par that many people expect out of the Southeastern Conference considering their pedigree.