Paul Finebaum weighs potential of Notre Dame joining SEC

Paul Finebaum has been very vocal on the recent changes in the college football landscape. But on Monday morning, the SEC Network personality offered a new take pertaining to the relationship between SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

“What’s interesting is two months ago, I kept hearing about this newfound friendship between Jack Swarbrick and Greg Sankey,” Finebaum said during a weekly radio appearance on WJOX in Birmingham. “That they served together on that [College Football Playoff expansion] committee, and I had one SEC person – not an official but someone close to the SEC – say, ‘Hey, keep your eye on that relationship. These guys really see eye-to-eye on almost everything.’” 

Along with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Mountain West commissioner Craig Thomspon, Swarbrick and Sankey served as part of a subgroup of the College Football Playoff management committee tasked with creating a proposal for the future of the playoff. Following the news that Texas and Oklahoma would depart the Big 12 for the SEC no later than 2025, Sankey and Swarbrick appear to wield a large chunk of the power in the college football world.

What does a potential Pac-12 + Big 12 + Big Ten Alliance mean for the SEC? @finebaum joined @macandcube to give his thoughts and explain why it may not be a big concern… pic.twitter.com/gnJKm8u2QY

— WJOX 94.5 FM (@WJOX945) August 16, 2021

Notre Dame to the SEC? Not quite.

Finebaum pumped the brakes on insinuating the Irish are looking to join the SEC, but doubled-down that Swarbrick and Sankey are aligned in their thinking.

“And before anybody jumps to a conclusion, I’m saying there’s no chance this is happening, but I started thinking, ‘Maybe Notre Dame in the SEC,’” Finebaum added. “And then I looked at the reality of the situation and the financials, and that’s not happening. But that’s how close these two were perceived to be is all I’m saying.”

As part of the 12-team proposal the working group presented earlier this summer, Swarbick kept open a viable path for the independent Irish to realistically reach the College Football Playoff. An unaffiliated Notre Dame team would not be eligible for a first-round bye, but all the Irish would need to do is land in one of the remaining eight spots. This feat seems doable in most years given the foundation Brian Kelly created in South Bend. Notre Dame has made the four-team playoff two of the last three years. 

“So, I think [Notre Dame] is sitting back, they’re watching, they know they control a lot of action on this board, and they’re going to see which way it goes,” Finebaum said. “Because right now, I don’t think anybody knows.”

Finebaum: Meetings between commissioners ‘pretty worthless‘

What Notre Dame officials are watching is a soap opera in its own right after several conferences reportedly started potential collaboration.

“We’re now 3 ½ weeks removed, almost 4 weeks removed from this bombshell [Texas-Oklahoma] announcement and nobody’s made a move yet because there simply aren’t any moves,” Finebaum said. “We’re getting meetings between conference commissioners, which are pretty worthless. We’re getting reports like we got Friday [about the ACC-Big Ten-Pac-12 collaboration] which really don’t mean very much because even if it comes together, what has been solved and what has been accomplished?”

Finebaum’s collaboration comments come just three days after reports that the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 are engaged in discussions about working together. What that agreement may look like is unclear at this time, but a scheduling alliance seems to be the most likely outcome. The Big 12 continues to fight for its life, and Bowlsby was not included in the ACC-Big Ten-Pac-12 talks. Bowlsby’s struggles were made very public when he now infamously accused ESPN of tampering in realignment talks via a cease-and-desist letter sent July 28.

Would a scheduling alliance keep the SEC from additional expansion?

Finebaum does not think so.

“I didn’t totally agree that the SEC could expand beyond 16 teams a month ago, but, yeah, I think it’s possible now,” Finebaum said. “Because I don’t really think there’s any game plan anywhere else. If you see Oregon and SC saying, ‘You know what, we have had enough.’ I’m not betting on that but you could then see others do the same.”

Oregon and USC are in a similar situation to Oklahoma and Texas in the Pac-12. Like Oklahoma, Oregon has had a fair amount of success at the national level in the 2000s, and like Texas, USC is a brand name despite recent struggles. Since college football is anarchic at the highest level, there are no formal barriers keeping teams in their current positions. Nothing exemplified that more than Oklahoma and Texas’ recent move.

“All bets are off right now,” Finebaum said. “There’s no leadership in college athletics, at the top.”

Pandering to his SEC constituency, Finebaum conflated Washington politics and the current realignment-talk-dominated college football landscape, saying the SEC reins supreme.

“We have now entered a similar realm of Washington politics,” Finebaum said. “You’re either on one side or the other, and the move by Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC forced everyone to choose. And now it’s all [about] gang up on the SEC. But it won’t work in the end because the SEC still holds most of the cards.”