The SEC Is Crying Poor After Indiana's National Championship
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Fresh off of seeing his beloved SEC teams get humbled in the College Football Playoff for a third year in a row, ESPN's Paul Finebaum believes the SEC has a new problem keeping them from reaching the top of the mountain: They need more money.
Appearing on The Matt Barrie Show, Finebaum argued that the SEC doesn't have enough billionaires donating to the coffers of the Alabama Crimson Tide to keep them competitive in this age of college football. He said that if the SEC had more billionaire support, they'd be able to donate more money.
“We’re talking billionaires now and outside of Texas and Texas A&M, the list of billionaires starts to get really thin. I could tell you in the state of Alabama, there are two billionaires, only two in the entire state. They’re both Auburn supporters. Alabama doesn’t have a billionaire,” Finebaum said. “And why is a billionaire important Matt? Because they can throw around money. You could throw around money if you’re worth $800 million too but it’s a little bit easier if you’re a billionaire to give your school, not only to put your father’s name on the business building, but to give your NIL fund whatever it needs.
“And you just can’t call the commissioner of the SEC and say here you have to solve this problem. You can’t print money unless you got your keys to the printing press and it’s a problem."
Changing times
College football fans largely mocked Finebaum for that take, pointing out that the SEC already has more money than it knows what to do with and that their recent struggles all come down to talent and coaching:
"I think you may be unaware of the check books at UT, A&M, and Tech. All 3 of these teams have been ranked top 10 buyers in the portal so far. The other SEC teams will follow. Even without TX and A&M’s multi billion $ trust funds. They all have huge donors ready to pony up," one user on X declared.
"It's so funny because the SEC schools were the first and main ones Doing collectives, when other schools were trying to manage and figure out nil. And just trying to get people opportunities for local business commercials and stuff, now they want to cry broke," another mocked.
"They’ll find any excuse but when you look at the teams and their cultures and coaches, the B10 blows the SEC outta the water. Ever since saban left, it’s a coaching carousel and soap opera in the SEC minus the great Kirby smart," a third wrote.
"lol everyone can spend money now, it’s over for the SEC. Hunnerd dollar handshakes are over. They better come together and regroup. Otherwise it’s over."
The deck has seemingly been stacked in the SEC's favor for years now for a variety of reasons. But the on-field results have been a wildly different story. Since the 2023 none of their teams have managed to reach the College Football Playoff National Championship Game despite having nine teams in the field over those three years.
You'd have to go all the way back to the 80s to find a time where SEC teams didn't own at least a share of the national championship over a three-year span.
Maybe it's bad luck, or maybe the approach to figuring out if SEC teams are good enough has become distorted.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Jan 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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