‘Gloomy, It’s Dark’ – Paul Finebaum Highlights Grim Reality of SEC Football in 2025

    Paul Finebaum discusses the current state of the SEC ahead of the conference's second consecutive season without a national championship representative.

    College football analyst Paul Finebaum labeled the current landscape of the SEC gloomy and dark when asked about the state of the conference ahead of the National Championship Game. While appearing on “The Matt Barrie Show,” Finebaum was asked how SEC fans and followers were feeling after a second consecutive season without a conference team in the national championship.

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    What Did Paul Finebaum Say About the SEC?

    The last SEC team to play in the National Championship Game came in the 2022 season when the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the TCU Horned Frogs by a score of 65-7. However, with the expansion of the College Football Playoff, the path to the title game has become much more difficult for all teams involved, something that could result in more variation in who plays in the final four and the championship game.

    Finebaum was asked to give his verdict on the feelings surrounding the SEC after the conference had failed to qualify for the College Football National Championship for the second consecutive year.

    “I’ve been asked a few times this week what’s it like in SEC land. Um, gloomy. It’s dark,” he stated.

    Finebaum continued by explaining how he does not see an easy way out of the situation.

    “There’s no, there’s no getting out of it either. I mean, I hear all the excuses from my brethren in the SEC, but there are none. I mean, you had two shots at Ohio State, one shot at Notre Dame. It wasn’t like, you know, the league wasn’t given a fair chance,” he added.

    SEC College Football Playoff Struggles

    Last year, the National Championship Game featured the Big Ten’s Michigan Wolverines and the Pac-12’s Washington Huskies, which saw the Wolverines win convincingly by a score of 34-13.

    This year’s championship game will be between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday, Jan. 20. Following Michigan from the year before, Ohio State is representing the Big Ten conference, while Notre Dame is an FBS independent school.

    MORE: Paul Finebaum Reveals Biggest Demerits of 12-Team College Football Playoff

    On their respective roads to the championship, both teams eliminated top SEC programs. Notre Dame defeated Georgia in the quarterfinals, while Ohio State took care of the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round and the Texas Longhorns in the semifinal to advance to the big game. Texas was the only SEC team to make it as far as the semifinals this year.

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