If you’ve ever seen ESPN’s SEC Contributor Paul Finebaum on ESPN, two things are crystal clear.
1. He is an SEC loyalist to the core, and
2. The Dude knows his football.
For years, Finebaum has called the SEC the best conference in sports — not just football, but the best conference in all of sports. After January 1, not so much.
There were a number of interesting comments in the interview that aired Friday morning (January 2).
Specific to an Oregon – Alabama matchup:
Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
Finebaum commented, “The only consolation I think any Alabama fan could take from last night is Alabama would have lost to Oregon anyway . . . That’s not an excuse; that’s reality.”
ESPN’s Dari Nowkhah perks up, “Oregon showed you that much last night in that game against Florida State?”
Finebaum: “Oh no doubt! Oregon would not have beaten Alabama like they did Florida State, but I still think they (Oregon) would have won. They have it all.”
Did you hear that, Duck fans? “They (Oregon) have it all.” That is from the foremost SEC expert in the world. Finebaum wrote a book on how great the SEC is. No one outside the South bought it, but hey — the guy wrote a book.
On the SEC Conference as a whole:
“The irony is the SEC wanted so desperately to have a four-team playoff in order to get two teams in, and now we’ll miss the championship game for the first time since the ’05 season,” Finebaum said.
On Alabama’s offensive coordinator (you might remember he was the head coach at USC for a cup of coffee): “The criticism was just heavily laying upon Lane Kiffin. We had Alabama fans calling in saying, ‘Don’t even let the guy on the bus after the game.’ They were so angry.” [FishDuck.com Note: the best GIF ever made this site, “Off to See the Wizard” has Urban Meyer as the Tin Man, Nick Saban as Dorothy, and Lane Kiffin as the Cowardly Lion.]
SEC going down…
Summary from Finebaum: “It’s bad enough to lose, but it’s worse to have to deal with the situation that this is being enjoyed by almost everyone in the country outside of the South. The jokes are coming in fast and furious. The SEC West just got destroyed across the board. SEC fans are going to eat a lot of crow.”
The top five SEC teams finished 0-5 in bowl games. The SEC West went 2-5 overall. The SEC will be back, and that’s fine, but so will Oregon. As you’ve seen over the last decade plus, the Ducks don’t rebuild. They reload.
Top Photo from Video
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Mike Ostrom is a 1989 Oregon Graduate (Journalism Major) He worked on air as the Sports Director for a CBS affiliate for six years and has free lanced for ESPN, Fox and other media entities. Mike now resides in Dallas, TX. He and his wife play zone defense with their five kids ages 16, 16, 16, 17 and 21. Mike’s full time job is in the Google/Bing advertising space. His family runs a small ministry that provides soccer balls for orphans and underprivileged kids around the world.