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Paul Finebaum blames Big Ten's dominance of college football on Georgia's Kirby Smart

Byington mugby: Alex Byington05/07/26_AlexByington

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart recently weighed in on the Big Ten’s three-year reign of dominance over college football, attributing it to the league’s overall rise in competitiveness. At the same time, former LSU head coach Brian Kelly cited the Big Ten’s inflated financial commitment as a significant factor in the conference winning the last three College Football Playoff national championships.

Still, the question remains: How has the Big Ten managed to supplant the SEC as college football’s preeminent conference after nearly two decades atop the sport? Well, ESPN firebrand Paul Finebaum has an answer, and recently identified a single culprit for the Big Ten’s dethroning of the SEC during an appearance on the Crain & Cone On3 show.

“It’s at the top of the SEC where the problem has occurred, and it’s all one person’s fault — it’s Kirby Smart’s fault,” Finebaum said on Wednesday’s Crain & Cone. “Because he won two in a row, he made it look so easy — he should’ve won three in a row, but Nick Saban stunned him in the SEC championship game. And then all these other things have happened. I don’t think it’s a reason to go hide under a rock, nor do I think it’s a reason for SEC fans to find anything that they can and beat their chest about.”

Smart’s Bulldogs are the SEC’s most recent CFP national champions with back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. Since then, though, the Big Ten has reigned supreme with Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana winning college football’s last three CFP national championships between 2023-25.

But for more than 15 years, the SEC held dominion over college football with 13 national championships between 2006-22. That run of dominance began with a seven-year streak of BCS national titles between 2006-12, before Florida State won the final BCS championship in 2013 and Ohio State claimed the first-ever CFP title in 2014. But the SEC got back on track and won six of the next eight CFP national championships between 2015-22, with only Clemson‘s wins over Alabama for the 2016 and 2018 titles breaking up the league’s run.

As Finebaum himself pointed out during his self-described “diatribe” on Crain & Cone, the SEC’s run of championship success allowed the longtime SEC Network host to pen an ode to the league in 2015. Of course, as he playfully acknowledged, the Big Ten’s recent run has made it a little outdated.

“It’s also worth remembering that 14 years ago, I put out a book that was entitled ‘My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football,’ and you can get that book right now for about 35 cents online, because it’s not selling very well,” Finebaum joked. “‘Let’s just be real about it’ is my message to all … the people in the SEC who just won’t let this go.”