The beef between LSU head honcho Lane Kiffin and Paul Finebaum just hit a whole new level of petty, and honestly, fans are loving every second of it. After Curt Cignetti led Indiana to a massive 27–21 National Championship win over Miami yesterday, Kiffin wasted no time hopping on social media to remind everyone just how wrong Finebaum was about the Hoosiers’ Curt Cignetti earlier this season.

Back in October, things got really heated when Indiana gave Cignetti a huge eight-year, $93 million contract extension. Finebaum went on First Take and absolutely trashed the deal. “They did not,” Paul Finebaum said when Stephen A. Smith asked whether it’s a good deal for Indiana. “And before anybody jumps out of their chair, allow me to explain. I think everyone on this panel agrees that he’s done a phenomenal job. But Stephen A this is how programs get in trouble.

They just gave him an extension and a contract raise at the end of last season. We are barely at the midpoint. Let it play out before you completely send the Brinks truck up.”

The ESPN analyst did not stop it there. He went berserk on his own show and called it a “terrible move” for the university. He even went as far as saying Cignetti wasn’t in the same league as big-name coaches like Kirby Smart or Ryan Day and predicted the school’s athletic director would be fired for mortgaging the university.

Now that Cignetti has capped off a perfect 16–0 season with a natty. Lane Kiffin, the X connoisseur, decided to dig up those old clips. He reposted Finebaum’s rant from October with a simple name callout and digital sigh: “Paul…”

It was a clear shot at how hard Finebaum tried to discredit everything Cignetti was doing before he actually won the whole thing.

Finebaum basically did everything in his power not to give Cignetti his flowers until he had no choice but to admit the guy was winning. Even now, after the championship, Finebaum is catching heat for calling the win a “cute story” rather than a legendary achievement.

This isn’t the first time these two have gone at it. But this one feels a bit different because of how historic Indiana’s run was. Fans and other analysts, like Matt Leinart, are basically calling out Finebaum for being an “SEC homer” who can’t handle it when a team from the Big Ten pulls off a miracle season.

Looking back now, the $93 million contract that Finebaum hated so much looks like the best investment in college football history right now. While Finebaum is trying to move on to the next topic. Kiffin is making sure the internet doesn’t forget just how wrong the ‘Mouth of the South’ really was.

Paul Finebaum would lose his stuff if he found out how much Curt Cignetti took home of that contract.

Curt Cignetti’s grand pay from the contract after the natty

The word on the street is Curt Cignetti walked away with a massive $14,675,000 for the season. He’s the highest-earning head coach of 2025 in college football this season after Kirby Smart. This big payday is basically a combination of his $11.6 million base salary and about $3.075 million in performance bonuses he racked up during Indiana’s undefeated run.

The national title win alone handed him a $2 million bonus. Before that, he’d already locked in $1 million for winning the Big Ten. Another $700k for reaching the semifinals. Plus, bunch of smaller payouts for things like winning 16 straight games and being named Coach of the Year. He pretty much hit the jackpot on every incentive clause in his contract.

Because he took the team to the playoff semifinals and won it all, a special “market review” clause in his contract has kicked in. This means Indiana now has to make sure he stays one of the top three highest-paid coaches in the country. LSU just started paying Lane Kiffin $13 million a year. Cignetti’s base salary is probably jumping to at least $12.58 million next season. It could even surpass Kirby Smart’s $15 million.

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That should give Paul Finebaum some content to air.