In college football, nobody escapes Paul Finebaum’s microscope. The SEC analyst took more than a few shots at Curt Cignetti and Indiana last season. But after the Hoosiers hoisted the Natty, Finebaum had no choice but to eat back his words, admitting his doubt was an ‘epic failure.’

“It is the greatest story in the history of the game,” said Finebaum on his podcast on January 21. “What made it even more amazing is how people misunderstood what Curt Cignetti was doing in Bloomington. Almost everything I said throughout the season about him and about Indiana was wrong, and it was an epic failure on my part.”

Flashback to October, fresh off delivering Indiana its first-ever double-digit win season in 2024, Cignetti was rewarded with a monster eight-year, $93 million extension. The Hoosiers had bulldozed multiple AP Top-10 teams, another program first. Yet even that résumé wasn’t enough to crack the Paul Finebaum shell.

On First Take earlier this season, Stephen A. Smith asked Finebaum whether Indiana was smart to lock down Cignetti for the long haul. Finebaum’s verdict was a ‘No.’

“They just gave him an extension and a contract raise at the end of last season,” said the SEC analyst. “We are barely at the midpoint, let it play out before you completely send the Brinks truck up. I’m still not convinced that Curt Cignetti is one of the top coaches in America.”

With the playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024, college football’s guest list got a lot bigger. For the first time, Indiana found its name on the invite, officially crashing the postseason party.

“Indiana was just a fraud,” Finebaum said on The Paul Finebaum Show.

Indiana’s 27-17 loss to Notre Dame came with an asterisk. The Hoosiers were staring at a 27-3 deficit in the fourth quarter before rallying late to make the margin respectable. Even then, Finebaum was unconvinced and believed that Indiana didn’t belong in the playoff picture.

But the blockbuster story that Cignetti wrote on the gridiron in the 2025 season even cracked the hard nut like Finebaum. Long known as college football’s forgotten soul, Indiana smashed the stigma under Cignetti. From 13 bowl appearances in more than a century, and being the losingest team in college football, to a perfect 16-0 title run. 

The former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton rooted hard; the NFL royalty was all about Indiana, and the Hoosiers are drawing praise from every corner.

With a Big Ten program hoisting the trophy for a third straight season, Finebaum is already back in the lab, pointing out the problems that kept the SEC’s luck from favoring it for the third time in a row.

Paul Finebaum calls it a crisis in the SEC

Finebaum pointed to the Big Ten’s billionaire support, arguing the league’s dominance comes from being “flush with money.”

“We’re talking billionaires, and outside of Texas and Texas A&M, the list of billionaires starts to get really thin,” the SEC analyst said.

The financial gap is real. The Big Ten reported $928 million in revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year, topping the SEC’s $840 million. That advantage was directly reflected in the distribution. The Big Ten schools received $61-63 million each, around $10 million more than SEC programs.

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“There’s a real crisis going on down here, and Indiana winning just made it worse,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “Because it’s not only an improbable story in college sports history, it’s going to change the dynamics.”

But maybe the SEC can find a silver lining in the Texas Longhorns. 

Steve Sarkisian and company went big in the portal, landing impact pieces like Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smothers. Arch Manning shone in 2025, powering a deep playoff push. If the stars align, Paul Finebaum’s dream of an SEC champion could become a reality in 2026.