Paul Finebaum works for the SEC Network and, like every facet of the political, entertainment, marketing, and business world in the year 2026, does nothing to hide his bias in a position that previously required objectivity in a now-bygone era.
In discussing College Football, Finebaum's opinions are often so unpopular that you can't help but catch the stench of obnoxious bias. The Tropolitan's Caleb Thomas took notice of Finebaum's recent hot take -- comparing the Group of 5/soon-to-be Group of 6 leagues of the American Conference, the Sun Belt, the Mountain West, Conference USA, the MAC, and the rebuilt Pac-12 to Triple-A MiLB, and the Power 4 to the MLB -- and called the talking head an "SEC shill" accordingly.
As Thomas pointed out, newly hired Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh, who was the head coach of the USF Bulls last season, triumphed over Billy Napier's Florida Gators in the "Swamp." Not only that, then-Memphis Tigers head coach Ryan Silverfield upset his current employer, the Arkansas Razorbacks, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
"By making this claim, Finebaum is actively ignoring the multiple concrete instances where Group of Six teams will beat Power Four and SEC teams, including a few notable examples last season alone," Thomas prefaced before saying, "Just last season, USF downed Florida 18-16 at The Swamp and Memphis beat Arkansas 32-31. Neither of those teams are even playing in their conference championship, so acting like the top Group of Six squads doesn’t deserve a seat at the table is asinine.
"In mischaracterizing the Group of Six as a 'minor league' competition level, Finebaum completely glosses over any time a power-conference team loses those matchups and refuses to give G6 teams any credit."
Because of the blatant shilling from the supposed "Worldwide Leader in Sports," you can now correct ESPN employees on their takes with the results of games played on their own networks.
That's the point, though. That's how marketing from big companies function in the social media age. They get to be sloppy, and we have to correct them, as if they don't know what they're doing in the first place.
Good for Thomas for pointing it out, though. Even though these companies offer the bait, you still have to call them out so that we maintain a shared reality as a society. Coming from a Troy University student reporter, that was a personal shot from Finebaum against the Trojans, who, in several recent years, have had a program that could've competed with the SEC's bottom tier.
Paul Finebaum is not just an SEC shill, he's a big brand shill
Finebaum fully carries water for the biggest brands his network is connected to in the SEC. It's not just a bias for the "It Just Means More" conference. It's for some of the biggest money-makers of his career, the Georgia Bulldogs and, especially, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Soon enough, the Texas Longhorns could be in that group if/when they win a CFP title for the conference and rake in the bread.
As Thomas pointed out, Finebaum didn't even have respect for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, a founding SEC member, claiming that they would simply fold while facing an SEC program. Meanwhile, reality dictates that the result was UGA squeaking by with a 16-9 win over Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on ABC, which is an ESPN entity.
ESPN's coverage of College Football often boils down to openly hating on teams that don't bring money to their pockets.
They can't explicitly say it on air, but once that's understood, every bad take shared can simply be boiled down to what "team" the hot take artist is on and what financial interests are involved with whatever's being pushed.