3 ways Paul Finebaum was wrong this week: Arch Manning, Bama and more

Paul Finebaum is ESPN’s resident SEC enthusiast (and/or apologist) who thinks the conference can do no wrong and is constantly getting slightly. That leads to terrible takes, rash defenses and just plain ignorance for someone who’s supposed to be an analyst and provide insight to said takes. What Finebaum says nowadays is less about credibility.

If you’re a delusional SEC fan, you probably side with him. 

His scorching takes ahead of Week 1 of the college football season perfectly encapsulates why his constant defending of the SEC is bordering on ignorance. Before we’ve even completed the first full weekend of college football, Finebaum has already managed to let his bias overshadow credible arguments. 

I guess he forgot Arch Manning hasn’t really played in adverse situations so claiming him to be the best college football player since Tim Tebow was irrational and coupling that with Texas storming into Columbus and blowing out the defending champions is just wrong. 

That’s just the start of the list of things Finebaum whiffed on with his ignorant takes. Here’s everything Finebaum was wrong about in one of the biggest opening weekends in college football. 

Putting Arch Manning on a pedestal he didn’t deserve was always going to come back to bite Paul Finebaum

Manning hadn’t really played a significant game in his collegiate career before Saturday, so throwing outlandish expectations on him was always the wrong move. That’s not to say Manning can’t go on to be a great quarterback and continue the lineage of the Manning name in college football, but it does mean deeming him a Heisman Trophy winner and national champion before his first start against a reputable opponent just doesn’t make sense. 

The way Manning played against Ohio State wasn’t just about playing in a tough road game. It was about not looking anything like the 5-star rating he got out of high school or the hype he had as a Heisman favorite with starts against Louisana-Monroe and a two-win Mississippi State team to his résumé entering 2025. 

Sometimes, it's okay to sit some things out and Finebaum should be put on Arch Manning punishment until he does real research to actually back up his takes. His radar of what he expected of Manning needs to be recalibrated and Manning’s 2025 debut just goes to show Finebaum should spend more time putting less pressure on Manning. 

To think Texas was going to blow out the defending champions on the road is bias beyond comprehension 

I know Texas has a lot of expectations this season, but to think the Longhorns were going to go into Ohio Stadium in the season opener after the Buckeyes won the 2024 national championship and blow Ohio State out of the stadium is puzzling. Add on top of that Lee Corso’s final College GameDay appearance and headgear selection, the entire world knew he was going to pick Ohio State; there’s no way Ohio State was losing this game, let alone getting blown out. 

Though Julian Sayin was the new quarterback under center and Ohio State lost a couple key playmakers on both sides, this Ohio State team, to me, is still the best in college football right now. I didn’t expect Texas to be one of the top teams by the end of the year. I think they’ll be an eight or nine-win team. Manning needs time to grow and he wasn’t going to put it all together in Week 1 road game against the No. 3 team in the country. 

Texas lost quite a bit of its offensive firepower from last season so this was going to be a “rebuilding” year of sorts. Not that they would have a lot of struggles this season, but just the fact that they are going to have a lot to figure out in the early part of the season. The loss to Ohio State proves just that. 

I think Texas could have won that game, but a blow out, that was never on the table for me. Once again, another take from Finebaum that was completely wrong. Maybe this week will be a lesson the SEC isn’t the dominant conference he thinks it is. 

Alabama losing to Florida State on the road was always a trap game and Paul Finebaum should have seen this coming

The least bias of his statements entering the weekend was that Alabama is a national contender that was ranked too low at No. 8. I won’t try and reason with him, instead I’ll simply say this isn’t the most irrational thing he said this weekend. However, there’s a general consensus that there’s less faith in Bama this year than last and they missed the College Football Playoff. 

On top of that, a road game against a Florida State team that needed to do everything they could to make up for a two-win, 2024 season after being a preseason No. 10 ranked team, was always going to be a tough challenge. The Seminoles had a lot more to play for than Bama did. And the Crimson Tide had a new quarterback that hadn’t started yet in his career. 

This was the worst type of trap game for Bama; if they win, it’s expected against a far more inferior team and if they lose, it means they’re not as good as people like Finebaum think. And with a 14-point loss, it’s clear Finebaum once again missed the target. The Crimson Tide will bounce back and now they have something to prove. 

And Finebaum, well he learned that his SEC bias has a limit. There’s nothing he can do to absolve himself from the criticism he’s about to endure for the next 48-to-72 hours. Let that be a reminder that SEC bias is real and flawed. It’s still the strongest conference in college football, but it no longer has the lead it used to.