This week the ACC and the Big Ten take the spotlight as both conferences kicked off their Media Days Events on Tuesday. One of the highlights from Day One of the 2025 ACC Kickoff was Rhett Lashlee's defense of the ACC's Standing in College Football. Despite being one of the newest members of the Conference, Rhett Lashlee made an incredible case for the ACC while taking shots at other conferences.
During his time on stage, Rhett Lashlee took aim at the SEC calling out the conferences lack of depth.
"The SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964. Not a single one has been different since 1964. That’s top-heavy to me. That’s not depth."Rhett Lashlee
The comments didn't go over well with most SEC fans especially for the fans of the programs that haven't won the Championship in particular. The comments also didn't go over well with SEC loyalist Paul Finebaum who had a full blown meltdown on ESPN's Get Up.
"Do you know what happened at SMU? They shut the program down. While he’s making fun of the SEC for winning national championships all over the place, SMU is the most corrupt program in the history of college football. Rhett Lashlee has the nerve to get up there and throw stones? By the way, he played at Arkansas. That should have nothing to do with it. That was one of the most comically embarrassing rants I have heard and I am glad the audio wasn’t clear because I would have come right through that screen."Paul Finebaum
If you couldn't tell based on Paul Finebaum's comments, Rhett Lashlee clearly hit a nerve with Paul Finebaum as called out SMU for getting the Death Penalty back in 1987. Finebaum also called out Lashlee for making these comments because of the fact that he played at Arkansas as if that means he should never criticize the SEC.
While Rhett Lashlee makes a fair point about the SEC being more top heavy than it is deep as the conference often has depth but, the teams that we call "depth" never have any chance of dethroning the teams at the top. On the other hand, Lashlee fails to acknowledge that the same can be said for the ACC as Clemson and Florida State have won every ACC Championship Game except for one since 2011.
At the end of the day, the conferences will continue argue that they're the best and everyone else is inferior but, these debates will truly never get settled. Whether or not Rhett Lashlee believes his sentiment, he certainly struck a nerve with Paul Finebaum who has his own bias which has given us a hilarious rant from the analyst.