Paul Finebaum has made a career out of stirring the pot in college football discussions, but his latest comments regarding Clemson and Florida State are just flat-out inaccurate.
His argument that the SEC would prefer to add North Carolina and Virginia over Clemson and Florida State simply doesn’t hold up when you consider what actually drives conference expansion—TV ratings.
Finebaum's reasoning seems to be based on the idea that North Carolina and Virginia bring "unique brands" to the SEC, largely because the conference doesn’t currently have a presence in those states. But let’s be real: Is Virginia football drawing massive national attention? Absolutely not. If TV markets were the primary factor in realignment, Rutgers would be a powerhouse program by now.
The reality is that football drives the money in college athletics, and Clemson and Florida State are the last two ACC schools to win national championships. Their brand recognition in the sport far outweighs that of Virginia. Sure, North Carolina brings basketball prestige, but football is what dictates conference realignment, and UNC hasn’t exactly been a dominant force on the gridiron, either.
But, he didn't stop there.
“Clemson is inferior to South Carolina as an academic institution," Finebaum said. via On3. "Then you have the same situation with Florida State. They are behind the other state schools, as well as private schools, in Florida. So, I don’t think either one of them have much to offer, and quite frankly I’m not really sure why the Big Ten would want either one of them.”
If Finebaum had stopped at the realignment discussion, his comments would still be misguided, but his statement that "South Carolina is academically superior to Clemson" is just outright false.
There is no legitimate academic metric in which South Carolina surpasses Clemson, and there is certainly no metric to say that they are "superior."
Clemson has a lower acceptance rate, higher standardized test scores, and is ranked higher in multiple national education rankings. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Clemson as the top public university in South Carolina, and its engineering, business, and agriculture programs are nationally recognized. Meanwhile, South Carolina has a higher acceptance rate and lower SAT/ACT averages.
So where exactly is Finebaum getting his claim that South Carolina is superior? It’s just another example of him pushing a narrative without facts to back it up. Sound familiar?
At the end of the day, the SEC shouldn't be expanding based on geography—it’s expanding based on football success and financial impact. Clemson and Florida State have been the two premier football programs in the ACC for years, and their ability to bring in ratings, revenue, and national interest should make them the obvious choices for the SEC over Virginia and even North Carolina.
But, go ahead. Let's see the Big Ten add Clemson and Florida State while the SEC adds UNC and Virginia, and then let's see who ends up commanding the better TV deal.