Paul Finebaum did the SEC’s bidding on Wednesday’s First Take, repeating a familiar trope about hypothetical three-loss SEC teams getting an invite to the dance instead of the best Group of Five team.

This has become something you can set your watch to — the routine lobbying of the SEC. The 70-year-old Senate prospect and Cam Newton have already been stumping about a three-loss SEC team making the College Football Playoff, which almost certainly won’t be Ole Miss at this point, but now it’s Texas in this scenario.

“What I’m not OK with is your ridiculous statement from a minute ago,” Finebaum told Chris Russo. “What is wrong with this country? ‘Let’s put a couple of people over here in. Let’s put a couple of people…’ What about putting the best in? I don’t see Major League Baseball, I don’t see the NFL going, ‘Ahh, the Chiefs have been there too many times, let’s put the Patriots in.’ I mean, doggie, this is supposed to be about excellence, not about being fair. This is not the Little League where we give a second, third, fourth, and fifth-place trophy. This should be the best.”

When Finebaum invokes the NFL and MLB as paragons of merit-based postseason selection, he’s either ignorant of recent history or hoping his audience is, as both leagues have expanded their playoffs in recent years. The NFL went from 12 to 14 playoff teams starting in 2020, adding a third wild card spot in each conference and reducing the number of first-round byes from two to one per conference. That expansion meant 43.8% of the league’s teams now make the playoffs, up from 37.5%. And yes, that meant more 8-9 and 9-8 teams getting in.

MLB underwent even more dramatic changes, expanding from 10 to 16 teams in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, then settling on a 12-team format starting in 2022. That’s 40% of the league making the postseason, adding a third wild card team in each league, and creating a new Wild Card Series round. The old single-elimination Wild Card Game — which everyone hated — was replaced with a best-of-three series specifically because MLB wanted more teams in October and more games to broadcast.

Finebaum had already stepped on his own argument about merit and excellence. Now he was ready to tell us who really doesn’t belong in the playoff. South Florida. The Group of Five. Teams that, in his mind, have no business being on the same field as the SEC.

“It’s already a convoluted system because we let the group of whatever in, the Group of Five with South Florida,” Finebaum said, his disdain dripping through every word. “That conference, that division really has no business playing. That’s like letting the Triple-A best team into the Major League playoffs. It doesn’t happen in any other sport, but for you to say, ‘Oh, the SEC has too many teams’ and this and that is just patently ridiculous.”

“The Group of Five with South Florida … that division really has no business playing. That’s like letting the Triple-A best team into the Major League playoffs.”@finebaum believes the best college football teams should make the CFP 😅 pic.twitter.com/T0cPfijD4Y

— First Take (@FirstTake) November 12, 2025

In Finebaum’s mind, there are the SEC teams — the major leagues — and then there’s everyone else, minor league programs playing a different sport entirely. Never mind that these teams recruit from the same high school talent pools, play by the same rules, and compete for the same championship. According to Paul Finebaum, the very act of allowing Group of Five teams into the playoff field is what’s making the system “convoluted,” not the growing sense that conference affiliation matters more than on-field results.

What’s patently ridiculous is taking a collective dump on the Group of Five, especially considering Finebaum’s history of threatening the playoff committee when they don’t bend to SEC demands. Just months ago, when the SEC announced its future scheduling format with nine conference games and a mandatory Power Four opponent, Finebaum turned it into an ultimatum.

“We have laid a marker from the SEC at the feet of the CFP, and they better deliver,” he warned. “And I’m not making threats, because I don’t have any more control over it than anybody else, but I know some people that do. And if they screw this up, they will be paying for it.”

Paul Finebaum says the CFP committee better bow down to the SEC and give them special treatment or else they’ll pay for it 😳 pic.twitter.com/svFZ1INT8F

— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) September 23, 2025

That South Florida team he was scoffing about is currently ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll and No. 24 in the College Football Playoff rankings with a 7-2 record. The Bulls beat No. 13 Florida at Florida in September, when the Gators were ranked in the top 25. It was an 18-16 upset in The Swamp that ended on a walk-off field goal and sent Billy Napier’s seat temperature to nuclear levels.

South Florida’s offense is averaging 42.0 points per game (5th in the FBS) and 485 yards per game (7th), led by quarterback Byrum Brown, who’s thrown for 2,023 yards with 19 touchdowns while rushing for over 700 yards. The Bulls have already knocked off two ranked opponents this season — Boise State and Florida — and, according to ESPN, are just the fourth team since 1936 to win its first two games against ranked opponents while unranked.

If we want to use the transitive property here, USF beat Florida, which beat Texas earlier in the season. Paul Finebaum argued that Texas should be a CFP team if it drops only one of its remaining three games against Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas A&M, which, fine. But you can’t argue that Texas deserves to be in with three losses while simultaneously dismissing the Group of Five team that beat the team that beat Texas. Of course, we know Texas would be favored in a hypothetical matchup because the SEC is undefeated in hypothetical games.

The issue isn’t whether three-loss SEC teams are “good enough” to make the playoff. Some of them probably are. The real problem is the growing sense that college football is building a system in which SEC teams get rewarded for their conference affiliation while everyone else gets punished for theirs.

South Florida has done everything asked of them. They scheduled aggressively in non-conference play. They beat ranked teams. They’re dominating their conference. They have one of the most explosive offenses in the country. But according to Finebaum’s logic, they’re playing Triple-A baseball while three-loss SEC teams who couldn’t win their own divisions are somehow the “best.”

The College Football Playoff was supposed to settle these scores on the field. Instead, it’s becoming a platform for the same people who ran the BCS to argue why the eye test matters more than actual results. Paul Finebaum can dress it up as a pursuit of excellence all he wants. But when you’re arguing that a hypothetical three-loss team from your conference deserves a playoff spot over a two-loss conference champion from elsewhere, you’re no longer making a case for merit.

South Florida might not win the National Championship. But they’ve earned the right not to be compared to a Triple-A baseball team by someone whose entire career has been built on promoting a single conference at the expense of everyone else, and who apparently has “people” ready to make the playoff committee “pay” if they don’t fall in line with SEC demands.