Paul Finebaum may have said that Penn State football is the best team in the Big Ten, but it looks like his compliments cap off there.
In light of the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll release, the college football and SEC analyst took his opportunity to criticize head coach James Franklin and the Nittany Lions once again. Penn State was just five points away from claiming the No. 1 spot on the preseason poll and fell to No. 2 behind Texas.
Like every other time Finebaum took shots at Franklin, his gripe is with the lack of big game wins. To be fair, that's most people's gripe with Franklin. However, the 2025-26 roster is stacked and even without "on paper" results, there's a lot leaning in favor of Penn State deserving a No. 2 or even No. 1 preseason position.
“I’ve heard the same thing about Penn State a number of times. I realize this is the best team on paper, but . . . Franklin is still the coach," Finebaum said. ". . . you don’t get paper to rule. You have to physically do it, and I’ll believe it when I see it, when Penn State actually wins a big game.”
Unfortunately for Finebaum, he'll have to wait until Week 5 to see that, which is another problem he has with the Nittany Lions. When naming them as the team facing the most pressure in 2025, he didn't forget to call out their non-conference slate scheduled for their first three weeks of the season before their first bye week.
Now not only does Penn State have an easy three-week opener (Nevada, FIU, and Villanova), but it's only facing three Top 25 teams in the regular season (Oregon, Ohio State, and Indiana). Nebraska and Iowa received votes, but didn't scrape into the list. Those are going to be the defining games of the season for Franklin, and if Week 5 ends in a loss, he doesn't have many more opportunities to win big games against top teams.
On top of ripping into Franklin again and refusing to believe Penn State is a high-ranked team, he also made sure to back Texas and the SEC. Even if the Nittany Lions earn those wins and prove their deserving of a top two spot at least in the country, Finebaum isn't going to release his grip on the SEC as the most dominant conference in the NCAA.
"I am so sick and tired of being harassed by Big Ten fans on our show. The Big Ten has literally done nothing," Finebaum said. "[It] won two national championships. Michigan won one two years ago. [It] won one and a half national championships . . . before that in 70 years, and they act like they invented football," Finebaum said. "Alabama has won about 15 national championships in my lifetime."
For the 2025-26 season, Finebaum believes that the SEC is going to bring it all home again. This time, he has full faith in the currently No. 1 Longhorns. If his favored conference doesn't bring home the national title, he even threatened to leave the country.
"[Texas is] going to end all this and on January 20 [and] I'll be the happiest man in America because I won't have to listen to the 'Big Tenners' — or as my callers call them, the 'Little Tenners,'" Finebaum said.