Paul Finebaum blasts Big Ten Conference, commissioner Kevin Warren for bowl game failures

The Big Ten’s top two team’s in Ohio State and Michigan both suffered losses in their respective College Football Playoff games. Additionally, the conferences upcoming newcomers USC and UCLA also lost by a combined three points in their bowl games. College football analyst Paul Finebaum spoke with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic about the state of the Big Ten following a seemingly disappointing bowl season.

“Only Penn State saved the day,” Finebaum said, followed by McElroy attributing the Nittany Lions win to the injury suffered by Utah quarterback Cam Rising. “I concur, and to me, it’s not the Rose Bowl if you don’t see the sun set over the San Gabriel Mountains. I mean that was not your grandfather’s Rose Bowl yesterday, that was a slogfest.”

The Nittany Lions’ Rose Bowl victory was one of the Big Ten’s five bowl wins this season, but Finebaum still expressed concern about the conference regarding their leadership with commissioner Kevin Warren.

“And it doesn’t matter, because your two best teams lost, and I don’t care how they lost they still lost, and the fact that your commissioner, Greg, is interviewing at the Chicago Bears is all you need to know about the Big Ten,” Finebaum said.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported last week that Warren interviewed and is a strong candidate for the Bears’ next president and CEO job, and was not present for either Michigan or Ohio State’s College Football Playoff semifinal games. Which led to McElroy asking Finebaum if Warren was good as gone as the Big Ten’s commissioner in the future.

“I would think so, everyone’s been in these situations and once it gets out, and his denial, if there was ever a class on how to give a bad denial just read Kevin Warren’s word salad last week on his concerns for the student-athletes in the Big Ten while he was interviewing for another job,” Finrbaum said.

Warren’s status as the Big Ten conference commissioner will definitely be interesting to monitor moving forward, especially with big changes to their conference like adding new programs like USC and UCLA, the expansion of the College Football Playoffs, and NIL and the transfer portal continuing to grow alter the college sports landscape as a whole.

“Listen I don’t blame him, being the NFL commissioner is a better job than being the Big Ten commissioner, it pays well, it’s powerful, and clearly that’s what he wants to do down the road,” Finebaum said.