Paul Finebaum blasts Rhett Lashlee for 'embarrassing' SEC depth take

ACC Media Days are underway, and on Tuesday, SMU Mustangs head coach Rhett Lashlee seemed to ruffle some feathers. He went after the SEC, claiming that the conference lacked depth because it’s only had six teams win a national championship since 1964.

“The SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964. Not a single one has been different since 1964,” Lashlee said. “That’s top-heavy to me. That’s not depth.”

The following day, Paul Finebaum appeared on Get Up. There, he blasted Rhett Lashlee, taking shots at the SMU program.

“First of all, I think Alabama has won about 11 national championships in that period that he laid out,” Paul Finebaum said. “But that’s not even the main point. If I understand correctly, he’s the head coach at SMU. I bet you know where I’m going here. 1987.”

Finebaum was referencing the death penalty that SMU received while it was in the Southwest Conference. That punishment set the program back, and the 2024 season in the ACC was a massive return to prominence for the team, with Lashlee leading the Mustangs to the College Football Playoff.

“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,” Finebaum said. “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.”

Since 1964, the year that Rhett Lashlee set as a cutoff point, the SEC has won 30 national championships. Alabama has 15 of those. Then, the other SEC teams to win a national championship during that time include Georgia (four), Auburn (three), Florida (three), LSU (three), and Tennessee (two). Notably, since 1964, only Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Florida State have won national championships as ACC members. Current members, Pitt and Miami, also won national championships in other conferences.

Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech all won at least one national championship since 1932, but before Lashlee’s 1964 cutoff point, while in the SEC. Newcomers to the conference,  Texas and Oklahoma, also won national championships since 1964. However, they were in other conferences when they did so.

It’s now actually been two seasons since any conference but the Big Ten won a national championship. So, the SEC, ACC, and SMU individually will all be looking to get back to the top of the sport next season.