Paul Finebaum trashes Pac-12 additions, updates where Power Four expansion stands

The tremors of conference realignment at the highest levels of college sports have, seemingly, calmed down in recent months. Now, with the dust settled Paul Finebaum shared that he doesn’t expect any notable changes in the foreseeable future while taking the Pac-12 to task for its additions.

While there has been some talk about Texas State moving, potentially to the Pac-12, the conference as a whole isn’t moving the needle for Finebaum. Instead, on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, he took the time to trash the additions that the Pac-12 did make.

“I don’t think so,” Paul Finebaum said. “And, listen, I don’t really recognize the Pac-12 as a collection of rejects and misfits. Texas State is probably a better add than it sounds because I think a lot of people probably aren’t all that familiar with what they’ve done. They have a good program, but it’s just cobbling a bunch of things together.”

Conference realignment consistently created a domino effect. Once a conference poached schools, the conference that lost schools had to poach, going down the line. The Big 12 and Pac-12, in particular, began competing to backfill. However, when the Big 12 added a media deal and some stability that the Pac-12 didn’t have, several more schools left for the Big Ten and Big 12. Others, eventually, left for the ACC and the Pac-12 was down to two schools. Since then, they’ve backfilled with an assortment of programs, largely out of the Mountain West.

Now, as Finebaum looks around the Power Four, he doesn’t see room for growth. That means, unless something changes, conference membership could stay steady in the near future.

“In relation to the ACC, I don’t see any room for growth right there,” Finebaum said. “And I think the SEC Big Ten conversation has been hashed out. I don’t think either is all that excited about taking anybody else in, which leaves the Big 12. They’ve been aggressive in recent years because they had to to keep up, but I would be shocked if major tremors started to occur within the Power Four right now.”

Paul Finebaum shares major question for Group of Five

Paul Finebaum would add that realignment in the Group Five, ultimately, won’t cause a major shakeup within the Power Four. Instead, those programs need to address their own future as it relates to the House settlement and competing at the FBS level.

“Not on the biggest stage it doesn’t,” Paul Finebaum said. “No. I think the real important question for the G5 is what is the future for them. We’re now a week and a half removed from the Friday night House settlement, and it doesn’t speak any better for them. The conversation we’re having here that the distance between the G5 and the upper echelon is far isn’t new. It just seems like it’s getting even deeper and more distant.”

This concern goes beyond the Group of Five for Finebaum, though. Football is becoming a sport where the gap between the top of the sport and the middle or bottom is rapidly growing.

“I think the biggest question is even within the Power Five and at the mid level. Can the mid level of the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and even Big 12 compete any longer? I don’t hear too many people who think they can. We’re watching something unique in baseball right now. You’re seeing Murray State, even though they’re eliminated,” Finebaum said.

“And Coastal [Carolina], which has a really good chance of competing on the same stage. That is not going to happen very often in college football. There may be some school that sneaks in. I really don’t know how they can, and if they can they won’t be there for long, because everyone else will come in and take their top players.”