The turnaround of the Indiana Hoosiers under head coach Curt Cignetti is one of the most remarkable in the history of American sports. But Paul Finebaum doesn’t want you to forget about the mighty Vanderbilt Commodores either.
Indiana has gone from college football laughingstock to the doorstep of their first national championship as they are heavy favorites to defeat the Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff title game. For a team who had just won two conference titles in their history before this year to almost instantly become the most dominant program in the sport is a remarkable achievement with no modern equal.
But even though he’s admitted that he can’t defend the SEC after their woeful track record on the field over the past few seasons, and especially this postseason, Paul Finebaum waved the flag for the conference one more time in wanting the success of Vanderbilt to not get overshadowed by Indiana.
In an appearance with Matt Barrie on his ESPN college football podcast, Finebaum said the two stories are “equally dramatic.”
“You can call me and you snobs, but we are because we’re so used to the rich winning. Matt, there’s no way you could have told me back in August when we started this that Indiana would not only be winning, but winning with such domination. There’s just no precedent,” Finebaum said.
But while Paul Finebaum did have plenty of praise for the Hoosiers leading the way for college football’s new class of contenders upending the historical powers of the sport, that’s what led him down the track of wanting to make sure the SEC’s own upstart got some love as well.
“It’s just too bad that nobody’s really talking about what a great job Vanderbilt did this year because what they did is equally dramatic and unbelievable. They just did not, they ended up having to play teams like Texas and Alabama in the regular season. They did lose to a Big Ten team in a bowl game, which I’m sure some people will make a lot of. We can sit here for the next six months and we’re still not going to be able to explain it,” Finebaum added.
The comment is dripping with irony because earlier this season Finebaum cast doubt upon the Hoosiers’ dominance by pulling the hypothetical card and saying that they could not survive the SEC gauntlet in the same way Alabama would. Of course, the SEC’s favored hypothetical victories were no match for what happened when Indiana and Alabama actually played each other and the Hoosiers swept away the Crimson Tide with ease.
Paul Finebaum: “I’d like to see Indiana go through the gauntlet that Alabama has gone through in the last five weeks. They would not be undefeated.” pic.twitter.com/5NUnZxYcbR
— The Buckeye Nut (@TheBuckeyeNut) October 30, 2025
But back to Finebaum’s comments about Vanderbilt. It is a nice sentiment and the Commodores should be lauded for their historic success in their own right. But in no universe is it at all comparable to what Indiana has achieved and still yet could against Miami in the national championship game. And citing victories over Alabama and Texas as if they still mean something is exactly the narratives that need to be finally put to rest ahead of next season.
But perhaps that is what Paul Finebaum and the SEC will have to settle for as they watch a Big Ten and ACC team compete for a title on Monday. Instead of hypothetical victories, they now have to settle for moral ones.
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