The Indiana football team won the national championship on Monday night, continuing an impressive run for the Big Ten. For the third consecutive year, a Big Ten team has won the national title. That is something that college football analyst Paul Finebaum is watching closely.
Finebaum says money from Big Ten donors is helping that league do so well in football. The analyst thinks the lack of billionaire donors at many SEC programs, is hurting the SEC in the College Football Playoff results.
“We’re talking billionaires now and outside of Texas and Texas A&M, the list of billionaires starts to get really thin. I could tell you in the state of Alabama, there are two billionaires, only two in the entire state. They’re both Auburn supporters. Alabama doesn’t have a billionaire,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie show on ESPN. “And why is a billionaire important Matt? Because they can throw around money. You could throw around money if you’re worth $800 million too but it’s a little bit easier if you’re a billionaire to give your school, not only to put your father’s name on the business building, but to give your NIL fund whatever it needs.”
Finebaum says it is a tough challenge moving ahead for the SEC.
“And you just can’t call the commissioner of the SEC and say here you have to solve this problem. You can’t print money unless you got your keys to the printing press and it’s a problem,” Finebaum added.
Indiana is the third Big Ten team in as many seasons to win the national championship. Michigan won in 2023, and then Ohio State won it in 2024. No SEC team has made the championship game in those three seasons.
Indiana's championship in the CFP Monday was the first in school history.
