ESPN’s Paul Finebaum calls the Atlantic Coast Conference “a clown show.”
Okay! That’s fine. He is entitled to his opinion.
His reasoning for jumping on the ACC is due to the fact Clemson has dominated the league the last four years. Since 2015, the Tigers are 34-2 against their ACC foes.
However, if Mr. Finebaum is going to call the ACC “a clown show” because Clemson dominates the conference, then he has to use the same logic for his beloved Southeastern Conference.
Using his own logic, the SEC is a clown show and has been that way a lot longer than the ACC.
I know, I know. I just attacked the SEC. I can hear the SEC homers now, “How dare you say such a thing about the greatest football conference of all time. Don’t you know that in the SEC ‘it just means more.’”
If the SEC is so great, then why has one team dominated the conference longer than Clemson has dominated the ACC. Finebaum said it himself in a response to an ESPN article written by Chris Low, in which the SEC writer says Clemson has owned the SEC in recent years.
“Dabo is 13-5 against SEC teams. (Nick) Saban is 57-5. Which is more impressive? The SEC is the toughest conference in football. The ACC—outside of Clemson—is a clown show,” Finebaum said in article on AL.com.
So, let me get this straight. On one hand, a conference that is dominated by one school for a long period of time is called “a clown show,” while on the other hand a conference that is dominated by one school for a long period of time is called “the toughest conference in football.”
You can’t have it both ways, Paul.
Since 2011, Alabama has won the SEC five times. In that same time span, Clemson has won the ACC five times.
As I mentioned above, Clemson is 34-2 against ACC competition since 2015. You want to know what Alabama’s record is against the SEC during that same time period? The Crimson Tide is 35-1.
That’s right, Clemson has won more games over Alabama in the last four years than anyone else in the SEC.
Also, Alabama won all eight of its SEC regular season games last year by at least 22 points and won them by an average margin of 32.6 points per game. Clemson won its eight ACC regular season games by a 35.6 margin. So, according to Mr. Finebaum, three points is what separates one conference from being “the toughest conference in football” and the other from being “a clown show.”
Granted, the SEC has better overall football programs than the ACC, based on history and what the schools put into their resources for football. No one is going to argue that. However, to say the SEC is the best conference in football is a joke and this writer is tired of people like Paul Finebaum telling me and everyone else that in America.
The fact is, as Mr. Low pointed out, Clemson does own the SEC. It hasn’t always, but in the current state of college football it does.
The Tigers are 14-6 against the SEC since the start of the 2011 season, which includes five wins over South Carolina, four over Auburn, two over Alabama and one each over LSU, Georgia and Texas A&M.
To take it a step further, since 2015, Clemson is 9-2 against the mighty SEC. If that is not owning the conference in the games when you play against teams from said conference than what is?
Also, if the best team from the ACC is beating the SEC’s best team, like Clemson has proven in the national championship game twice in three tries, doesn’t that mean the ACC has proven itself not to be “a clown show” like Mr. Finebaum suggest.
Don’t the head-to-head matchups between Alabama and Clemson in the College Football Playoff mean something? They have split those games. So, if Mr. Finebaum is going to call the ACC “a clown show” based off Clemson’s dominance, then he has to call the SEC “a clown show” too because Alabama has dominated the SEC even more than Clemson has the ACC.
Also, one last thing.
Clemson 44, Alabama 16
Which conference looked more like “a clown show” when it mattered the most in last year’s national championship game?