Paul Finebaum names 2 contenders who will ‘absolutely not’ win national title in 2025
By Jake Faigus
Published:
Paul Finebaum was asked on Wednesday who he would immediately write off from national title contention, and his answers might surprise you.
On an appearance on an episode of Wednesday’s edition of SportsCenter, Finebaum said that his two teams that had “absolutely” no chance of winning the national championship were Ohio State and Penn State. Finebaum gave different reasons for both, but does not believe in the Big Ten’s two highest-ranked teams.
“I think they’re really good, but they’re going to be hung over from last year,” Finebaum said of Ohio State. “They’ve lost so much.”
Finebaum had different reasons for fading the Nittany Lions.
“I hate to beat up on James Franklin, he’s such a nice man,” Finebaum said. “And he’s a very good coach. But he’s never won what I would call a major, big-time, have-to-win game, and I don’t think he’s going to do it this year. He may get to the national championship game, but he will not win it.”
Ohio State did lose some key playmakers on offense, like Emeka Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins and Will Howard. Then, the big hits came on defense, with Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, J.T. Tuimoloau, Cody Simon, and Denzel Burke all gone.
The Nittany Lions are widely seen as one of the best teams in the country this year, especially with the amount of talent they have coming back, combined with the new additions, such as how they improved the receiving corps. However, Finebaum’s issues are with Franklin’s ability to win big games, which has been a struggle since he joined Penn State in 2014.
Despite Finebaum’s reservations, Ohio State and Penn State are two of the betting favorites to win the national title per the latest college football odds.
