Paul Finebaum, like many college football fans on Sunday, was taken aback by the Lincoln Riley news of him leaving Oklahoma for Southern Cal.

The ESPN commentator made his regular Monday appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic In the morning” on WJOX out of Birmingham, Alabama, and explained how Riley evaluated the decision, and what it does for college football.

“I was equally stunned Greg and the hot rumor was Lincoln Riley to LSU as you guys know,” Finebaum said. “I think when you look at it, in his mind, you’re looking into going into a tougher situation than you have now in a brutal league. And you say to yourself, ‘I think I could win just as easily at Oklahoma’ and I’m not surprised by that part of it. I don’t know where USC was, they’ve done a good job of just literally leading everybody in the wrong direction.”

Finebaum is not in the camp of a common refrain from Sunday, and he noted there could be other variables besides winning a national championship.

“I like the move and I don’t necessarily subscribe to the predictable, ‘He was afraid of the SEC,’ I don’t believe that,” Finebaum said. “I think he had to factor in the challenge of the SEC, but when you can go to a school that has a top 5 tradition in college football history and by the way he’s already at one of those, and feel like you probably have a better chance of winning the national championship going there than where you are, then I think that’s a good decision. I think LSU is a place you obviously can win a national championship, but I just think other things factored into it. I don’t know what they were, we’ll know soon. But I get it, and I think it’s a seismic hire by USC. I think it’s the best hire by any college since Urban Meyer went to Ohio State.”