Paul Finebaum is one of the most recognized faces and voices in sports media. He parlayed a wildly popular radio show in the south into national prominence, now working for ESPN on a variety of platforms.
Finebaum got famous for being a pot stirrer, and despite how much his career has advanced, he's never left that behind.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders spoke out at Big 12 Media Days about the need for a salary cap in college football.
“You got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him a half million dollars and you can’t compete with that. And it don’t make sense," said Sanders.
Coach Prime went on to complain that you are going to see the same teams in the playoff every year because those teams are spending $25-30 million in building their rosters. The bigger schools are certainly spending that money, but you can still make the playoff on a smaller budget, just like Indiana, Arizona State, and Boise State did this past season.
Sanders' comments drew the ire of many because anything the charismatic coach says will be seen as controversial, even though he's not saying anything different than what most coaches and administrators have been saying.
Finebaum has never shied away from criticising coaches. Sanders has drawn his ire several times over his two seasons in Boulder.
Paul Finebaum calls out Deion Sanders
On Thursday's episode of "First Take", Finebaum lit into Coach Prime for his salary cap comments.
“I find it just a tad bit interesting and maybe a slight bit hypocritical that Deion Sanders, after his two great players … in terms of Travis Hunter, one of the best players in modern college football history, as they depart, suddenly Deion wants the cap," Finebaum said.
“Would Deion have been in favor of a cap then? Of course not. “Deion is simply trying to tell the media, hey, let’s talk about something other than my football team, which is going to be painfully boring and perhaps even mediocre this year.”
Finebaum is obviously speaking about Shedeur Sanders as well as Travis Hunter, and he's not alone in doubting Colorado's potential this season without those two stars.
He went on to say that a salary cap would have made it difficult for him to land and keep both Sanders and Hunter because of how much money they would have commanded. Like a two-way superstar in Hunter and one of the most accurate QBs in college football history weren't being offered massive deals to leave Boulder following the 2023 season?
Hunter himself was a 5-star recruit who chose to play for Deion Sanders at the FCS level with Jackson State out of high school, when he could have written his own ticket and played for any school in the country. That's how much he believed in Coach Prime, and it's ridiculous to assert that any amount of money would have changed that. He took a massive discount to go to Jackson State, and to follow Sander to Colorado in the first place. And that was without any type of regulation, and money flying wildly around the country.
Just like every school, Colorado has an NIL budget. But they are far from one of the richer schools out there, and yet plenty of high-level players have chosen to come to Boulder at a discount in order to play for Sanders.
Of course, one also doesn't have to go far to find evidence of Finebaum sounding the alarm bells about the future of college sports with unregulated NIL and revenue-sharing, so wouldn't that be a bit, uh, what's the word, Paul? Hypocritical? Yeah, hypocritical. That works.