Finebaum: FSU Has ‘Pulled Ahead’ of Clemson as More Attractive School

Paul Finebaum had plenty to say this week about Dabo Swinney and Clemson.

The ESPN personality appeared on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning , and in addition to talking about Swinney’s future – with Finebaum saying he thinks Clemson’s head coach is “way behind” the current times in college football and that Swinney’s “time is nearly up” at Clemson – Finebaum spoke about Clemson in the context of conference realignment.

Amid the ever-changing college football landscape, Finebaum was asked about Clemson’s level of appeal should conference realignment occur again, and Finebaum said he doesn’t think Clemson is as attractive of an option for other conferences as the Tigers were several years ago.

“I think they’re already less attractive, Greg,” Finebaum said.

“Clemson, if you go back to 2016, 2017, 2018 — they were at the epicenter. We all joked about how boring it is that Alabama and Clemson play each other every year. Nobody’s saying that anymore. They weren’t that big of a name until then. Clemson has always been a good football school, but it’s never been a main attraction like an Alabama or Georgia or Texas or Michigan or Ohio State. Now they’ve fallen off of that.”

Finebaum added that he thinks Clemson’s “biggest concerns are even within their own league,” and he named three other ACC schools that he believes could be more attractive options than Clemson in the potential next wave of conference realignment.

“We know Florida State has pulled ahead of them. There are other schools that could do that as well. Miami is one you just have to wonder. If they get it right under Mario Cristobal, then that’s another school that could inch ahead of them,” Finebaum said. “And as you start divvying up the schools, we’ve already had discussions and conversations about who’s most attractive in the ACC. North Carolina is more attractive than them. Arguably Florida State would be, but that’s simply dependent upon whether you have the stomach for what they’ve been doing the last two years. Clemson has one toe in the water on that as well, so that immediately makes them less attractive.”

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