“75+ years of greatness in the SEC” is a statement that many American sports fans would definitely relate to. And honestly, NFL fans would relate to this even more. As SEC can easily be regarded as the major driving force behind the NFL, by being the founding member of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Over the years, the SEC has brought NFL fans many amazing moments, from pioneering the first-ever college football conference championship game in 1992 to dominating the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era with multiple national championships.

However, despite all of these achievements and benchmarks, Paul Finebaum had a very different opinion regarding Texas-Oklahoma joining the SEC. “The single biggest moment in the history of the league,” is what Finebaum said but looks like Jim Dunaway and Lance Taylor had a different opinion about this statement.

Debate on The Next Round

On July 2nd, Jim Dunaway and Lance Taylor engaged in a debate on The Next Round Live about the significance of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC. Dunaway expressed his disagreement, saying, “he said Texas and Oklahoma coming into the SEC was the biggest moment in the conference’s history. And I love me some Finebaum, don’t get me wrong here, I know what Texas and Oklahoma are, but my goodness, let’s not throw away 75+ years of greatness in the SEC.” Dunaway further explained, “The fact that they are just joining the league and that is the biggest moment in SEC, let’s not forget that this conference came up with the conference championship game, the BCS, has the two greatest coaches in college football history.” The narrative of the conference and the story of its existence is based on different moments and to try and simplify it to just the Texas-Oklahoma situation would be pure disrespect.

On the other hand, Lance Taylor offered a different perspective. “didn’t necessarily need Texas and Oklahoma, but monetarily this is a big deal,” he stated. Much of what Taylor has argued is actually true in a way, though not completely.

All about the money?

During an interview with KVUE, SEC Commissioner Gregory Sankey gave his opinion. “It’s been three years in the making. It’s good to be at this day,” Greg said regarding the Texas join-in. On the other hand, however, Kirk Herbstreit was all out in sharing his disapproval of the deal. “It’s an arms race and it’s about the money,” Herbstreit said on SportsCenter, kind of mirroring what Taylor had mentioned. The existing contract that was inked between the SEC and ESPN will run up to 2034 and the worth of the contract could be around $3.1 billion.

Also, the exit of Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and the loss of $100 million each for those institutions was considered as an advantage for the SEC. Now, there must be some element of truth in what Paul Finebaum has to say but a true fan will not have any desire to see only the dollar signs whenever they glance at SEC. Thus, the goals that SEC has accomplished in the course of performing its functions definitely can be described as being much more than what this specific deal can offer.