The Big Ten’s Silent Fury: What Paul Never Saw Coming

Power rarely needs to shout. It quietly commands attention—effortlessly. Remember that moment in Game of Thrones when young Joffrey, desperate to assert his crown, blusters uncontrollably? Tywin’s cutting remark, “any man who must say I am the King is no true king,” slams down the pretense like a hammer. It’s an unforgettable lesson on authority and perception, and it’s not just fantasy chatter. Now, pivot to college football: the Big Ten is that quiet giant many refuse to acknowledge, overshadowed by louder voices like Paul Finebaum, who’s quick to belittle their legacy. But here’s the kicker—Finebaum’s numbers on Big Ten championships? Way off the mark. As a die-hard Big Ten enthusiast, I find this disregard baffling and, frankly, infuriating. The Big Ten’s got the recent trophies to back it up, yet the narrative remains skewed in favor of the SEC’s self-proclaimed supremacy. This isn’t just about football; it’s about respect, recognition, and the power dynamics that shape sports media narratives. So, why is the Big Ten still treated like the underdog despite their undeniable success? And what does this ongoing disrespect say about the bigger picture in college football discourse? Let’s dig into why the quiet strength of the Big Ten might just be rattling the cages of the so-called “experts” and what that means for fans like us. LEARN MORE

What I am saying is I’m very annoyed at the disrespect and arrogance coming out of Paul Finebaum and his ilk. Keep in mind he is only a symptom, albeit the most annoying one, of this disease of disrespect against the Big Ten. I’m not sure why it started, how it started or even when it started, but as a Big Ten fan it has gotten rather annoying. Some might point to the Big Ten shutting ESPN out of their cable negotiations as one of the things that really drove up the volume of disrespect. I can’t say for sure, for me personally I always think that multibillion dollar companies do the right thing and would never needlessly and personally trash their competitors but that’s just me. What I do know is that there has been for the last decade or more a real and growing disrespect amongst a certain set of college sports analysts direct toward the Big Ten. This is especially true in college football where the SEC and their fans and chosen mouthpieces feel like the national title is their birthright. And listen, I’ll grant that they’ve won 6 out of the last 10 national titles. They have great programs. As a Purdue fan I can only wish for the success of a program like Alabama or Georgia. What a dream that would be!

What does this all have to do with football, the Big Ten, and Purdue? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’m gonna preface this by saying that I don’t know as much about college football as Paul Finebaum, I just don’t. I have a day job which has nothing to do with sports. Nothing to do with Purdue. Nothing to do with football. I don’t get paid millions of dollars to write on this website despite the immense value I obviously bring to SB Nation and all involved. A travesty for another day I suppose. Paul Finebaum is an SEC guy. He goes on the SEC Network (owned by ESPN) to talk SEC football. There’s no issue there, everyone has their speciality and you certainly wouldn’t want someone like me going onto the SEC Network to talk SEC football. I’m a Big Ten sicko in that I’d rather watch a Big Ten game between two of the bottom dwellers than I would watch a random SEC game or even a highly anticipated SEC game. Maybe I’ve got a problem, but it’s just my preference. It’s also why I don’t spout off about the SEC when I’m tweeting or posting on this website. I just don’t have the knowledge base to provide credible information that I think would be valuable to those reading it.

Couple points here Paul, first, what’s this arbitrary cutoff for national titles? You say the Big Ten has won “two national championship” or is it “1.5” in the last 70 years versus 15 national championships in your lifetime for Alabama. First off, the Big Ten has won the last two national champions so that’s number one. Secondly, the Big Ten has won far more than two national championships over the lat 70 years as you so eloquently put it. Now, I’ll admit it gets a bit silly going back this far because you’ve got to ask the strange pedantic question of, if Nebraska won a national title in the last 70 years but before they joined the Big Ten does that count as a national title for the Big Ten? I’m gonna say no. The same goes for Penn State and USC. Going back to 1975, which would be the last 70 national titles, according to the NCAA official website, the Big Ten has won 14 national titles, a full 7 times as many as Paul claims. Now, the SEC has won PLENTY more. I’m not debating or disputing that. But to be off by a magnitude of 7 should just embarrass you. Third, Rutgers, a current member of the Big Ten Conference, is largely credited as the birthplace of college football so yeah, in a way if you squint they did invent college football.

But what people like Finebaum and his ilk fail to recognize is that the Big Ten has won the last two national titles and has a very good chance of winning a third in a row this year. Is Paul getting louder because he’s starting to…doubt the SEC? What happens if the Big Ten does win their third national title in a row? Other than Paul saying he will leave the country which would all leave us just slightly better off. Would national media start to talk about the Big Ten as THE power conference in football? I doubt it. Instead, I think a good start would be to treat the conference like a real conference instead of the whiny kid on the block. But they won’t. Instead, guys like Finebaum will continue to moan and complain for being called out. But, like Joffrey and Queen Gertrude from Hamlet I’m beginning to think that Finebaum’s focus on the Big Ten isn’t just because it annoys him, but maybe that he sees the gold flaking off that goose he’s riding.

It’s a devastating line that send Joffrey away from the important meeting about a war and instead up to his bedroom to plan his upcoming wedding. Just devastating. There’s a lot of truth in what Tywin, the grandfather says. The more you have to pound your chest about something the more people to start to question it. The line reminds me of the famous Shakespearian line “the lady doth protests too much, methinks” from Hamlet which is of course his greatest work.

There’s a great scene about power in Game of Thrones when Joffrey, the teenage boy king who is trying to ensure that everyone knows he is the TRUE king, begins to yell in a meeting of his small counsel. The King’s grandfather, the true power behind the King says “any man who must say I am the King is no true king.”