Paul Finebaum Declares College Football Team's Season Is Over

Week 1 of the college football season is barely in the books after a long Labor Day weekend filled with games stretching from last Thursday to Monday night. Yet, the 2024 season could already be over for one team, according to ESPN's Paul Finebaum.

By now, anything Finebaum says is probably taken with a grain of salt. The longtime college football analyst is known for his wild, outlandish, and sometimes downright crude takes, many of which have not always landed successfully. However, Finebaum has some solid facts to back his claim this time.

No. 10 Florida State lost its second game of the season on Monday night, falling to another ACC opponent, Boston College, by a score of 28-13. This loss comes after their first defeat against Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland, during Week Zero.

Finebaum was, as expected, not short on words while appearing on ESPN's Get Up on Tuesday morning.

"People shouldn't be worried about the playoff screening," Finebaum said. "They should be worried about winning a game and trying to save the season. I don't think they can. Louis [Reddick] is 100 percent correct in what he said last night: This season is over."

This was an even uglier loss for Florida State than their defeat against Georgia Tech. The Seminoles were at home in the comfort of Doak Campbell Stadium, expected to bounce back against an unranked Boston College team under new head coach Bill O'Brien. Boston College, which had lost three of its last four games to end the previous season, was supposed to be a "get-right" game for the Seminoles. Now, it seems like Florida State is becoming that "get-right" game for their opponents.

"This is a team that we were told deserved to be in the playoffs last year and was certainly going to be in the playoffs this year—and they're not going to," Finebaum continued. "They can't do anything right; they're not going anywhere. They have no one else to blame. I'm sure someone down there is going, 'Who can we sue?' The only people to blame are themselves."

Florida State has been a focal point in headlines dating back to last season when they were controversially left out of the College Football Playoff after quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury. The Seminoles are also currently in a legal battle with their own conference, the ACC, over media rights issues.

According to ESPN, Florida State is now the fourth preseason AP top-10 team to start 0-2 in the last 10 seasons. The 2017 Florida State team, along with the 2022 Notre Dame and 2020 Penn State teams, also share this distinction.

In his five seasons in Tallahassee, head coach Mike Norvell has started the season 0-2 three times.

It seems likely that Florida State will be unranked when the AP releases its new top-25 on Tuesday.