The feud between Paul Finebaum and Jim Harbaugh is still going strong, despite the college football season being a few weeks away still — if it happens at all. Finebaum, who never misses a chance to criticize Harbaugh, saw another opportunity Wednesday with the release of an update Big Ten Conference schedule for the 2020 season.
The Big Ten moving forward with a 10-game, conference-only schedule because of the COVID-19 crisis — but players understandably want more protections — and it’s set to begin as early as the weekend of September 5. The schedule includes the Ohio State-Michigan game being played during Week 8 on October 24 — almost a full month earlier than it’s usual date over Thanksgiving weekend as the regular-season closer.
On ESPN’s First Take, Finebaum described that change as the most interesting part of the Big Ten’s new schedule, saying:
“I’m not joking about it, but it’s probably good news for Jim Harbaugh. Now he doesn’t end the season with a loss to Ohio State. He gets it out of the way early before Halloween.”
"It's probably good news for Jim Harbaugh, now he doesn't end the season with a loss to Ohio State, he gets it out of the way early before Halloween."
—@finebaum on the OSU/Michigan game being bumped up to October 😅 pic.twitter.com/jDzyAp5xcy
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 5, 2020
And, according to ESPN Cleveland radio host Aaron Goldhammer, Finebaum had more than one joke about moving the Ohio State-Michigan game up:
.@finebaum (joking) on why they moved OSU-Michigan to October: "I think they did it as a personal favor to Jim Harbaugh so he doesn't end the season with a bad loss to Ohio State every year."
— Aaron Goldhammer (@HammerNation19) August 5, 2020
In the Buckeyes and Wolverines’ most recent matchup, Ohio State dominated in a 56-27 win. Harbaugh dropped to 0-5 against the Buckeyes, and it marked the program’s 15th loss to Ohio State in 16 years.
But these are hardly the worst digs of Finebaum’s against Harbaugh.
In June, Finebaum called Harbaugh “most overrated coach in the country,” and a few years ago, Finebaum called Harbaugh “the Donald Trump of college football.” Harbaugh’s had plenty of jabs himself, including referring to the broadcaster as “Pete” and describing him as an “unabashed SEC water carrier”.
Forgetting about their feud and jokes for a moment, it seems like Finebaum might actually have a point about the schedule. As conferences around the county adjust to conference-only schedules or conference-only plus one lineups, Finebaum said, “They’re feeding red meat to the fans.”
He continued:
“I don’t know if they’re being sincere, but they’re just trying to do whatever they’re supposed to do right now. But we still have not really hit the bottom line here of whether this season will go on. It looks like it’s going to start — and by the way, we’re only three weeks away from the so-called Week 0.
“I think we’ll get there, but once we start playing football games, I think it’s anyone’s guess whether we’ll get to the end of September, the end of October or certainly to the end of the season.”
Moving the game up to October from November does actually seem like the most interesting aspect of the Big Ten’s schedule because it’s easy to speculate from that decision that perhaps the conference is skeptical about making it through a full season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In its announcement Wednesday about the new schedule, the conference acknowledged the United States is struggling “to gain control of a virus that continues to spread at an alarming rate.” It also noted that “a schedule does not guarantee that competition will occur”, and “we are also prepared to delay or cancel competition pursuant to local and state public health orders or the recommendations of our medical experts.”
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