The LSU Football team enters 2025 with the expectation and goal of making its first College Football Playoff under Brian Kelly. As LSU returns a good chunk of its core while adding one of the Nation's best transfer portal classes along with a top 10 recruiting class, the Tigers are garnering National attention as a team that should be one of the Nation's best.
Among those who's keeping an eye on LSU heading into the season is legendary SEC Football analyst Paul Finebaum. Despite having Brian Kelly on his show once a week, Finebaum has never been afraid to call out LSU when he sees fit. Heading into this season however, Paul Finebaum is buying into LSU's preseason hype.
On his Wednesday Show, Paul Finebaum once again doubled down on the expectations for the Tigers after calling the hype real last week.
"The hype for LSU Football is not hype, I think it's real. The question I have is how does Coach Kelly navigate that schedule is daunting"Paul Finebaum
How high is Finebaum on LSU? He currently views the Tigers as a College Football Playoff team while seeing the SEC as a Conference with a clear top 4 teams.
"Right now, I would have to think of LSU as a playoff team. It's crowded. In the SEC, you essentially have Texas, I believe you have Alabama, Georgia, LSU and who is next?"Paul Finebaum
The biggest storyline for LSU may be the season opening matchup on the road against Clemson. Part of the storyline is the fact that LSU has lost 5 straight season opening games while the other half is the fact that Clemson just made the College Football Playoff and returns almost every key piece. Heading into that game, Finebaum believes that LSU has a bigger test than Texas who faces the National Champions.
"I mean how can you have a more difficult game than going to Clemson on opening day? That's a bigger task even than Texas has, because I don't think Ohio State is quite what they were a year ago. They're still a really good team."Paul Finebaum
Given the new landscape of the College Football Playoff, many don't believe it's the right call to play a massive season opener like the LSU Football team is this season. The argument for playing another elite program in the season opener has been that it affords you extra leeway if you do suffer a Week 1 loss.
"And I think because of the Clemson game, here we go again, we did this with Georgia last year, LSU is one of those should they lose three games I think still is a College Football Playoff team."Paul Finebaum
There is also another path into the College Football Playoff if LSU loses to Clemson and suffers 3 losses as you can still earn an automatic bid through winning the SEC Championship Game, and this season both SEC Championship Game teams lost 2 games in SEC Play. Nonetheless, Finebaum is buying in on the LSU Tigers ahead of what should be a massive season for the Tigers.