Paul Finebaum has never been afraid to weigh in on a controversial topic in college football, and over the last few weeks, his old buddy Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers have been at the center of that conversation.

Interestingly though, Finebaum says the dramatics between LSU, the SEC, a lawsuit from the conference and talks of kicking the Tigers out of the conference are all just as much about politics as they are about football.

Finebaum made an appearance on The Source With Kaitlan Collins and pointed to Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s involvement in bringing Kiffin in from Ole Miss, along with Landry’s ties to the program, as what makes this an unprecedented situation.

“What’s really interesting to me, and I think to your audience, this is about as much about politics as it is football,” Finebaum said. “You’ve got the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, who’s also the special envoy to Greenland…And he’s masterminding this. He brought Lane Kiffin in, he gave him $100 million, he’s helped funnel a $50 million payroll for college football, and on top of that, John Kennedy, the senator, the senator from Louisiana, was furious [over the vote to remove LSU.]”

Finebaum pointed to Kennedy’s comments about the situation, alluding to the fact that LSU has the political power in Congress to be able to influence things against the conference — with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and No. 2 Steve Scalise both being Tigers alumnus.

“I think [Kennedy] is essentially saying if they do this, we’re gonna put the United States Congress against the SEC. It won’t happen, but it’s a lot of political rhetoric.”

Finebaum is likely correct in saying that things won’t actually play out this way, likely because the conference is not foolish enough to actually try to kick out LSU, nor is LSU foolish enough to keep pushing the conference.

With that being said, it’s a fascinating intersection between politics and college sports the way you do not see every day.