Paul Finebaum throws shade at ESPN decision to have ‘College GameDay’ in Columbia

The SEC’s most prominent talking head isn’t feeling ESPN’s decision to send “College GameDay” to Columbia for the South Carolina-LSU football game in Week 3.

In fact, Paul Finebaum said of the beloved college football pregame show’s first trip to the city since 2014: It’s “one of the more bizarre ‘GameDay’ choices in its history.”

Finebaum, the longtime host of “The Paul Finebaum Show” on ESPN/SEC Network, joined ESPN colleague Matt Barrie on Barrie’s weekly Sunday morning show and had plenty to say about coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks while discussing college football’s Week 2 results.

Barrie and Finebaum were talking about how a number of unexpected losses altered the potential “GameDay” locations for Week 3 when the USC-Kentucky game came up.

A week after struggling at home vs. Old Dominion, the Gamecocks closed as a 9.5-point underdog to the Wildcats in Lexington ... then routed Kentucky 31-6 behind two touchdown passes from quarterback LaNorris Sellers in his first SEC road start.

Finebaum was in Lexington pregame Saturday for the “SEC Nation” pregame show.

“In Lexington, all the students were asking me yesterday, because Georgia comes there next week, ‘You think ‘GameDay’ will be here?’ ” Finebaum said. “ ‘GameDay‘ was going to Lexington” until Kentucky lost to South Carolina.

Barrie grinned as his colleague let some inside information slip.

“Whoops,” Barrie said.

Soon after, Barrie asked Finebaum how Beamer and South Carolina were able struggle and “damn near spit the bit” in a close home win over Group of Five school Old Dominion last week and follow that with a resounding 25-point SEC road win.

“I had callers this week from Columbia saying — seriously — ‘When do you think we’re going to get rid of Shane Beamer?’ ” Finebaum said. “They were as down on him as they could be. Now they have ‘College GameDay,’ which, I don’t know where that bus was going. And listen, ‘GameDay’ is great.”

“But the idea that ‘GameDay’ would go to LSU at South Carolina? I mean, that’s one of the more bizarre game day choices in its history.”

“Which, by the way, good for Beamer and good for South Carolina, because the spotlight is going to be on Columbia,” Barrie said.

“He stole ‘GameDay’ from Lexington,” Finebaum said.

“Right, he went there and got the win,” Barrie said. “Mark Stoops is puzzled. (Beamer) got the ‘GameDay’ bus to reroute its way to Columbia.”

The Gamecocks (2-0) received 10 poll votes in Sunday’s updated AP Top 25 after their Kentucky win, functionally ranking them No. 35 in the country.

LSU, which lost to Southern Cal in Las Vegas in Week 1, moved up two spots to No. 16 in the poll after blowing out an FCS team.

A ‘GameDay’ swap

Kentucky, which entered the South Carolina game 1-0, was widely assumed to be a top potential Week 3 spot for ‘GameDay,’ the iconic show hosted by Rece Davis and featuring analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Lee Corso.

McAfee is in his second season on the show, and legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban is also part of the crew this year after he retired from coaching the Crimson Tide in January.

Outside of the fact it’s hosting No. 1 Georgia in Week 3, UK also features former Bulldogs quarterback Brock Vandagriff as its starter.

According to Finebaum, Kentucky was all but set to host ‘GameDay’ for the second time in program history and first time in 17 years until South Carolina upset the Wildcats on their home field.

Kentucky, per NCAA.com, has only hosted ‘GameDay’ once in the show’s 36-year history: On Oct. 20, 2007, ahead of a AP Top 15 matchup between No. 8 UK and No. 14 Florida that the Wildcats lost, 45-37.

Saturday will mark South Carolina’s seventh time hosting ‘GameDay’ in Columbia and first since Sept. 27, 2014, when No. 13 USC hosted (and lost) to unranked Missouri.

The show will broadcast from 9 a.m. to noon on ESPN from Gamecock Park, right next to Williams-Brice Stadium. USC and LSU are set to kick off at noon on ABC.