ESPN and Amazon Prime analyst Kirk Herbstreit, known for his bold commentary, is under fire for remarks he made about the College Football Playoff selection process.
The former Ohio State quarterback criticized the inclusion of Indiana as the No. 10 seed, following the team’s lopsided loss to No. 7 Notre Dame in the opening round.
Herbstreit argued that other teams, such as Alabama, Ole Miss, or South Carolina, might have posed a stiffer challenge.
In a postgame discussion with Chris Fowler after the Ohio State vs. Tennessee matchup, Herbstreit elaborated:
“I hope next year the committee won’t get caught up and what the social media and a lot of people who are fringe fans get caught up in, which is wins. ‘They had 11 wins. They must be good.’ Who did they beat I think is much more important than how many wins you have,” Herbstreit said.
“That’s old school way of approaching it. Indiana having 11 wins and beating nobody. That doesn’t mean they’re one of the 12 best teams. There is a big difference between deserving and best. What this is all about is giving us the best 12 teams.”
Herbstreit emphasized that the focus should be on strength of schedule and quality of opponents rather than just the number of wins.
“Now, subjective how you want to figure out the best 12 is up to you. But that’s what I want to see. I don’t want to hear about wins, how many wins,” Herbstreit said.
“Winning is obviously Important, but just because you have 11 wins doesn’t mean you’re better than a team that maybe had a tougher road that had nine wins. So, I think we get too caught up in how many wins you have.”
Now with the CFP semifinals upon us, we’ve seen how the bracket’s played out.
Needless to say, Herbstreitâs remarks sparked a wave of criticism, including sharp words from longtime sports media personality Dan Patrick, who addressed the controversy on his radio show.
âI donât want to hear these analysts after the fact tell me that somebody shouldnât be in the Playoff,â Patrick said.
âYou know, when Kirk Herbstreit basically says, âIndiana shouldnât have been here.â But Herbie wasnât alone; there was a lot of other people that said, âWell, they shouldnât have been here.â OK. âSMU shouldnât have been here.â
“Iâm not blaming SMU or Indiana. They did everything they were supposed to do. And tell me that before they get blown out – not after.”
Adding fuel to the debate is the SECâs underwhelming postseason performance.
Alabama and South Carolina, teams Herbstreit suggested would have been stronger choices, both lost their bowl games. (Although Ole Miss looked very sharp in their blowout victory over Duke.)
The last remaining SEC team is Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns. Of course, there are some who claim that Texas isn’t a “real” SEC team since they just came over from the Big 12 this season.
Regardless, Herbstreit has become a bit of a lightning rod with his recent takes.
What are your thoughts on his comments?
What changes – if any – should the CFP committee make going forward???
