Kirk Herbstreit loves two things: Making it very clear who he thinks deserves to be in the College Football Playoff and chastizing college football fans who call him out on it.
Whatever you think of Herbstreit, he always makes it very clear where he stands when it comes to who belongs in the CFP and who doesn’t.
When the undefeated UCF Knights were angling for the playoffs in 2018, Herbstreit was adamant they didn’t deserve a spot, saying “If you don’t play anybody, you don’t deserve to be in.”
He was one of the leading voices championing Alabama getting into the CFP last year over undefeated Florida State, saying “Bama should have and did get the edge over Florida State.”
When 11-1 Indiana lost to Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024 CFP, Herbstreit was very clear in saying that the Hoosiers didn’t deserve to be there and that there were more deserving teams for that spot.
“Indiana was outclassed in that game,” said Herbstreit afterward. “It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there.”
A day later, he and Nick Saban retroactively lobbied for the Miami Hurricanes to have been in the playoff, presumably over Indiana, noting that America would have loved to have watched Cam Ward.
As it turned out, Miami lost the Pop-Tarts Bowl while Ward sat out the second half. And on Tuesday, Alabama, presumably one of the schools top of mind for Herbstreit and others at ESPN when they thought about who should be in the CFP over Indiana, came up short against five-loss Michigan.
As you might imagine, some fans were quick to look in Herbstreit’s direction given his previous commentary. Turns out that the ESPN CFB analyst had some time. He logged onto X, the everything app, to congratulate the Wolverines on their win.
Congrats @UMichFootball on a big win!! Huge for them and the @bigten
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 31, 2024
When one account responded to the post saying “You wanted Alabama in the playoff” along with a GIF of a person laughing, Herbstreit quoted it with “Keep believing the false narratives clown.”
Keep believing the false narratives clown. https://t.co/R59k3rad37
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 31, 2024
It’s a bit unclear what the “false narrative” Herbstreit is pushing against would be. He didn’t specifically say Alabama should have been in the CFP over Indiana, but he did say that Indiana shouldn’t have made the cut, which means he did think other schools deserved it more. That’s pretty cut and dry.
This is Herbstreit’s most common tactic when it comes to fallout from these situations. Along with making bold proclamations about who deserves what, he tends to layer the sarcasm on thick when he doesn’t like the criticism he receives.
He infamously chided college football fans for their skepticism over whether or not Cincinnati would make the CFP in 2021, all the while completely obvious to the role he and others at ESPN played in fostering a sense that G5 schools had no shot even if they went undefeated.
Herbstreit effectively went to war with Florida State fans last year over the ways he pushed for and backed up the notion they didn’t deserve to be in the CFP despite going undefeated. That fight continued into this season and turned ugly even as he and others at ESPN absolved themselves.
One of the things that worked against Herbstreit in the FSU battle was an old tweet from 2014 where he said so long as you keep winning and finish in the top 4, nothing else matters. Not true, it seems.
That’s often what undoes Herbstreit and his defenses. Whenever he claims that he doesn’t have an agenda or is the victim of a “false narrative,” you can almost always find the evidence to back up his critics. That’s how his initial X post ended up getting a “Community Note,” a system by which users of X can offer context that refutes a statement made by the original poster.
At this point, Kirk is left with referring to critics as “lunatics” and refusing to admit he’s wrong. He’s been through this cycle enough times now that he’s gotten very good at it.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.