Kirk Herbstreit once more defends ESPN over SEC bias claims: ‘It’s such bullsh*t’

Try as it might, ESPN will probably never shake the assumption in some college football fans’ minds that they are biased towards the SEC.

That claim was ever-present long before ESPN and ABC agreed to a 10-year broadcasting rights deal with the league, reportedly worth $3 billion (and probably more now that they play nine conference games).

Every time ESPN makes a potentially questionable move reporting on the league or one of their college football analysts goes to bat for one of their three-loss teams over a College Football Playoff spot (which ESPN also owns the broadcasting rights to), the bias charge comes with it, fairly or not.

The company has also had very vocal detractors over the years, eager to call them out for perceived biases. Fox’s Joel Klatt and CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell come to mind.

As the face of ESPN’s college football coverage, Kirk Herbstreit is often the one to face the brunt of the bias claims. He’s vigorously defended himself, College GameDay, and ESPN from the charges over the years, to little avail. Whatever ground he gains is usually lost as soon as he and his cohorts start wailing on non-SEC schools in ways that benefit that conference.

However, Herbstreit will continue to fight the fight whenever called upon.

Following a controversial play in Saturday’s Florida-Georgia game in which SEC officials upheld an incompletion upon review of a Gators’ pass attempt, Kanell, a Florida State alum, cried foul and floated the theory that the league (and ESPN by proxy) needed Georgia to win and therefore fixed the call.

The topic came up during Herbstreit’s recent appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show podcast, and the longtime ESPN CFB analyst voiced his frustrations with the claim.

There is no SEC Bias, the SEC is just better according to @KirkHerbstreit @DraftKings #DKPartner pic.twitter.com/VZuW7Jmm62

— The Ryen Russillo Show (@TheRyenRussillo) November 4, 2025

“Let me ask you this: the coaches do a poll, the AP does a poll, the CFP rankings do a poll – they all must be guilty of SEC bias?” Herbstreit said. “… I went to Ohio State, I was a captain at Ohio State, you don’t think I want to promote the Big Ten? You think it makes me happy to sit there and promote good teams? I’d love the SEC to have three teams in the Top 25 and the Big Ten to have eight. That’d make me happy.

“But you go by what you watch. And the coaches who are actually competing on the field, they’re putting the SEC (teams in the Top 25). And the NFL in April, when they draft these players (from) the SEC. Why is this a thing? Why do people think it’s a thing? It’s such bullsh*t. It’s called watching football. That’s what you do.”

Nine of the SEC’s 16 schools are currently in the Top 25 of both the AP and Coaches polls, with four in the Top 7. It’s entirely true that the league is absolutely dominating the sport right now, not to mention they are putting up massive ratings numbers every weekend. So whether anyone is biased for the SEC or not, it’s almost irrelevant at this moment.

That said, if anyone on ESPN starts championing the SEC for more teams in the CFP, or claiming Big Ten, Big 12, or ACC schools that made it in over a three-loss SEC school are pretenders or unworthy, those claims of SEC bias are coming back with a vengeance.