Between his role as ESPN’s top college football analyst and broadcasting Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video, Kirk Herbstreit is obviously a busy man.
But his schedule has gotten a little lighter this football season, as he’ll no longer be appearing on ESPN’s weekly rankings reveal for the College Football Playoff.
Herbstreit was absent from this season’s initial rankings reveal show on Nov. 5, which came as his beloved dog, Ben, was battling health issues before ultimately passing away later in the week. The former Ohio State quarterback, however, confirmed during Saturday’s broadcast of Alabama’s victory over LSU that he’ll no longer be appearing on the show moving forward — something Chris Fowler seemingly wasn’t aware of as he read a promo for the weekly program.
“I retired from that,” Herbstreit said, interrupting Fowler’s tease.
“Is that congratulations or condolences?” Fowler asked rhetorically. “I think we know the answer.”
All Hebrstreit could do is laugh as he promoted that Joey Galloway, Booger McFarland and Greg McElroy would be providing the analysis on the show moving forward.
Fowler’s comment was an obvious reference to the backlash that Herbstreit faced as a result of last season’s controversial playoff rankings. Despite laying claim to a perfect 13-0 record and an ACC championship, Florida State was left out of the four-team playoff even though two of the team’s selected ahead of the Seminoles — Texas and Alabama — had suffered losses during the regular season.
Herbstreit’s defense of Florida State’s exclusion made him a target for angry Seminoles fans, who accused him and his employer of SEC bias. And while the playoff has since expanded to 12 teams, it appears that ESPN’s top analyst is now absolving himself of participating in any potential controversies that might arise from it.
On the one hand, it’s understandable that Herbstreit would want to sit out such conversations, especially considering that Florida State fans had used some of his previous playoff stances against him. In some ways, it’s not all that dissimilar from how he abstains from making a pick for the game he’s going to call during each week’s College GameDay.
Conversely, considering the prominence of the College Football Playoff — and what ESPN pays for it — it certainly seems odd for the network’s top analyst to be absent from the weekly reveal of its rankings. Even if Herbstreit wants to stay away from the subjective nature of playoff rankings, the reality is that they play a major role in how fans consume the sport, as well as how it crowns its national champion.
While he may no longer be participating in the weekly rankings reveal, discussing playoff rankings will be unavoidable on platforms such as GameDay and the games he calls, especially as the season progresses. It will be interesting to see how Herbstreit navigates such conversations and whether he participates in playoff’s final rankings reveal.
