Kirk Herbstreit no opinion College Football Playoff Screengrab via ESPN
College FootballESPNBy Matt Yoder on

The College Football Playoff expanding from four to twelve teams has made the debate about who gets in and who gets left out that much bigger. But one person has been conspicuously absent from the weekly rankings conversation – ESPN lead analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

Last month, Herbstreit joked that he “retired” from analyzing the weekly rankings and giving his thoughts on the teams making the playoff. Although it’s strange that a sport’s lead analyst would actively remove himself from the most important discussion happening in the sport, it was easy to see why he did so. Herbstreit became the face of the push to supplant undefeated Florida State out of the top four last year in favor of Alabama after the injury to starting quarterback Jordan Travis.

Florida State fans have been relentless in their criticism of Kirk Herbstreit ever since with the allegation that he had an agenda and was carrying the water of ESPN’s favored conference in the SEC, even bringing their vendetta to College GameDay earlier this season.

Interestingly on Sunday morning before the CFP rankings were revealed on ESPN, Herbstreit made a cameo crossover appearance on NFL Sunday Countdown with Mike Greenberg to talk about the situation. And in doing so he half-jokingly said that he would be offering no opinions about any teams because of the eight months of punishment and death threats that came from Seminoles fans on social media.

“After last year, I have learned, I have no opinions about anything. I think everybody gets a trophy. Everybody gets in. I want no death threats, I want no punishment for 8 months from #FSUTwitter. So I have no opinion on anything. I love everybody,” Herbstreit said while lifting his hands in the air to proclaim his innocence.

Herbstreit did offer *some* actual analysis in the segment, where he presented that the last real decision for the committee to make was the last at-large spot between SMU and Alabama. However, this year, he said the committee was in a “tough spot” without necessarily giving his full throated support to the Crimson Tide as he did last year. Although SMU is a heavy favorite to get the last spot and got the endorsement of the people who called the game last night, Herbstreit presented it as one that could go either way.

At some point we are going to have to take a collective step back and just think about how we got in this situation. A lead analyst just went on national television and washed his hands of offering any real opinion and analysis because of such a furious outcry from a fanbase that he offended, even referencing death threats that he received. It’s crazy and nobody should have to go through all of that stress just because of their college football opinions.

But it’s also weird that Kirk Herbstreit is continuing in his role as the central voice of ESPN’s college football coverage by just dipping a toe barely into the water of the CFP debate and refusing to get involved further. He’s still getting called out by FSU fans for comparing comments about Georgia’s situation this year to Florida State, so it’s not like there’s any going back and undoing what has already been done.

Why even go on the air at all to offer half measure analysis when not even Tom Brady is that restricted in his job at Fox Sports? Why was he then on the final rankings show that aired on Sunday when he said he “retired” from the ongoing circus earlier this year?

Herbstreit opened ESPN’s official rankings unveiling at noon by saying that the committee was going to be demolished from somebody no matter what they decided. It’s not exactly a great advertisement for the current state of college football!

The plight of Kirk Herbstreit is just one more complicated situation in a sport that is complicated like no other.

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