Kirk Herbstreit is currently in the midst of calling another blowout, something that seems to be the typical calling card for the College Football Playoff.
Herbstreit refrained from letting his opinion known on the selection of the 12-team College Football Playoff field when it was revealed in early December. However, as soon as we saw slight blowouts of Indiana and SMU, he quickly became unhinged.
He shared that he "didn't care about wins" and that it was about "getting the best teams" in the field. He insinuated that Alabama should've been in the field over SMU and Indiana, and he also noted that there needs to be changes to the format. He trolled Dabo Swinney by saying that "maybe it should be a Big Ten-SEC Invitational" after all.
Of course, Clemson played the most competetive game of the first-round for teams on the road, and Tennessee — a team from the SEC — got blown off the field by Ohio State. Now, in the second-round, Ohio State is blowing out the No. 1-seeded Oregon Ducks. Oregon, a fellow Big Ten team, isn't getting the same kind of treatment from Herbstreit that he gave to Indiana and SMU, though.
As a result, Herbstreit is getting blasted on social media and he was even fact-checked with a "community note" added to one of his posts on X, using his own words against him.
You wanted Alabama in the playoff pic.twitter.com/JNVDoDgcF8
— PokeNation (@Big12Pokes) December 31, 2024
Kirk Herbstreit got community noted by having his own words cited against him. 😂 pic.twitter.com/ji1kmV9UTF
— TJ Salomone (@TJSalomone) December 31, 2024
Kirk wants it both ways. He wants to call out Indiana for not deserving to be there, doesn't want to say who does deserve to be there, and when he's wrong about all the other teams that could have been there, wants to pretend he didn't say it. Own up to it, Kirk. https://t.co/fvk9E9AIva
— Kyle Lamb (@kylamb8) December 31, 2024
Does kirk herbstreit talk about Oregon not deserving the playoff now or is that only for none traditional teams
— Jay Azzam (@coach_jrazzam) January 1, 2025
Looking forward to Kirk Herbstreit explaining how Oregon doesn’t belong on this field and shouldn’t have been selected for the playoff.
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 1, 2025
Sometimes deserving teams get smacked.
🚨BREAKING🚨
— Founders Athletics (@FoundersAth) January 1, 2025
Kirk Herbstreit has DECOMMITTED from the SEC, and will be entering the transfer portal. pic.twitter.com/8aNUaMDIzJ
Oregon is failing the eye test. A three loss Illinois team should have been in the playoff in their place, right Kirk Herbstreit?
— Tim Jones (@winjhox_tim) January 1, 2025
Now Kirk Herbstreit can sit back and lecture the whole second half.
— McNeil (@Reflog_18) January 1, 2025
It's not just the fact that Alabama lost, either. In the game right before the Rose Bowl, Arizona State — a Big 12 team — took Texas to double overtime and they very could've beaten the Longhorns in regulation had the officials called targeting on what seemed to be an obvious call.
These narratives about the SEC just aren't true. There are elite teams in the conference, but that's it. Anyone can win a college football game on a given day, and there's no reason to believe that any conference deserves to have three-loss teams get in over another conference's one-loss team. It's a ridiculous narrative and it's showing in the playoff.