Pro-SEC Kirk Herbstreit And ESPN Still Don't Get It

This week of bowl games could not have gone more poorly for the SEC, ESPN, and Kirk Herbstreit. 

After Indiana lost 27-17 to Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Herbstreit and several of his ESPN colleagues spent their time railing against the Hoosiers' inclusion in the 12-team field. Even outright saying that Indiana didn't belong on the same field with the Fighting Irish. Yes, Indiana had gone 11-1, they said, but the wins shouldn't matter because other schools, with just nine wins, had supposedly played a harder schedule.

In an interview on SportsCenter with Linda Cohn, Herbstreit said that Indiana had 11 wins while "beating nobody," and that didn't make them better than "a team that maybe had a tougher road that had nine wins."

The obvious implication from Herbstreit's remarks was that nine-win SEC teams like Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss should have been included over Indiana. Unsurprising as it is that a broadcast partner of the SEC went to bat for the SEC, it wasn't justifiable criticism. And it got a whole lot more embarrassing within a matter of days.

Tennessee, which finished 10-2 in the SEC, got obliterated by Ohio State. Herbstreit had nothing to say about the Volunteers' inclusion as an at-large team that was run off the field. Then Texas A&M, which was one win away from the SEC title game, lost to a mediocre, 6-6 USC team in the Las Vegas Bowl. Despite the Trojans missing around a dozen key players on offense and defense.

On New Year's Eve, Alabama scored just 13 points in a 19-13 loss to 7-5 Michigan. Even though, like SC, Michigan was missing a number of its most important players on defense. Then South Carolina lost to Illinois as a big favorite, sending the SEC to 1-4 against the Big Ten. And after all that happened, Herbstreit still didn't admit what he'd done.

ATLANTA - TV Commentator Kirk Herbstreit before the SEC championship football game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns on December 7, 2024 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

SEC Bias On ESPN Is Out Of Control

First, Herbstreit congratulated Michigan on the win over Alabama. Then when fans accurately pointed out that he'd advocated for Alabama or other three-loss SEC teams to get into the playoff, he accused them of peddling a "bulls*** narrative."

Another user then responded with a laughing GIF and "You wanted Alabama in the playoff," to which Herbstreit responded: "Keep believing the false narratives clown."

But Herbstreit's own words are contradictory. If his comments about nine-win teams being better than Indiana didn't refer to Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss, who did they refer to?

Herbstreit's playing dumb now, but everyone knew what he meant. Except Alabama and South Carolina proved that he and the others in the ESPN-SEC promotional department had no idea what they were talking about.

For example, Peter Burns' post from December 21st aged like fine milk, comparing SEC team schedules to a "US Open golf course."

Michigan beat Alabama, and Indiana beat Michigan. Does that mean Michigan is a "nobody," per Herbstreit? Will Burns admit that the SEC's disastrous performances show that the hypothetical situations their fans rely on were nonsense? And that their self-aggrandizing schedule comments weren't factually accurate? 

Of course not. Because as is so often the case, broadcasters and media that watch only one conference tend to overrate that conference. Like how media figures who live on the East Coast and go to bed at 10pm haven't always paid attention to West Coast baseball teams that start their home games at 10pm. 

Or did he say that undefeated Oregon didn't belong because they got blown out by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl? Of course not. Oregon belonged, Indiana belonged. Tennessee belonged. They played poorly and lost to other elite teams. It happens. 

Just accept it and stop acting like the PR wing of your broadcast partners.