ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit hit with Twitter 'Community Note' over Alabama comments

ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit isn’t shy about sharing his opinions on the sport, and that sometimes sets him up for scrutiny.

His opinion on Alabama as a potential playoff team in this year’s field has been a popular source of pushback.

Herbstreit congratulated Michigan and the Big Ten after the Wolverines upset Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Tuesday. A response to Herbstreit’s initial Tweet read, “You wanted Alabama in the playoff.”

The ESPN analyst wasn’t about to let that stand.

“Keep believing the false narratives clown,” Herbstreit tweeted in response.

After a little while, the Kirk Herbstreit tweet was hit with a Community Note, quoting him from earlier this month.

“Indiana was not a team that should have been on that field when you consider other teams that could have been there,” the Community Note read, including a hyperlink to this Yahoo! Sports story.

Keep believing the false narratives clown. https://t.co/R59k3rad37

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 31, 2024

Fans have been going back and forth with Kirk Herbstreit for the past couple of weeks on Twitter after he expressed disappointment with some of the first round College Football Playoff matchups.

Herbstreit called for change to the CFP after Notre Dame blasted Indiana in the opening round of the playoff.

“The atmosphere was historic. The game was not, you know,” Kirk Herbstreit said on ESPN College GameDay after the matchup. “And I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Why was Indiana in?’ But Indiana, with what you guys like to talk about, ‘They have 11 wins. They’ve gotta be one of the best teams.’ Indiana was outclassed in that game. It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there.”

Indiana finished the season with one win over a team with a winning record, beating Michigan 20-15 at home in early November. The Hoosiers did pound several overmatched teams, but they struggled against the good competition they faced.

Kirk Herbstreit feels that the College Football Playoff committee should put more weight on who you beat instead of how many wins you have in the future.

“It’s no knock on Indiana. They had a great year,” Herbstreit said. “But we’ve gotta move forward with the playoff and hope that the committee does a better job of weighing who the best 12 are, versus who’s the most deserving, because by golly they’ve got 11 wins. They didn’t beat anybody, but they’ve got 11 wins.

“That’s a bunch of BS. We need to find the best teams, and last night it was incredibly evident, just standing on that field and watching the game the way it played out.”

Fans assumed that Kirk Herbstreit was calling for more SEC teams, in particular Alabama, to get into the playoff. Herbstreit finally had enough and responded to one of those fans on Tuesday. And the community pushed back.

On3’s Matt Connolly also contributed to this report.