Kirk Herbstreit evaluates College Football Playoff chances for Oregon, Washington, USC

A pair of Pac-12 powerhouses meet tonight with Oregon traveling to Washington, and college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit expects some big things for the winner of this game.

He joined SportsCenter live at 5:30 a.m. local time out in Seattle from a pitch black College GameDay set, where he broke down the marquee matchup. As part of his spot, Herbstreit was asked which of the Pac-12 team he can see going all the way to the College Football Playoff. His answer:

“I think the winner of this game today. I mean, you still have a long way to go. You still have the Pac-12 Championship game out there. SC’s defense is… I don’t know.”

Midway through his answer, Herbstreit was thrown off by a graphic that ESPN flashed up there showing that analytics suggested Oregon, then Washington, then USC were the most likely playoff contenders. But he disagreed and made clear to the Husky fans in attendance that he was not that author of such a graphic.

“This isn’t mine! Take that graphic down! This is isn’t my graphic, it’s ESPN’s graphic,” he pleaded. “Real quick, just so you guys know, that was their graphic, not my graphic. Just so we’re still boys. I thought you asked me what I thought. I didn’t know you had a home-cooked graphic there that was kind of favoring Oregon.”

After that kerfuffle, Herbstreit played to the home crowd and picked the team in purple to be the playoff representative out of the Pac-12.

“So, just to balance things out, I’ll say Washington is the team that has the best chance of making it to the playoff. Michael Penix can really spin it. You gotta be careful of that.”

But for Washington or any of the top Pac-12 schools to make a run to the CFP, they’ll have to fend off a murder’s row to end the year, says Kirk Herbstreit.

“Big question is: can anybody get through the gauntlet of the Pac-12? Honestly, I’m excited to see who wins this game. But you look what’s left in this schedule, it’s going to be interesting who can survive, because it gets tougher and tougher, like we saw last night with Stanford knocking off Colorado.”

When one of the worst teams in the conference can pull off a comeback and an offensive performance like Stanford put on last night, well, you know you’re in for a challenge in each and every contest.