Kirk Herbstreit pushes back on narrative he wanted Alabama in College Football Playoff: 'Alabama had no shot'

Kirk Herbstreit went on the defensive during a long and wide-ranging discussion on Tuesday morning’s Andy & Ari On3 podcast.

The ESPN and College GameDay analyst set the record straight regarding the perception he and the Worldwide Leader are biased in favor of the SEC over other Power conferences, and also defended his criticism of Ohio State fans that have made life difficult for Buckeyes head football coach Ryan Day.

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During a conversation about the 12-team College Football Playoff field and his criticism of Indiana’s inclusion following its 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in their first-round matchup, Herbstreit refuted the perception he favored No. 11 Alabama — the first team out of the 12-team field on Selection Day — over the Hoosiers or No. 10 SMU, both of which were beaten soundly in their CFP opening-round games.

“Alabama had no shot,” Herbstreit said Tuesday. “I don’t know how people thought I thought Alabama (was in), I was very clear leading up to (Selection Day), how can you put Alabama in when they went and lost – not only lost but got embarrassed by a 6-6 Oklahoma team – so they really weren’t in it. South Carolina lost to Alabama and Ole Miss. There wasn’t like another team anybody was hitting the desk for like, ‘This team has to be in.’ I didn’t say that.

“South Carolina would’ve been the only team that you could’ve said, ‘Let’s look at this team,’ just because of the way they’ve kind of righted the ship, they got healthy and they were playing good football near the end and beat Clemson at the end (of the regular season). You could at least have a discussion about them. Was there anybody out of the Big 12 or the ACC? There really wasn’t.”

Kirk Herbstreit: Alabama’s Oklahoma loss ‘put a red X over them’

Entering Selection Day — the Sunday after Championship Weekend — college football pundits debated whether the CFP selection committee would favor ACC runner-up SMU and an 11-win Indiana with zero quality wins over a trio of nine-win SEC teams (Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina) that combined for six Top 25 wins between them. The No. 15 Gamecocks were one of the hottest teams in the country after closing out the regular season on a six-game win streak that included Top 25 wins over No. 19 Missouri and eventual ACC champion Clemson.

Of course, the other two SEC teams were docked due to head-scratching Week 13 losses, with the Crimson Tide falling 24-3 at unranked Oklahoma and the Rebels’ 24-17 defeat in the Swamp against unranked Florida.

Co-host Ari Wasserman pointed out Alabama was in the CFP discussion due to its Week 5 win over eventual SEC champion Georgia and its three Top 25 wins, which Indiana and SMU seriously lacked.

“But losing to Oklahoma, to me, just put a red X over them,” Herbstreit added.

Wasserman and Herbstreit agreed that the Crimson Tide would’ve easily made the 12-team field without that loss in Norman, but that wasn’t to be.

Kirk Herbstreit sets record straight on ESPN, SEC bias

A portion of college football fans seem to believe that Kirk Herbstreit and others at ESPN are biased towards the SEC and always take up for the league.

The final four teams in the College Football Playoff are Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame and Penn State, with only one of the four schools being from the SEC. According to Kirk Herbstreit, these four teams being the last ones remaining is great for ESPN.

“Let me straighten the record on one last thing,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “You know, ESPN loves the SEC so much, that we could not have paid for a better Final 4, with Notre Dame and Ohio State and Penn State and Texas. The only one missing is Michigan, if you could somehow wedge Michigan in.

“So like, this idea that we want Alabama and Texas A&M and Auburn, are you kidding me? Like if you’re asking us who we would want, uh, we’ll take Ohio State every year, Notre Dame. Like this is a ratings bonanza.”

Matt Connolly contributed to this report.