Clark Column: See, FSU fans weren't crazy! This version of Herbstreit really IS bad for the sport

Remember back about a year ago? When the rest of the nation, albeit understanding at first, started mocking Florida State fans for their obsession with Kirk Herbstreit?

How they got the frustration to a point, but started to chuckle and roll their eyes when they were warned repeatedly about what that snub was really about? And how complicit the guy with the biggest platform was in that travesty?

It was like some other college football fans couldn’t quite grasp the vitriol in Tallahassee. Couldn’t quite make sense of it.

Kirk was just doing his job, they said. Kirk doesn’t pick favorites. Kirk was just pointing out some never-before mentioned clause about a starting quarterback being injured. Kirk was just really excited when Alabama hit that 4th-and-30 against Auburn. Normal stuff. Let it go. Move on.

Now, they see.

Now, everyone sees.

With that in mind, let me be the first from Tallahassee to say to all the SMU fans, Indiana fans, Big Ten fans, really any fans outside of Tuscaloosa and Oxford: Welcome to the Party!

Florida State fans might be a little bit crazy. They might be overly passionate at times. But they were absolutely, 100 percent right on the nose about the face of college football on ESPN.

It was so encouraging to read and hear national college football media members ripping Herbstreit and the network as a whole over the weekend. It might have been a year too late, but people not associated with ESPN are starting to understand what is happening at that network and how 2023 wasn’t just a one-off.

Whether it’s Herbstreit, Sean McDonough, Nick Saban or Smokin’ Joe Tessitore, ESPN has done nothing but champion teams from the SEC while seemingly dismissing everyone else in the country not named Ohio State and Oregon.

And it’s just horrible for us real college football fans to listen to every … single … show … of … every … single … week.

As a great column on Awful Announcing pointed out on Monday, “ESPN’s CFP coverage makes for a miserable, negative experience.”

Amen to that.

Here’s the quick backstory for those of you who gave up on college football this season, somewhere along the road to Florida State’s 2-10 record: On Saturday morning, after Notre Dame easily dispatched Indiana (the 27-17 final was not indicative of the competitiveness of that game) Herbstreit had the audacity to say that not only was Indiana “outclassed,” but that they didn’t belong in the 12-team playoff. Obviously. Because they lost at Notre Dame.

“I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘Why was Indiana in?,” Herbstreit said on Saturday. “But Indiana, with what you guys like to talk about, ‘They have 11 wins; they’ve got to 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.

“It’s no knock on Indiana — they had a great year — but we’ve got to move forward with the Playoff and hope that the committee does a better job of weighing who the best 12 versus who’s the most deserving. Because, ‘By golly, they got 11 wins. They didn’t beat anybody, but they got 11 wins.’ That’s a bunch of B.S. We need to find the best teams. And last night was incredibly evident just standing on that field and watching the game the way it played out.”

Why play games at all if winning doesn’t matter? Right? Who determines the best teams anyway? You, Kirk?

By golly, FSU got 13 wins in 2023. They didn’t beat anybody. Except for, you know, eight bowl teams, three nine-win teams, two 10-win teams, a Heisman Trophy winner and an SEC rival on the road with a backup quarterback. Why give credit to that?

Indiana won 11 games this season. In the Big Ten. Was it their fault that Michigan and Washington — two teams that played for the national championship last season! — were down this year?

Herbstreit didn’t point that out. Also didn’t point out that the Hoosiers blasted everyone on their schedule not named Michigan and Ohio State. And that Indiana actually did something his alma mater didn’t do in 2024 — it beat Michigan!

He just pointed out the lack of quality wins and then said what happened in South Bend was undeniable proof that Indiana didn’t belong and, I guess, Alabama or Ole Miss did.

Now, did he follow that up by pointing out that Alabama lost 24-3 to a 6-6 Oklahoma team in their second-to-last game of the season? Nope. Did he point out that Ole Miss was the only SEC team to lose to Kentucky? Nope.

Weird, right? 21-point losses in that league don’t matter. They’re just blips. If you lose by 10 on the road at South Bend, by golly, it’s a referendum! But if you lose by a hundred the next night in Columbus like Tennessee did? Well, you just had a bad game. You certainly weren’t “outclassed.” Right?

Herbstreit, even though he’s a former Ohio State quarterback, has become a sloppy, wet mouthpiece for the SEC. We all know that league is the most important to ESPN’s finances. We get it. But it’s still embarrassing and truly harmful for the sport.

Because here we were, the opening weekend of the first 12-team playoff in college football history, having to listen to the biggest platform whine and complain all weekend about teams that had good/historic seasons getting into the playoff.

It’s absurd.

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Here’s what Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder wrote in that article I referenced earlier.

Maybe someone should tell ESPN that college football has never been more popular and that there are great stories and terrific positives to consider and promote?

Hopefully, after this weekend, ESPN will take a long look inwardly and ask themselves if this is really where they want to take College Football Playoff coverage, and the sport as a whole. Because there must be a better way than the constant drumbeat of negativity they peddled this past weekend.

Do you know why America loves March Madness so much? It’s because we don’t spend hours trying to re-litigate who got in and who didn’t once the tournament begins. We celebrate Cinderella instead of trying to tar and feather her. And we have fun. We celebrate the beauty of it all and why we love sports in the first place.

Maybe ESPN’s College Football Playoff coverage should take the hint and do likewise.

The sad truth, though, is that is the exact opposite of what’s going to happen.

Next year, using the Indiana and SMU losses as their logic (while having amnesia about Tennessee), the ESPN hype machine — funded and prodded by Greg Sankey — will lobby for six SEC teams to get in. Maybe eight!

I hope the Committee doesn’t fall for it. I hope the Committee holds firm and realizes that it’s GOOD for the sport to have Indiana and SMU and Arizona State in the playoff. And that it can actually survive if Alabama isn’t in every year.

Heck, it’s been thriving for a century without Ole Miss doing a damn thing of consequence, so no need to worry about that never-was program.

Herbstreit doesn’t need to fight any of these fights. He needs to understand what made him, at one time, one of the best to ever do it: He really does know the sport. He’s very good at calling a game, in my opinion. And he used to truly, truly love college football. It oozed out of him. He was the best in the business. He was really good at his job.

Now, he’s turned into an angry SEC mouthpiece that picks fights with Ohio State fans, Indiana fans, SMU fans, Big Ten fans and even Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe! From his own network!

And let’s not forget the OGs down here in Tallahassee. He’s been drawing that ire for over a year now.

At some point, maybe, just maybe, he’ll stop attacking fan bases and programs, he’ll stop using the term “lunatic fringe” to complain about college football fans, he’ll stop having such thin skin, he’ll stop being so outraged and angry when people have the audacity to have their own opinions or think he has ulterior motives.

And he’ll get back to actually liking this sport.

Or, you know, he can just retire. And Sankey can find another mouthpiece.

Until one of those things happens, though, Herbstreit needs to get comfortable with the criticism.

Because just like Indiana and SMU’s playoff berths in 2024, he’s earned it.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at [email protected].

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