ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreight has been one of the most vocal supporters of the College Football Playoff committee since its decision to go with Alabama over Florida State.
The Crimson Tide finished fourth in the rankings after beating Georgia to win the SEC as the decision makers factored in their strength of schedule, as well as the unavailability of Jordan Travis for the Florida State Seminoles.
Travis’s season-ending injury meant that Florida State became the first Power Five conference champ to miss out on the playoffs, something Herbstreit alluded to in a video he made which can be seen right below:
“Unfortunately, significant injuries impact teams as much as head-to-head matchups and conference championships,” he wrote online sometime after. “You can’t ignore the impact the loss of Jordan Travis had on the Noles. Sucks… but big part of a team’s final evaluation.”
But, as it turns out, Herbstreit was lobbying for Bama even before the injury. The video below shows him doing just that on the day Travis got injured. Speaking on College GameDay, the popular analyst didn’t want to put FSU over Nick Saban’s side at full strength.
He still went with Bama while debating a scenario presenting Michigan, Washington, Florida State, Texas, and Alabama as winners. That’s exactly what happened.
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A tweet from nearly 10 years ago has surfaced showing Herbstreit telling FSU fans the Seminoles will be in the top four as long as they win.
Guess it’s not so clear-cut…
So it appears Herbstreit already had his mind made up before the Travis injury, which ended up becoming a convenient excuse. Of course, he isn’t the one making the decisions, but this is still a poor look.
