This week of bowl games couldn’t have been worse for the SEC, ESPN and Kirk Herbstreit.

After Indiana lost 27-17 to Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Herbstreit and several of his ESPN colleagues spent their time railing against the Hoosiers’ inclusion in the 12-team field. I even said outright that Indiana didn’t belong on the same level as the Fighting Irish. Yes, Indiana went 11-1, they said, but the wins shouldn’t matter since other schools reportedly played a tougher schedule with just nine wins.

In an interview with Linda Cohn on SportsCenter, Herbstreit said Indiana got 11 wins while “not beating anyone,” and that doesn’t make them any better than “a team that maybe had a tougher road and had nine wins.”

The obvious conclusion from Herbstreit’s comments was that nine-win SEC teams like Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss over Indiana should have been included. As unsurprising as it is that an SEC broadcast partner signed up for the SEC, it was not a valid criticism. And within a few days things became much more embarrassing.

Tennessee, which finished 10-2 in the SEC, was wiped out by Ohio State. Herbstreit had nothing to say about the Volunteers being part of an overall team that was forced off the field. Then Texas A&M, one win away from the SEC title game, lost 6-6 in the Las Vegas Bowl to a mediocre USC team. Although the Trojans are missing around a dozen key players on offense and defense.

On New Year’s Eve, Alabama scored just 13 points in a 19-13 loss to 7-5 Michigan. Even though Michigan, like SC, was missing some of its key players on defense. Then South Carolina lost to Illinois as a heavy favorite, sending the SEC to 1-4 in the Big Ten. And after everything that happened, Herbstreit Despite it didn’t admit what he had done.

ATLANTA – TV commentator Kirk Herbstreit before the SEC Championship game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns on Dec. 7, 2024 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The SEC’s bias against ESPN is out of control

First, Herbstreit congratulated Michigan on its victory over Alabama. Then, when fans aptly pointed out that he had advocated for Alabama or other three-loss SEC teams to make the playoffs, he accused them of spreading a “bullshit narrative.”

Another user then responded with a laughing GIF and “You wanted Alabama in the playoffs,” to which Herbstreit responded, “Keep believing the false narrative clown.”

But Herbstreit’s own words are contradictory. If his comments about nine-win teams being better than Indiana weren’t referring to Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss, then who were they referring to?

Herbstreit is now playing dumb, but everyone knew what he meant. Except Alabama and South Carolina proved that he and the others in the ESPN-SEC advertising department had no idea what they were talking about.

For example, Peter Burns’ December 21 post has aged like milk, comparing SEC teams’ schedules to a “US Open golf course.”

Michigan beat Alabama and Indiana beat Michigan. Does this mean Michigan is a “nobody” according to Herbstreit? Will Burns admit that the SEC’s disastrous performances show that the hypothetical situations its fans relied on were nonsense? And that her self-aggrandizing comments about the schedule were not factually accurate?

Of course not. Because, as is often the case, broadcasters and media that only follow one conference tend to overvalue that conference. For example, members of the media who live on the East Coast and go to bed at 10 p.m. have not always paid attention to West Coast baseball teams who start their home games at 10 p.m.

Or did he say that undefeated Oregon doesn’t belong because it was knocked out by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl? Of course not. Oregon was part of it, Indiana was part of it. Tennessee was one of them. They played poorly and lost to other elite teams. It happens.

Just accept it and stop acting like the PR wing of your broadcast partners.