No sport’s postseason format lends itself to arguments more than college football’s.
Four-team playoff or 12?
SMU or Alabama?
Should byes only belong to conference champions — especially in a year where that means two of them going to the ninth and 12th-ranked teams?
What doesn’t appear to be up for debate, however, is the dissatisfaction with ESPN’s College Football Playoff selection show, a program that’s issues only seem to have been amplified with the implementation of the 12-team format.
To see the problems with the annual reveal, one needn’t look much further than Sunday’s opening segment. After vaguely setting the stage and the stakes with a wordy introduction that didn’t mention a single team by name, host Rece Davis introduced his panel, which included Booger McFarland, Joey Galloway, and Greg McElroy in-person with Kirk Hebrstreit and Nick Saban remotely. McFarland proceeded to question whether the CFP committee would favor a team’s “brand” over another’s resume — an obvious nod to the decision the committee was facing between Alabama and SMU.
McFarland’s comment clearly didn’t sit well with Herbstreit, who returned fire when it was his turn to talk more than three minutes later.
“Right out of the gate, I really don’t understand Booger’s comment about ‘brand’ over [the ACC Championship Game],” a clearly bothered Herbstreit said. “I think that’s low-hanging fruit on the internet or on social media.”
Herbstreit’s testy exchange with McFarland — who replied by saying he was just “having a little fun up here” — might have been the most memorable portion of the segment, if not for Saban’s introduction. For as good as the seven-time national champion has been on College GameDay this season, that wasn’t the case here, as he immediately launched into a monologue campaigning for the Crimson Tide to get the final playoff spot up for grabs based on their strength of schedule.
Saban’s argument may have had merit, but he made for a poor messenger considering that everybody watching knows where his loyalty lies. And when coupled with Herbstreit’s seemingly cantankerous mood — just ask Ohio State fans — it helped make for a contentious atmosphere that felt more awkward and uncomfortable than ESPN’s typical version of embracing debate.
Saban’s efforts also proved to be too little too late, as SMU ultimately got the playoff nod with Alabama left on the outside looking in. Only you didn’t need to be watching the selection show — which didn’t begin unveiling the bracket until more than 22 minutes had passed — to know that, as former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy scooped his former employer on the news that Mustangs had made the playoff before the show had even begun.
Say what you will the show’s clunky format, lack of chemistry, or Herbstreit’s demeanor (more on that later). But if ESPN’s own selection show can’t be the first to reveal who’s actually made the playoff considering how intertwined the network is with college football’s postseason, then what’s the point?
Similarly, what’s the point of having Heather Dinich spend the entire season as a bracketologist if she’s not going to be on the selection show until 1:30 p.m. ET when the bracket has already been revealed and most viewers have already flipped over to NFL games? Was there not a spot for her during the show’s first 90 minutes, when her expertise would have been a welcome addition to the Alabama-SMU argument? Or did we really need to fill another segment with Saban ranting about the strength of schedule while making bad-faith arguments about what all of this means for out-of-conference scheduling?
But while one could argue whether the show’s producers were putting talent like Saban and Dinich in the right spots, the same couldn’t be said of Herbstreit, who seemed like he would have rather been doing literally anything else on Sunday afternoon. After foregoing the weekly ranking reveals this season in an apparent reaction to the backlash he received last season, the former Ohio State quarterback was quick to remind viewers why he left in the first place.
“After last year, I have learned, I have no opinions about anything,” Herbstreit said during an appearance on Sunday NFL Countdown promoting the selection show. “I think everybody gets a trophy. Everybody gets in. I want no death threats, I want no punishment for eight months from #FSUTwitter. So I have no opinion on anything. I love everybody.”
Herbstreit was obviously joking — or at least most people thought he was — only you wouldn’t have known it based on the actual analysis he offered. While he did side with SMU making the playoff, he did so tepidly, clearly trying to evade the potential wrath of #BamaTwitter (and perhaps Saban).
By now, Herbstreit’s aversion to criticism has been well established, but it’s also seemingly manifested itself in passive-aggressive barbs at fanbases and even colleagues like McFarland. As good as he is in the booth, he frankly seems miserable when it comes to dealing with anything rankings-related. And if he’s already going to miss a season’s worth of rankings reveals, it wouldn’t be out of place for him to miss the final one too.
Herbstreit’s issues, however, are also emblematic of why such a show is so difficult to pull off.
There isn’t a sport more tribal in nature than college football. And there isn’t one with a more subjective postseason format either. Arguments and friction are inevitable.
Perfection shouldn’t be the enemy of progress though, and there are clearly improvements ESPN can make. Considering how rare it is for college football fans to agree on anything these days, the fact that this year’s show was met with such unanimous backlash should tell the network as much.
There are easy fixes, like laying out the selection show’s stakes in a more efficient manner and finding a place for Dinich before the bracket has actually been revealed. There are also bigger-picture conversations to be had, like what Herbstreit’s bringing to the show while seemingly being held against his will and whether Saban’s the right analyst for a show that is inevitably going to be hit was accusations of pro-SEC bias.
If nothing else, ESPN should probably figure out a way that it can be the one to break news like SMU making the playoff over Alabama before its former employees do.