Kirk Herbstreit: ‘Outclassed’ Indiana [shouldn’t] have ‘been on that field’

Rece Davis might have said that performance doesn’t validate or invalidate these selections, but that doesn’t mean everyone on the College GameDay set has to fall in line.

Kirk Herbstreit tried not to frame Indiana’s 27-17 loss as a knock on the Hoosiers, but the GameDay analyst didn’t exactly shield them from criticism, either.

In lamenting what was the first game of the expanded college football playoff, which Sean McDonough referred to as “dud,” the so-called ‘Mayor of College Football’ didn’t exactly mince words when it came to Indiana being “outclassed” by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Herbstreit stopped short of launching the same broadside against the Big Ten that McDonough did, but his comments about “other teams” that could’ve been in South Bend felt like a subtle nod toward the likes of Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina or even Miami.

“The atmosphere was historic; the game was not,” Herbstreit said. “I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘Why was Indiana in?’ 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.”

There’s an argument to be made about the most deserving, but there’s also one for why Alabama shouldn’t have lost to one of the worst Oklahoma teams in years by three scores, or why Ole Miss shouldn’t have lost at home to a 4-8 Kentucky team (looking at you, Lane Kiffin).

And then South Carolina comes into play, which lost to both aforementioned teams head-to-head.

Then there’s Miami…

Back to Herbstreit.

The constant struggle to define whether to prioritize the most deserving teams or the supposed best teams is baked into every College Football Playoff debate. But Herbstreit’s criticism wasn’t just a knock at Indiana — even though it was — it felt like a pointed jab at the system’s inherent ambiguity.

But that was a conversation for two weeks ago.

And for those who disagree with Herbstreit, the sentiment flips.

If the regular season is supposed to matter, rewarding an 11-win Indiana — even against a soft schedule — serves as validation for doing what’s asked of it. Dismissing the Hoosiers’ inclusion as “B.S.” comes off as ignoring the criteria established by the system itself.

[College GameDay]