Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban retroactively lobby for Cam Ward and Miami over Indiana in playoffs

On Sunday, Dec. 8, before the College Football Playoff rankings reveal show, ESPN CFB analyst Kirk Herbstreit appeared on the network seemingly to discuss who’d be in and out but actually chose to offer no take.

There, he said “After last year, I have learned, I have no opinions about anything.”

But following the Indiana Hoosiers’ 27-17 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the opening CFP game on Friday, Herbstreit changed his tune rather dramatically. On Saturday’s College GameDay broadcast on ESPN, Herbstreit and his GameDay colleague Nick Saban praised the Miami Hurricanes and star quarterback Cam Ward, saying they’d rather have seen them in the playoffs.

Here’s Saban talking about Ward and how he wanted him in the playoff, with Herbstreit agreeing and shifting the conversation to “last night.”

As part of a prediction segment for next Saturday’s (non-playoff) Pop-Tarts Bowl between Miami and Iowa State, Saban says, “Look, how many people would have loved to see Cam Ward play in the playoff? One of the greatest players in college football.” Herbstreit says, “Yes, even last night,” and Saban says, “Yeah, I’m going with Miami all the way.”

That came after Herbstreit’s claim earlier in Saturday’s show that the Hoosiers were “outclassed” and “not a team that should have been on that field when you consider other teams that could have been there.”

It’s all a long way from Herbstreit’s Dec. 8 vow he wouldn’t weigh in on the CFP selections, which followed a whole season where he wasn’t on ESPN’s CFP rankings reveal show:

Herbstreit cited the criticisms, and even death threats, he says he received from Florida State fans for opining their team shouldn’t make last year’s four-team field (they were 13-0 and ACC champions, but 12-1 SEC champion Alabama was picked instead) for that “no opinions” move. Many of those criticisms suggested Herbstreit hated the ACC and was only propping up the SEC because of ESPN’s bigger broadcasting deal with that conference.

This time around, Herbstreit is talking up an ACC team. Interestingly enough, he’s talking up Miami, No. 13 in the final CFP rankings, rather than No. 11 Alabama, which was the main source of debate (versus ACC championship finalist SMU) for the final berth.

And Herbstreit is joining colleagues like Sean McDonough (play-by-play voice for Friday’s game) who have criticized Indiana and the Big Ten (a conference which ESPN notably no longer has a deal with, and which many are constantly watching them for bias against).

He’s also joining with Saban’s star player-based take, which fits with some recent claims from the likes of Todd McShay and Jim Nagy that the CFP committee should consider the NFL talent on college rosters in their rankings and selections. (By that logic, at least we’re lucky that people are only arguing for 10-2 Miami, not 9-3 Colorado and Heisman winner Travis Hunter, or 2-10 Florida State and their collection of likely future NFL talent.)

Regardless of whether viewers agree with him (and Saban) on Miami’s merits relative to Indiana, it’s notable to see Herbstreit again commenting on who’s in and out of the playoffs.

And, for better or worse, he’s again willing to do so on strong terms.

Even if he only did so after a game was in the books.

[Awful Announcing on X]