Kirk Herbstreit has spent decades as one of ESPN’s biggest college football voices. So when he recently criticized the network’s own coverage of the sport, people paid attention. He said ESPN has not given college football enough attention on its daily studio shows. The ESPN broadcaster also backed the network’s new Bussin’ & Pate On Campus show and suggested ESPN should consider expanding that type of college football coverage beyond Fridays.

“I think our own place has been very, very guilty of those morning shows. It’s NFL or LeBron James or the Yankees or the Dodgers. They’re playing the hits,” Herbstreit said on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast. “They’re not breaking down what’s going on in Nebraska, unless there’s turmoil, unless there’s some kind of controversy. Then they’re going to want to get into it.”

The comments have quickly turned into a debate over whether Herbstreit was exposing a real problem or simply criticizing the network he works for. One X user, reacting to his comments, had no sympathy for him.

“Can we please show Kirk the door… awful as a corporate shill, awful as an announcer, and frankly, GameDay is unwatchable,” wrote the user on X. Another fan went after what they saw as a bigger issue with ESPN’s college coverage.

“KirkHerbstreit skimping on coverage? Why don’t you rather admit to the SEC bias that has ruined the sport and made every show,” the user wrote on X. “Every interview, every conversation about conferences instead of players and teams.”

For some viewers, the problem isn’t that ESPN talks about college football too little. It’s what the network chooses to focus on when it does. Realignment, the playoff, and SEC storylines have taken up so much space that fans feel the players and individual teams sometimes get pushed into the background.

Every year, college football coverage sees similar storylines. For the last three years, the national champion has come from the Big Ten conference. Still, in preseason rankings, SEC teams dominate other conferences. That focus escalates to another level when the CFP is around the corner. Since ESPN is the official broadcaster of the SEC as well as the CFP, the network often gets called out for what viewers see as an SEC bias.

Just last year, there was a push to get Texas into the playoffs despite the Longhorns having three losses on their record. Similarly, while BYU got demoted in the final rankings because of its loss in the Big 12 championship game, Alabama didn’t get the same treatment despite losing embarrassingly in the SEC championship game.

Some fans thought, though, Herbstreit’s criticism of ESPN went too far.

“You can accuse ESPN of a lot of things. I don’t think skimping on college football is one of them,” a user wrote on X.

There is a fair argument there. ESPN has actually increased its investment in college football, including bringing in Josh Pate, Will Compton, and Taylor Lewan. Their new Friday show is part of that push. Never mind, ESPN has a $7.8 billion contract for the CFP rights till the 2031 season. But another reaction raised an uncomfortable point about Herbstreit’s own future.

“I love Kirk, but this is coming from a guy whose contract is almost up, and he will eventually move on to covering the NFL,” wrote the user.

Currently, though, Herbstreit is still deeply tied to college football. The 2026 season marks his 30th year with College GameDay, and he remains ESPN’s lead college football analyst alongside Chris Fowler. According to reports, his ESPN deal pays him around $6 million per year. He signed that extension in March 2022, which runs through the 2026-2027 college football season.