With college football rolling into Week 11, the playoff committee drops in its first rankings of the season. And the debates are already raging. As expected, Ohio State leads the pack with Indiana at No. 2, giving the Big Ten an early edge, while the SEC flexes its depth with Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Texas all in the mix. Now, fans are questioning how Texas holds a 54% playoff chance after a loss to Florida. Meanwhile, Kirk Herbstreit is standing by the committee’s decisions and early eliminations.

“So, everybody brings a different lens, I guess, into that room, which I have no problem with. I’m not part of the committee and know nothing about this. Why? They don’t know—I’ve never really been big on that. I think if you and I were in there and we had David Pollack and you and me and, you know, whoever in there breaking it down, people would think we’re full of crap. Like we don’t know. absolutely,” Herbstreit said on @kirk_herbstreit channel.

He broke it down further, noting that many fans are upset about Oregon sitting at No. 9. Sure, they beat Penn State and are 7-1, but that one loss to Indiana still weighs heavily. Herbstreit acknowledged the frustration but defended the committee, saying, “They’re doing the best they can, right? and absolutely, they have their own reasons for why they put these teams here.” After all, Georgia barely edged Florida, Vanderbilt also fell to Alabama, and FSU took a loss. So, everyone has a case to make.

The committee has its own reasons, and sometimes even coaches don’t resonate with it. Lane Kiffin also threw a jab at them after they put Indiana in the CFP before them and ended up losing against Notre Dame. “Really exciting competitive game @CFBPlayoff. Great job!” Then he followed it up with another post when Penn State took a 28-0 lead over SMU last year and won at the end. “Way to keep us on the edge of our seats, Committee…Riveting,” he said.

Even Alabama fans were not happy when they missed the playoffs last season. But that’s how the game works. Now, along with the CFP rankings, Herbstreit is also defending the SEC bias narrative.

Kirk Herbstreit fired back at the SEC bias notion

Before the College Football Selection Committee released its first top 25 rankings for 2025, the talk of SEC bias turned up the heat. Fans started accusing ESPN of favoritism. And things got to another level when anti-SEC CBS Sports Danny Kanell hopped in, pointing out an unfair call in the Gators vs. Georgia game. So, Kanell, being a Florida State alum, couldn’t make peace with the fact that officials made a call of ruling an apparent catch by Gators receiver J. Michael Sturdivant incomplete during the 4th quarter. He didn’t hesitate before pointing out visible favoritism and even hit X posting:

This was a move to keep Georgia’s championship hopes alive. However, Kirk Herbstreit fired back, calling the accusation baseless and irrelevant. “Let me ask you this: the coaches do a poll, the AP does a poll, and the CFP rankings do a poll—they all must be guilty of SEC bias?” he said. “… I went to Ohio State, I was a captain at Ohio State, you don’t think I want to promote the Big Ten? You think it makes me happy to sit there and promote good teams? I’d love the SEC to have three teams in the Top 25 and the Big Ten to have eight. That’d make me happy.”

Herbstreit made his point pretty clear that selection happens based on on-field performance, not preference. “But you go by what you watch. And the coaches who are actually competing on the field, they’re putting the SEC (teams in the Top 25),” he said. It makes sense, looking at the rankings too. The SEC teams just have 9 of their 16 programs ranked in both the AP and coaches polls, whereas in comparison, the Big Ten has six teams in both polls, while the Big 12 has five, and the ACC has four. Now, as the season heads towards its final month, the division in fan perspective is uncanny, but Kirk Herbstreit keeps hitting them back.