The college football pundit class owes Indiana and SMU an apology.
The Hoosiers and then the Mustangs saw their names get dragged after their lopsided first-round College Football Playoff losses. By Kirk Herbstreit. By Paul Finebaum. By a trolling Lane Kiffin on X. By many others. All because of the hypothetical image in our heads of the SEC and specifically what Alabama, the first team left out of the Playoff, used to be.
People didn’t even wait for the first round to finish before burying Indiana. Surely SEC teams would’ve been more competitive. The point spreads! The NFL players!
Hypothetical Alabama is undefeated. Don’t worry about those pesky bad losses.
“Indiana was outclassed in that game,” Herbstreit said on “College GameDay” the morning after the Hoosiers’ loss. “It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there.”
About that …
A few hours after SMU’s 38-10 loss at Penn State, Tennessee lost 42-17 to Ohio State to close out the first round. Then, on Tuesday, a nearly full-strength Alabama team lost 19-13 to a Michigan team playing without most of its star players in the ReliaQuest Bowl (and South Carolina followed by losing 21-17 to Illinois in the Citrus Bowl).
Whoops.
GO DEEPER
Shorthanded Michigan stuns No. 11 Alabama in ReliaQuest Bowl
You know who actually did beat Michigan? Indiana. You know who played a closer game at Ohio State than Tennessee did? Indiana.
SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings had three turnovers in the first half at Penn State, costing his team. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe had three turnovers in the first quarter against Michigan, costing his team. Turns out, bad days happen.
Herbstreit’s a smart analyst. He’s immensely respected by coaches, and deservedly so. He’s usually more measured than what we saw him say about Indiana. The guy won’t even make predictions for games he announces.
Which is why watching people melt down on TV and on social media over Indiana and SMU during the first round of the Playoff was a bizarre spectacle. As if we’d never had CFP blowouts before.
Yes, the SEC is the most talented and strongest conference. That doesn’t guarantee anything. Anyone who watched Alabama this year knew it wasn’t a typical Alabama team. The ceiling was high, with a win against Georgia and a blowout of LSU. But the floor was also low, with losses to Oklahoma (which finished 6-7) and Vanderbilt (7-6).
To go to bat so hard for this specific Alabama team and tear down teams like Indiana and SMU, which had their best seasons in at least a generation, felt off-base and honestly quite mean in real time. In hindsight, it was also just plain wrong.
Would Ole Miss, South Carolina or Miami have played more competitive Playoff games? We don’t know. That’s the point. Critics were so set in their beliefs without remembering this is college football and weird things happen all the time. You have to make selections based on a small set of data.
Everyone knew from the moment the 12-team Playoff format was announced that the teams at the bottom of the bracket wouldn’t be true national title contenders. We all said a team that gets left out won’t have much of a leg to stand on, especially compared to undefeated Florida State in 2023.
And yet so many people fell into the trap because the sport is built on debate and because the generational juggernaut that is Alabama was on the bubble, pitted against surprise upstarts in Indiana and SMU.
The first two CFP games confirmed a narrative. The rest of the games confirmed the opposite. We all yelled at each other for nothing. And now Herbstreit probably needs to stay out of his social media mentions for the next 12 months.
Keep believing the false narratives clown.
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 31, 2024
And by the way, no more citing hypothetical point spreads to make arguments, please. It’s a made-up talking point that fans and even people like Nick Saban use to push an agenda.
Alabama was a 22.5-point favorite against Vanderbilt, a 14-point favorite against Oklahoma and a 16.5-point favorite against Michigan. It lost all three games. Enough with the nonsense. What’s the point of playing games if Vegas oddsmakers can create a more competitive outcome?
Alabama lost three games to unranked teams in Kalen DeBoer’s first season. Saban went 123-4 in such games. It’s a new era for the sport, and the old Alabama is gone.
The committee got the 12 teams right. I said it the day of the selection show. It remains true today. That doesn’t mean Indiana or SMU could’ve won the national title. The 12-team Playoff isn’t just about the national championship. It’s about creating more access. It did that.
This is a fun sport full of unexpected outcomes. That’s why we love it. The next time you find yourself tearing down someone to defend a team not even ranked in the top 10, maybe take a step back and think about it first.
If you want to question the value of wins, make sure the next team up, you know, actually wins.
(Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)
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