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Kirk Herbstreit shot down a conspiracy theory involving his employer, ESPN, and the College Football Playoff.
Herbstreit joined Pardon My Take on Wednesday, and was asked if he thinks the Playoffs could be rigged to include bigger branded teams that will drive in more ratings to ESPN. But Herbstreit didn’t entertain the theory, saying that ESPN has no part in deciding who gets in.
“I can assure you that ESPN is not — I can promise you, I’m not defending ESPN — I can promise you that ESPN, if you look at the ratings, that doesn’t hold up,” Herbstreit said. “If ESPN was involved on ratings, it would be Georgia and Michigan. If Alabama loses, it’s fine put them in, Ohio State. That’s what they would do. This is more the committee, isolated, wherever they are in Texas, trying to figure out.”
Herbstreit made the point that ratings for college football haven’t really been impacted by whether the teams playing in a certain game are a big brand or not.
“Listen, the ratings are ok. They’re not NFL ratings,” Herbstreit said. “They’re good, but there’s really not much of a bump when you put in these big brands vs. not. That’s more of a conspiracy theory on Twitter than it is reality. I promise you it’s not a reality thing at all.”
