Kirk Herbstreit calls for change in playoff format, calls out 'bulls***' with automatic qualifiers for G5

The Group of Five has caused a lot of debate when it comes to the possible futures of the format for the College Football Playoff. Now, Kirk Herbstreit has weighed in on the topic, with it resulting to a pitch by him in how we should go about ranking and seeding the entire field in the CFP.

Herbstreit discussed the playoff’s inclusion of the G5 during ‘Nonstop’ on Monday, alongside Joey Galloway. He deemed it as “a bunch of (bs)” in how that portion of the bracket currently works, with him wanting more of a threshold for teams from the Group of Five in order for them to earn a berth, rather than at least one automatic one, in the College Football Playoff.

“Speaking of the Group of Five, and debates between Notre Dame being left out, and Texas, and Vanderbilt, and whoever else? I love a Group of Five when there’s a team that’s clearly been the team in that level, wherever they might be coming from. But, I feel like – I’m curious to see what the conference commissioners do to try to come up with an answer for the future, because, while we all like a Group of Five story? I feel like it should take a Group of Five team like that in order to qualify to get in to this tournament,” said Herbstreit. “I don’t think we need to make sure everybody gets a trophy, and make sure everybody is included. I think that’s a bunch of bulls***. Like, that’s not fair.”

“I feel like the Group of Five, if they get up to a top-sixteen, let’s say, ranking, and they qualify because of what they’ve done on the field? Boom. They’re in,” Herbstreit said. “It’s not like they’re blocked from being in. I just feel like they should have to get to a certain number in order to be able to get into the postseason.”

Much of this discourse is due to the fact that two teams got into the expanded field this year from the Group of Five. With as lowly-rated as Duke (8-5) was as the winner of the ACC Championship, James Madison (12-1) got in as the winner of the Sun Belt Championship after the highest-ranked champion, which was the only one intended to be in with this format, got in with Tulane (11-2) winning the American Championship. However, in the actual final rankings for the CFP, the Green Wave finished at No. 20 and the Dukes finished at No. 24, as opposed to a year ago when Boise State got in at No. 8. Their moves up into the field despite those rankings have since been points of frustrations from those at-larges who then missed the CFP, like a Notre Dame, BYU, Texas, Vanderbilt, or Utah from No. 11 through No. 15.

With that, Herbstreit put a sixteen-team format out there when it came to the College Football Playoff. He felt that would ensure that the idea or hope of having the teams that they believe are the best are in the CFP. And, as far as the G5s, so be it, he says, whether teams at that level can end up getting themselves ranked into that Top-16.

“I think, again, you go back to, the goal is to put the top twelve teams in the country in, or the top, let’s say, if it moves to sixteen, sixteen teams in the country. I say we get to a point where we just rank them one to sixteen. And, whether there’s two teams in the Big Ten or five teams in the Big Ten, or two in the SEC or seven in the SEC? Whatever it is. It’s just one to sixteen, whether it’s computers or committee or a combination of the two,” said Herbstreit. “And, if a Group of Five gets up into that top-sixteen? Awesome. This is going to be awesome to see how this team does. And, if they don’t, they’re out. It’s really that simple.”

“I just feel it’s not fair to what we’re trying to accomplish here by getting the best teams in when we, oh, wait, wait, wait, we got to put the Group of Five in. Well, where are they ranked? Well, they’re down at nineteen. Well, why are they in? Well, we have an agreement here that they have to have one in,” Herbstreit said. “That doesn’t seem fair or right, to me.”

All of the teams in the FBS, including the ones in the Group of Five, spend the better part of three months trying to earn spots to contend for a national championship in the College Football Playoff. Because of that, Herbstreit may just want to see a better qualification met, rather than being automatically given a spot, for those kinds of programs to get into the CFP.