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Kirk Herbstreit claps back at accusations of SEC bias at ESPN from Danny Kanell, others

by: Alex Byington7 hours ago_AlexByington
Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch
Kirk Herbstreit speaks on the set of ESPN College GameDay prior to the NCAA football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025.

Even before the 12-member College Football Playoff selection committee unveils its first official Top 25 ranking of the 2025 season on Tuesday night, the anti-SEC critics are already out in full swing, ready to call out bias wherever they can. That includes self-acknowledged SEC hater Danny Kanell of CBS Sports.

Kanell, a Florida State alum, was quick to suggest malfeasance against the league during a controversial play in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Florida–Georgia game when SEC officials upheld an incompletion upon review of a long pass that Gators receiver J. Michael Sturdivant may have trapped in his arms.

Whether Sturdivant completed the catch or not, Kanell’s implication that SEC officials are making calls to keep one of the league’s top programs in Playoff contention is another in a long line of debunked conspiracy theories suggesting college football’s powers-that-be are conspiring to prop up SEC teams over the other Power Four leagues. And at least one prominent voice of the sport — ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit — is fed up with all the false innuendo being thrown around.

Kirk Herbstreit on alleged SEC bias: ‘Why do people think it’s a thing? It’s such bullsh*t’

“Let me ask you this: the coaches do a poll, the AP does a poll, the CFP rankings do a poll – they all must be guilty of SEC bias?” Herbstreit said on Monday night’s episode of The Ryen Russillo Show podcast. “… 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.

“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). And the NFL in April, when they draft these  players (from) the SEC. Why is this a thing? Why do people think it’s a thing? It’s such bullsh*t. It’s called watching football. That’s what you do.”

To Herbstreit’s point, the SEC currently has nine of its 16 programs currently ranked in the Top 25 of both the AP and Coaches polls, including four — No. 3 Texas A&M (8-0), No. 4 Alabama (7-1), No. 5 Georgia (7-1) and No. 7 Ole Miss (8-1) — in the Top 7. By comparisons, the Big Ten has six teams in both polls, while the Big 12 has five and the ACC has four.