Kirk Herbstreit pleads with schools to keep scheduling big non-conference games despite CFP complaints

Kirk Herbstreit took to social media earlier this week to sound off on college football programs opting out of, or not scheduling marquee non-conference matchups. The ESPN College GameDay host was responding to the news that Alabama moved its matchup vs. USF in 2026 to the 2032 season.

Herbstreit expects this to happen more often across college football given the current format of the College Football Playoff. He revealed on his podcast alongside Joey Galloway that several prominent athletic directors and coaches have recently reached out to him about the issue.

“When these (coaches and administrators) reach out to me and say, ‘I’m canceling this game. F that I’m not playing. Why should I play that?’ I mean, they are passionate about it, and I want to say, please keep playing these games, because your kids want to play in these games,” Herbstreit said. “The college football community celebrates these games. Your players would rather play Ohio State or Alabama or Texas A&M, than play Rice, you know? Like, that’s not good for the sport.”

The only issue — teams can’t afford to lose those early-season matchups with the current CFP format. Teams with two are often on the bubble, and only one three-loss team has ever made the playoffs (Clemson, 2024). That begs the question: why would a program schedule a game it could lose in the non-conference at all?

For example, Texas lost to Ohio State to start the season. If that game wasn’t played, Ohio State would still be 12-0 and the Longhorns would have finished the year with two losses. Additionally, Alabama lost to unranked Florida State to begin the season. Had they not played that matchup, then the Crimson Tide would have one loss heading into the SEC Championship game.

“Of course, losses should matter,” Herbstreit continued. “But take yourself into the world that Joey (Galloway) just described, nobody plays anybody in the non-conference because everyone’s afraid. If the committee doesn’t care who we play, then let’s just find three really, really small schools where we know we can win and get ready for conference play.

“Just think of that world of college football, that if administrators look at these rankings and they think, ‘Well, I’m being punished for playing high profile games,’ and at the end of the year, people are just counting losses.”

That world could be approaching fast. In 2026, the SEC will adopt a nine-game conference schedule like the Big Ten. That means one less non-conference game for a conference which currently has seven teams ranked in the top 14 of the latest CFP rankings. In turn, one less reason for schools to keep power conference opponents off their non-conference schedule.

With talks of the CFP potentially expanding in the coming seasons, adding more teams to the postseason tournament could solve this issue. More teams in the playoff means more margin for error, especially in the early season. For now, Herbstreit expects more programs to make similar adjustments to their schedule in the future.