ESPN College Football Announcer Kirk Herbstreit Issues Public Apology

The past few days have been quite eventful for ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit. He's put himself in such hot water that he felt the need to issue a public apology while on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday.

It all started with Herbstreit bashing Indiana for its disappointing loss against Notre Dame in the opening round of the College Football Playoff. Not only did he question if the Hoosiers deserved a spot in the 12-team playoff, he called out the selection committee. 

"I hope next year the committee won’t get caught up and what the social media and a lot of people who are fringe fans get caught up in, which is wins. 'They had 11 wins. They must be good.' Who did they beat I think is much more important than how many wins you have," Herbstreit said. "That’s old school way of approaching it. Indiana having 11 wins and beating nobody. That doesn’t mean they’re one of the 12 best teams. There is a big difference between deserving and best. What this is all about is giving us the best 12 teams. Now, subjective how you want to figure out the best 12 is up to you. But that’s what I want to see. I don’t want to hear about wins, how many wins. Winning is obviously Important, but just because you have 11 wins doesn’t mean you’re better than a team that maybe had a tougher road that had nine wins. So, I think we get too caught up in how many wins you have."

Herbstreit's remarks about Indiana really aggravated the college football community, and for good reason. If going 11-1 as a Big Ten team doesn't matter because it's all about strength of schedule, then why play the games? And if we're suggesting Alabama or Ole Miss are "better" than Indiana, then maybe they shouldn't lose regular-season games to Oklahoma and Florida, respectively. 

With that said, Herbstreit had a brief apology for Indiana fans during his time on Pat McAfee's show this Monday. As far as apologies are concerned, it wasn't great, but at least he acknowledged he was wrong. 

"I apologize to you and the Indiana fans," Herbstreit said. "I had just finished calling that game and I thought about the Friday night game when I was standing on the field and I looked at Indiana and I really wondered, 'Is this one of the best 12 teams?' as I'm watching them play."