Each time Ohio State comes up in the national college football conversation, Kirk Herbstreit can count on one of two things happening: Ohio State fans criticize him for not supporting his alma mater, or fans of other teams assume he’s shaping his opinions to overly support the Buckeyes.

During a recent podcast with SDS, Herbstreit was asked about how he handles those accusations.

The latest example came after Herbstreit ranked Ohio State No. 1 last week before Clemson narrowly beat North Carolina, which caused many pollsters to drop the Tigers based on that effort.

Herbstreit’s top four after Week 5 is Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson and LSU.

On the podcast, Herbstreit gave multiple examples of how he looks at things independently each year.

“A little bit of background on people getting frustrated on things I might say. I’m the same guy that’s an Ohio State alum that last year, I said that Georgia, despite losing to Alabama, deserved to go in ahead of Ohio State into the Playoff because I was just being honest,” Herbstreit said. “The year before that, when everybody thought I had walked off the desk because they put Alabama in, and I was mad that they put Alabama in, no, no, no. I was happy they put Alabama in. I walked off because I was shocked they did the right thing by putting one of the four best teams into the Playoff in Alabama.

“I just say what I think and if you agree with me, great, but if you don’t, please understand that I don’t have an agenda. Most Ohio State fans hate me because I don’t always go to bat for Ohio State.”