Kirk Herbstreit apologizes to Michigan for comments made during CFP rankings reveal
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kirk Herbstreit raised many eyebrows for comments he made about Michigan during Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff Top 25 reveal on ESPN.
Herbstreit speculated that Michigan would “wave the white flag” and avoid playing Ohio State, which could keep the Buckeyes from going to the Big Ten championship game and complicate OSU’s Playoff bid.
“I still think Michigan will wave the white flag and not play next week. Is that fair? Michigan could opt out and keep Ohio State out of the Big Ten Championship. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Herbstreit said.
Host Rece Davis offered Herbstreit a chance to clarify those comments. Herbstreit elaborated but stuck to his main point.
“I don’t know all the numbers as far as COVID is concerned, but we live in such a strange world that they really feel teams are opting out to avoid playing games,” Herbstreit said. “They don’t want to get humiliated or lose with the team they have. They don’t want to get embarrassed. There’s a lot of that being talked about around the country.
“I have no idea what Michigan’s situation is, but they have to the power to say, ‘Hey, we’re not playing next week.'”
It’s worth noting that Herbstreit’s sons play at Clemson under Dabo Swinney, who publicly accused Florida State of using COVID as an excuse to duck the Tigers.
Herbstreit apologized to Michigan on social media Tuesday night.
“I had no business at all saying that,” Herbstreit said. “I have no evidence of that. It was completely unfair to the University of Michigan, to Jim Harbaugh, to his players and coaches. I just wanted to apologize.”
Herbstreit’s full comments can be viewed in the video below:
Just wanted to clarify something I said earlier tonight during our CFP rankings show. Apologize to @UMichFootball for my words. pic.twitter.com/tCBGjl7GTV
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 2, 2020
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
