Kirk Herbstreit wants you to know he’s not biased toward the SEC. In fact, he swears he’s not. But if you’ve watched College GameDay for more than five minutes, you already know how that plays out.
On a recent episode of The Ryen Russillo Show, Herbstreit tried to put the SEC favoritism talk to bed once and for all. “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?” he said. “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.”
He wasn’t done. Herbstreit went on to say, “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.”
The problem is, fans and programs outside the SEC have been watching football too, and they’re not seeing the same thing Herbstreit claims he is. Big 12 teams have consistently shown up in marquee matchups, pulled off upsets, produced professional athletes, and still often find themselves in unfavorable time slots or are overlooked as second-tier programs. Meanwhile, a four-loss SEC team gets treated like a sleeping giant every Saturday.
Herbstreit might believe he’s calling it straight. He might even be right that the NFL favors the SEC in the draft. But that doesn’t change the fact that the media machine, GameDay included, has built a reputation for pumping up SEC narratives even when other leagues have earned their share of the spotlight.
If the Big 12 wants to stop hearing about bias, the answer isn’t to yell louder; it’s to keep stacking wins and making the conversation impossible to avoid. That part Herbstreit actually got right. It’s not about the feelings. It’s about the product. But let’s not pretend the coverage starts from a neutral place.
