The king is not dead, but he is somewhat diminished.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, the most influential voice in college football, has experienced a rough season.
A rough 13 months, actually.
Herbstreit’s controversial position in December 2023 regarding Florida State’s exclusion from the College Football Playoff — he did not believe the undefeated Seminoles deserved an invitation — led to relentless social media attacks by FSU fans. Herbstreit even suggested recently that he received death threats.
(The experience prompted him to back away from appearances on ESPN’s weekly CFP ranking shows each Tuesday during November.)
This month, he’s back in the eye of the sport’s postseason storm, both for his criticism of Indiana’s participation in the CFP and of what he termed the “lunatic” Ohio State fans who pillaged coach Ryan Day after the loss to Michigan. (Herbstreit played for OSU and has a personal relationship with Day.)
Those positions drew a barrage of criticism from fans and sports media members alike, who have accused Herbstreit of bowing to ESPN’s conference partner, the SEC, which pushed for Alabama to make the CFP over Indiana. He has been excoriated, as well, for his harsh treatment of Buckeyes fans.
Herbstreit remains a dominant voice within the sport and a top-notch analyst. But the massive hit to his reputation over the past year — and especially in recent weeks — emerged as one of the top college football media storylines of the season.
Here’s our look at the best and worst of the year.
Biggest story: ABC’s domination
Disney added the SEC’s Game of the Week to its existing SEC inventory, moved all the major matchups onto ABC and absolutely crushed the competition, often using double- and triple-headers as the vehicle. Of the 21 highest-rated games of the season listed on the SportsMediaWatch website, including conference championships, 14 were on ABC while only four aired on Fox. (CBS had two, including Army-Navy, and NBC had one.) The season could not have gone better for Disney and its over-the-air network.
Evolving story: CFP ratings
The numbers are official for the first-ever opening round of the College Football Playoff. The prime-time broadcasts on ABC and ESPN performed well, with Ohio State-Tennessee on Saturday drawing an average of 14.3 million viewers, the second-largest audience of the season behind only the SEC championship game. Notre Dame’s victory over Indiana on Friday averaged 13.4 million. Not surprisingly, the two Saturday games on Turner networks (TBS and TNT), which faced direct competition from the NFL, drew smaller audiences: The Clemson-Texas matchup averaged 8.6 million viewers while SMU-Penn State drew 6.4 million.
Best strategic move: Fox College Football Fridays
This season marked the debut of Fox’s Friday package of Big Ten games, with the West Coast schools providing much of the inventory. The approach worked well, with some Friday games drawing in excess of 2 million viewers. While that number compares poorly to the major Saturday games, it’s approximately the same audience that previously watched the ‘Friday Night Smackdown’ wrestling broadcasts. And it allowed Fox to promote its Saturday football package, particularly the ‘Big Noon’ game.
Worst strategic move: CBS’s breakup with the SEC
The network’s late-2019 decision to forego broadcast rights to the SEC’s Game of the Week — the top-rated package in college football each year — seemed questionable at the time. When reality arrived in the fall of 2024, questionable turned to terrible. The Big Ten games aired in the 12:30 p.m. (Pacific) window on CBS didn’t come close to matching the ratings for the SEC’s No. 1 game.
Best on-air addition: Nick Saban
The former Alabama coach was sensational on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ with a mix of insight and humor that gave the broadcast a different, and needed, dimension. His chemistry with Pat McAfee was surprisingly strong.
Best on-air subtraction: Jac Collinsworth
The son of NBC’s NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth was given the Notre Dame play-by-play gig on NBC for two seasons (2022-23) before he was ready for the assignment. And it showed. (That’s on NBC, by the way, not Collinsworth.) Mercifully, the network pulled Collinsworth from Irish broadcasts before this season. His replacement, Dan Hicks, was a marked upgrade.
Biggest gaffe: ESPN’s ‘Bulldongs’
The 2024 season brought the standard series of medium-level mistakes, but the situation went next-level on Monday during the Potato Bowl. ESPN’s graphics department listed Fresno State as the ‘Bulldongs’ — not just once, not just twice, but repeatedly throughout the broadcast. It makes you wonder what the person in charge of the graphics was doing instead of proofreading the content.
Best production maneuver: The CW
The network outsourced its production of Pac-12 games to the Pac-12 Enterprises, the valuable, cutting-edge production unit still standing after the demise of the Pac-12 Networks. The broadcasts were first-rate, as were the Pac-12 and ACC studio shows produced by Pac-12 Enterprises.
Best pregame show episode: ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ from Berkeley
The show’s first trip to Cal was sensational in every regard — from the atmosphere on campus to the pre-taped segments and the presence of the Calgorithm. “I don’t know in my 10 years of doing this that anybody has done it better than Cal last week,” host Rece Davis told KEZI 9 News in Eugene the following week.
Greatest single-school dominance: Colorado
Excluding the conference championship, the Big 12 generated 10 games with at least 3 million viewers. The Buffaloes were involved in all 10. Without them — and more specifically, without Deion Sanders, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter — the conference’s ratings would be low enough to be a story.
Best play-by-play announcer: Brad Nessler
The longtime CBS voice made a mostly seamless transition from SEC broadcasts to Big Ten games. He remains a pro’s pro, with insight and a measured delivery.
Top analyst: ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit
Say what you will about his opinions on the CFP selections and Ohio State fans. Herbstreit remains the sport’s top game analyst, deftly mixing technical insight with context on the teams, conferences and sport writ large. And for the most part, he manages the balance without getting preachy.
Best booth chemistry: Fox’s Jason Benetti and Brock Huard
No on-air tandem in the sport does a better job setting each other up for success than Fox’s No. 2 crew. Frankly, we much prefer Benetti and Huard to the network’s top tandem of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt, who seemed frustrated with their assignments throughout the fall.
Worst pairing: ESPN’s Mark Jones and Colorado
Jones spends a tad too much time trying to impress viewers with his vocabulary but generally does a solid job. However, when he’s assigned to Colorado games, it’s time to turn the sound off. His fawning coverage of Deion Sanders borders on unprofessional and is impossible to stomach.
Most underrated analyst: ESPN’s Andre Ware
We considered ESPN’s Greg McElroy, who does a superb job in the long shadow cast by Herbstreit. But it’s tough to call McElroy underrated considering he’s part of ESPN’s No. 2 crew (with Sean McDonough). Ware is typically assigned second-tier games and has matured into an enjoyable listen with quality insight and enough flavor to make viewers feel what they’re watching.
Rising star: Fox’s Devin Gardner
The former Michigan quarterback was paired with play-by-play veteran Tim Brando this season and was thoroughly enjoyable. He keeps the conversation light while providing insight on formations and play designs, and he should only get better with experience. Honorable mention: Jake Butt of the Big Ten Network analyst.
Best all-around broadcaster: ESPN’s Rece Davis
Whether he’s hosting ‘GameDay’ broadcasts, managing the CFP ranking show roundtable discussions or asking questions of key guests, Davis is terrific. Given ESPN’s essential role providing news and analysis and the fundamentally chaotic nature of college football, Davis performs a valuable public service whenever he’s on screen.
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