Kirk Herbstreit is undoubtedly ESPN’s top college football analyst. Make no mistake though, he has ruffled plenty of feathers over the years.
During the 2023 season, Herbstreit received a ton of backlash for supporting the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to keep Florida State out of the four-team field. Things got so heated that he unleashed a wild rant about the program’s “lunatic” fan base.
“Its funny when FSU went ahead of The U [Miami] in 2000 after [Char-ron] Dorsey and the boys beat the Noles and FSU went instead of a deserving Canes team to the BCS Championship where they lost to Oklahoma I didn’t hear from all of you about the system being rigged and it’s not fair. You were big fans of the turnout back then-of course most of you, in this despicable lunatic fringe, probably didn’t even know about 2000 when the Noles got the benefit over a GREAT Miami team,” Herbstreit wrote on X.
Fast forward to this July, and Herbstreit made headlines for dissing “SportsCenter” anchor Elle Duncan. He mentioned her on the “Net Positive” podcast during a rant about broadcasters openly cheering for their favorite teams.
“I don’t think you can cheer when you do games on a national level,” Herbstreit said. “You watch ‘SportsCenter’ and Elle Duncan is sitting there cheering for Georgia. She’s openly cheering. I’m not a fan of that personally. I think it hurts your credibility.”
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With the 2025 college football season around the corner, Herbstreit has been named one of the “most annoying” people in sports media.
On July 30, Herbstreit was officially named a No. 1 seed in “The Spun’s Most Annoying People in Football Media” bracket.
Herbstreit joins Stephen A. Smith, Mel Kiper Jr. and Nick Wright as the four No. 1 seeds in this year’s bracket.
Last year, Smith cruised past his competition and won the title of “most annoying” person in football media.
“Most annoying people in football media. That’s what this is about. I don’t know how I ended up on this list, but let me say a couple of things,” he said last year. “Number one, The Spun, your list is trash. Your bracket is trash. First of all, how the hell do you have Charissa Thompson on that list? She’s gorgeous, she’s smart, she’s good people, she’s my friend. Who does she annoy? Really? C’mon now…You wanna throw Skip Bayless up there along with myself? Alright. That’s just haterade. Alright. Feel free. I know you all love me. You certainly talk about me enough.”
We’ll see if Herbstreit can dethrone Smith this fall.
Related: The 64 ‘Most Annoying’ People In Football Media
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