Kirk Herbstreit's argument against Indiana making the College Football Playoff is so weak

It’s no secret that Indiana got outworked against Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024 College Football Playoff on Friday evening in South Bend.

Since the Hoosiers got their butts kicked like they did, hindsight starts to creep in and the detractors start wondering why [Insert Marquee College Football Team Here] didn’t get Indiana’s spot instead in the 12-team field.

Hindsight is very easy when you have a result to make your case, as ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit did on College GameDay to decry Indiana’s playoff placement over what he feels are better teams with more losses.

“Indiana was outclassed in that game,” Herbstreit said. “It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there.”

"Indiana was outclassed in that game."@KirkHerbstreit on Indiana's first-round CFP loss to Notre Dame in South Bend. pic.twitter.com/Tm7PMKX9Ay

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) December 21, 2024

It’s easy to say this now with the Indiana result what it is, but what if the Hoosiers took the Irish to task on Friday? Nobody would be wanting Indiana sitting at home in that scenario.

That’s the problem with trying to play semantics after the final whistle; it gives you ammunition to make the point you put in your back pocket before the game even happened.

If Alabama, Ole Miss and the like wanted to make the College Football Playoff this year, they shouldn’t have lost as many games as they did. An 11-win team like Indiana shouldn’t be punished on subjective balancing on who the “better” team is. Let the record set it straight and go from there.

Indiana face-planting in the first round doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been there. It just means it didn’t take advantage of what it had. That’s football for you; the ball just doesn’t bounce your way sometimes. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have bounced in the first place.

Herbstreit is going to make this argument because it’s how that class of analysts will always view college football, but it doesn’t make him right.