Florida State being left out of the College Football Playoff semifinals brought out plenty of conspiracies and beliefs that ESPN and personalities like Kirk Herbstreit somehow manipulated the rankings.

Herbstreit appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, where Pat joked that Kirk gets to decide who gets in the playoff as well as other awards like the Heisman.

Kirk tried to quell anything floating around that might insinuate he makes any big decisions like that.

“I know you’re kidding, but there’s some people that think you’re serious when it comes to ESPN or me or anybody having any agenda or having anything to do with these teams,” he said. “It’s the committee that ultimately decides what’s going to happen.”

“I don’t have an agenda on anything other than I just want to see the subjective analysis of who the best four teams are,” Herbstreit added.

Kirk Herbstreit continued by saying that some of the loudest voices are misunderstanding what factors into what schools make the final four.

He explained that it was clear that Michigan was one and Washington two. The next group of teams to consider was called a cluster and consisted of programs like Alabama, Texas, Florida State and Georgia. Herbstreit was reading from what the playoff committee has to go off of when it comes to generating a final ranking.

“Conference championship, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition is another thing,” he said. “Comparative outcomes with a common opponent. None of these are weighted more than the other. And the last thing is other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players or coaches that may have affected a team’s performance or likely will affect its postseason performance.”

“That’s where this, to me, that’s what separated these teams,” he said. “You couldn’t put Alabama ahead of Texas, Texas beat Alabama. Based on all of those things I just mentioned, they must’ve said, Texas is gonna go to number three probably because of the head-to-head. And then you got Alabama and Florida State and Georgia.”

The final football broadcast for the Pac-12 as we know it generated the highest viewership ever on Friday night for ESPN and its stable of college football.

Oregon and Washington, who will be members of the Big Ten next season, met for the Pac-12 championship in Las Vegas and brought in 9.2 million viewers in its Friday night primetime window on ABC.

The viewership for the game, which had College Football Playoff implications for both teams, was up 47% compared to the 2022 title game between USC and Utah.

The audience for the Huskies victory over the Ducks peaked at 11.1 million viewers from 11:30-11:45 PM Eastern.

Justin Walters is the latest member of the ACC Network and its roster of hosts, ESPN has announced.

Walters previously worked for PIX11 News in New York City and served as a college football and basketball reporter for CBS Sports over the past three years. Walters will debut on Wednesday, Dec. 6 anchoring halftime coverage of the ACC Network’s men’s college basketball doubleheader. He will also host the network’s signature basketball show Nothing But Net.

“We’re excited to add Justin to our ACC Network team. He is both talented and versatile, an ideal combination for this role, which will include hosting shows in studio and on the road, as well as reporting and conducting interviews in the field,” said ESPN Senior Vice President of Production Michael Shiffman.  

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Walters graduated from La Salle University with a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast journalism. He is an active member of The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. 

Prior to PIX11, Walters was the sports director and anchor for WRNN-TV/Fios1 News in the greater New York City area, where he covered both high school and professional teams throughout the tri-state area. His most memorable assignments included the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas and Mariano Rivera’s unanimous Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, N.Y. He started his career in 2013 with WBBJ-TV in Jackson, Tennessee.

“Joining ESPN is truly a dream come true,” Walters said. “Growing up watching some of the greatest and recreating a broadcast as a kid…this is a full circle moment. I’m grateful to ESPN and ACC Network for this opportunity and thrilled to be a part of the team. I’m ready to put in the work!”