College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit headed to social media Tuesday night to explain an earlier fact on ESPN in which he gave the impression that Ohio State’s national name hopes could be thwarted if other schools, especially Michigan, his rival, chose to cancel games due to coronavirus issues.
“Michigan is still waving the white flag (and) potentially avoiding betting on Ohio State next week,” Herbstreit said of ESPN’s school football playoff rankings.
“Is it fairArray . . . Michigan can simply retire, basically, and prevent Ohio State from playing six games to qualify for the Big Ten Championship. It doesn’t make sense to me. “
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Kirk Herbstreit challenges Michigan to dodge the state of Ohio next week pic. twitter. com/K608RMgpiv
After a protest from school football fans, Herbstreit apologized to the Michigan football team in a video posted on Twitter.
“I had no explanation for why to say that. I have no evidence of that. It’s absolutely unfair to the University of Michigan, to Jim Harbaugh, to his players and coaches,” he said.
“In school football, in fact, I find it hard to understand where we are: players retire, groups cancel games, it just turns out to be in a downward spiral. Infrequently I think I’m looking to stay positive and optimistic, and I think we all have our breakout points.
“Right now, in week 14, with so much negativity around sport, I think it’s a tension point for me,” Herbstreit said.
I just wanted to explain everything I said earlier tonight on our PSC qualification show. To @UMichFootball for my paroles. pic. twitter. com/tCBGjl7GTV
Herbstreit, who played as a quarterback for Ohio State from 1989 to 1992, also noted that his comments were by no means partisan, noting his “25 years of delight in not being a stingy guy in Michigan. “
In the most recent school playoff rankings, Ohio State (4-0) clings to fourth and last place, not playing last week when coach Ryan Day and several Buckeyes players tested positive for COVID-19.