Kirk Herbstreit Blasts 'Ridiculous' College Football Playoff Format

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

The 2025 College Football Playoff is already off to a polarizing start, that's for sure.

Alabama got things started by erasing a 17-0 deficit to defeat Oklahoma on the road. Less than 24 hours later, Miami upset Texas A&M at Kyle Field in a 10-3 game. After two nail-biting games, fans watched Ole Miss beat down Tulane by 31 points. It was an ugly look for the Group of Five. If that wasn't bad enough, Oregon dismantled James Madison at home.

During this Monday's edition of the "Nonstop" podcast, ESPN analysts Joey Galloway and Kirk Herbstreit discussed the Group of Five's outlook for the CFP moving forward.

Herbstreit thinks it's time for the Group of Five to have its own 16-team playoff. Whether or not that'll happen though is unclear.

"Let them have their own championship 16-team Playoff," Herbstreit said, via On3. "We celebrate it, we televise it, we hype it. If one of them qualifies to get into the (CFP), then you put them in. The rest of the teams have their own Playoff."

Herbstreit isn't alone.

ESPN contributor Josh Pate let the world know over the weekend that he would also like to see the Group of Five hold its own version of the CFP.

“In my perfect world, it wouldn’t matter, because we’d have a separate G5 Playoff, so we wouldn’t have to worry about that,” Pate said on his YouTube show, via Awful Announcing. “Tulane and JMU would probably be playing each other in the G5 National Championship, or a quarterfinal or a semifinal.”

During last Saturday's broadcast for the Tulane-Ole Miss game, Jesse Palmer and Joe Tessitore talked about how uncompetitive the Group of Five has been in the CFP.

"I'm all about inclusivity and I'm fine with one Group of Five team making it into the 12-team fold and that team deserved to be Tulane," Palmer said, via USA Today. "They won the best Group of Five conference, (and) they beat Duke, the eventual ACC champion. But as a fan, I want to see the other 11 teams have a legitimate chance at winning a national championship."

There's been some much controversy surrounding the CFP's format this season that we could see major changes coming sooner than later.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Dec 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos