Kirk Herbstreit picks his national title choice. Is it Ohio State?

It’s almost essential that college football media members have a College Football Playoff national championship pick, and that certainly extends to ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit. For whatever reason, some in Buckeye Nation love to hate on Herbie, but we will always stand by him as a great ambassador for the sport and for Ohio State.

Does the voice of college football these days sometimes err so far away from appearing to have an OSU bias that he’s maybe harder on the Buckeyes than he should be? Maybe at times, but it’s better than the alternative of picking his alma mater to beat any team it lines up against, like what routinely happens with former Michigan wide receiver and fellow ESPN colleague Desmond Howard.

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But back to Herbstreit. He often appears on the Pat McAfee Show and did so again on Friday. The personalities on the show did a little whip around of college football and had a brief segment showing the odds of teams winning the CFP national championship, then asked each show participant to pick the team that will hoist the trophy. Herbie seemed a little tentative in picking, but settled on a team that may surprise you. He was asked if he was going with Ohio State and responded instinctively, “No, I don’t do that,” but then backed it up by saying that if he thought so, with them having the top odds, he would.

He paused, however, then ultimately picked Notre Dame and not OSU. While that may have Buckeye Nation pile on him again, he is unbiased and intentional with his picks more often than not. Never fear, though, Ohio State fans, because two of the panel did pick Ohio State. Everyone’s favorite linebacker on the show, A.J. Hawk, picked his alma mater to win it all, and so did producer and Iowa grad Ty Schmit.

You can listen to the short segment here.