ESPN announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman don't like the way some people are talking about the new 12-team College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas State and Ohio State all won their opening matchups with relative ease, but some are unhappy with how the new format has taken hold.
Fellow ESP player Kirk Herbstreit said at one point after Indiana's blowout loss to the Fighting Irish that “this wasn't the team that should have been on that field.”
But Buck and Aikman don't feel the same way, and the two defended this year's development on CFP during a break from the Packers-Saints game on “Monday Night Football.”
“I think the people who are disappointed are the people who want to question whether those teams can make the playoffs.” Eichman said. “I don't think it's fair to anyone to make a comment like that after the fact and after a loss as devastating as they did. A team that loses by a wide margin in the Super Bowl. And they were worth it. So hats off to the winners, and really all the teams, whether they lost last week or not.”
Buck, an Indiana State alumnus, chimed in on the topic, saying the negative chatter doesn't diminish how “terribly proud” Indiana State alumni are after the past year they've had. Ta.
“And I think what that does is it diminishes the work done by the winning team,” Buck said. “That's the case with Notre Dame and Penn State and the job they did to win those games. I mean, it's a sport. And not everyone gets to play their best game every night. It was a fun university life.
Buck compared this conversation to the conversations fans have each year during March Madness and the frustration some fans end up having about who succeeded and who failed.
“You could probably get 100 teams involved and there would still be people who would be upset.” Buck added.
The College Football Playoff resumes on New Year's Eve, with No. 6 Penn State facing No. 3 Boise State.
