ESPN Analyst Calls Out Media for Hypocrisy in Promoting Outdated Practices in College Football

Should a team be ranked according to their performance in the last season? Of course. But what happens if some factors haven’t been considered while ranking college football teams? Chaos ensues. The best examples of teams who are currently suffering from this outdated ranking system are the Michigan Wolverines and Florida State Seminoles. Let’s hear from Matt Barrie who didn’t hold himself back from criticizing the media.

Michigan and FSU may have been two of the best-performing teams in 2023. So the AP Poll had them on No. 2 and No. 8, respectively in the preseason poll in August. But this season proved to be a nightmare for both the highly-rated programs. On November 18, ESPN College Football uploaded an episode on the Matt Barrie Show on YouTube. In the video, Barrie slammed the media responsible for the ranks saying, “They didn’t think to look at Michigan’s roster before kick and realize that the star quarterback NFL, the star running back NFL, most of the offensive line NFL, handful of guys on defense NFL, the coach that built it into a national power NFL and took half the coaching staff with him.”

We all know the Michigan Wolverines were in good hands under Jim Harbaugh last season despite the allegations that were hurled at them. With elite players like J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corum, among others playing, Michigan was able to beat Alabama to become the National Champions. But following the successful run, 12 players were drafted into the league, and Harbaugh left for the NFL, taking Jesse Minter and Ben Herbert, who had been instrumental in Michigan’s championship run.

Matt Barrie then called out the media saying that they placed Michigan Wolverines on the top five because “it was Michigan and they’re defending national champions rather than objectively look at them instead of the logo and last year’s top 10 team.” Now what’s happening? The preseason top 2 team is suffering terribly under Sherrone Moore’s new roster going 5-5. They just faced a second straight loss to Indiana on Saturday after their fall to Oregon last week. The case is the same with Mike Norvell‘s Florida State. 

Florida State suffers similar Michigan fate

The snub last year seems to have affected Mike Norvell’s program in ways that can’t be comprehended. Florida State was undefeated but somehow they were snubbed from the College Football Playoffs. Why? Because their QB Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury late in the season. But they were still No. 8 in the preseason rankings. Of course, there are some factors that contribute to their backslide this season as Matt Barrie pointed out. 

Barrie said, “They didn’t think that Jordan Travis was gone, they didn’t think that Keon Coleman was gone. They didn’t think that a lot of those star players on defense, they didn’t look at any of that Johnny Wilson. There’s a lot of talent from that team gone NFL.” FSU produced 10 NFL players and three undrafted free agents this year. But performance-wise, they’ve fallen to the bottom with just one win in 10 games played. What hurts most for Michigan and FSU is the fact that they were not able to deliver the performance based on their preseason rankings. This leads us to wonder if this outdated ranking system is actually reliable.