Kirk Herbstreit Headlined Gop Fundraiser Weeks After Claiming He Doesn’t ‘get Into Politics’

College GameDay became the subject of heavy scrutiny last month after the weekly college football roadshow hosted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for a discussion on the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA), legislation he sponsored, without offering any perspective from critics of the bill.

The interview, conducted by host Rece Davis, more or less resembled an infomercial for the bill rather than a balanced analysis of what impacts the legislation would have on college sports. Later, it was revealed that ESPN lobbied for the legislation, and Awful Announcing exclusively reported that the network’s chairman, Jimmy Pitaro, participated in calls with the bill’s architect, Texas Tech megabooster Cody Campbell, to advocate for changes to the legislation that would benefit ESPN.

Suffice it to say, the criticism against ESPN and College GameDay‘s coverage of the bill came fast and furious. But in the immediate aftermath, GameDay star Kirk Herbstreit, who did not participate in the Cruz interview, feigned ignorance about Cruz’s political orientation, as well as U.S. politics broadly speaking.

“I don’t really get into politics. I’m kind of an independent guy, right down the middle of the fairway. I’m for America,” Herbstreit told reporters the week following the highly criticized interview. “So whoever helps us as a country, I’m for. Whether that’s somebody on the left, somebody on the right. So I don’t really follow it. I don’t know anything about [Cruz’s] political views; I don’t know what he’s for or against. I care about football and my family and my faith and my country. Those are things that I love. So I don’t really pick sides. And I was surprised. I didn’t know what his deal was. So him being booed, I had to ask people, ‘What’s going on here?’”

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit comments on Ted Cruz’s controversial appearance on “College GameDay.”

Cruz appeared as a guest speaker on Sept. 12, where he promoted The Protect College Sports Act. The promotion drew criticism — with viewers pointing to a lack of an opposing viewpoint. https://t.co/19bAiKiRFb

— Mississippi Today (@MSTODAYnews) September 18, 2026

A number of observers immediately called out some inconsistencies in Herbstreit’s comments. People pointed to previous social media posts he made about Cruz during the 2016 Republican primary, where he wrote he did not “like the vibe of Cruz,” adding, “too much BS.” Some also pointed to accounts Herbstreit follows on X, including several prominent right-wing voices like Kash Patel, Megyn Kelly, and Tomi Lahren, as evidence that he does, in fact, have an eye towards American politics.

But perhaps the most damning evidence yet to contradict Herbstreit’s assertion that he doesn’t “get into politics” was reported by David Covucci in his FOIAball newsletter on Wednesday. Per Covucci, Herbstreit recently “headlined the signature fundraising dinner for the second-biggest PAC in Alabama, which funneled $155,000 to [Republican Senator] Tommy Tuberville’s [gubernatorial] campaign the very next day.”

The event, which took place on Oct. 21, served as a fundraiser for the Business Council of Alabama’s political action committee, Progress PAC. Covucci reports that since 2024, Progress PAC has given $2.6 million to Republican candidates in Alabama while giving $260,000 to Democrats in that same time period. Covucci also indicates that the vast majority of Democrats that Progress PAC supports are running unopposed.

Sponsorships for the event Herbstreit served as the keynote for ran upwards of $50,000, with “big-ticket donors” getting to participate in a roundtable with Herbstreit. Covucci cites that between Sept. 1 and Oct. 19, 22 donations to Progress PAC “matched the sponsorship levels” listed for Herbstreit’s event, which totaled $410,000.

The Business Council of Alabama has been very outward in its support of Tommy Tuberville’s gubernatorial campaign, launching a “Coach Means Business” initiative, creating a website, and purchasing billboards for the sitting senator.

The implication in Covucci’s report is that even a baseline level of awareness would essentially guarantee that Herbstreit knew he was speaking at an event in support of conservative candidates in Alabama.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that Herbstreit has seemingly deceived the public with comments designed to get him out of sticky situations. Remember last year when he bizarrely claimed it was his son, not him, posting on the X account that bears his name? It didn’t take much to debunk that one. Similarly here, it’s quite clear that Herbstreit is at least somewhat engaged in U.S. politics, he just doesn’t want to admit it for whatever reason.

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