College Football Playoff: Kirk Herbstreit gets emotional on ESPN after Ohio State's win over Notre Dame

Kirk Herbstreit couldn’t help but get emotional in the broadcast booth on Monday night.

The longtime ESPN college football announcer, who has become one of the key voices in the sport the past few decades, had a pretty good reason. His Buckeyes had just won a national championship.

Herbstreit was on the call with Chris Fowler for Ohio State’s 34-23 win over Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff championship game on Monday night. The Buckeyes rolled over the Fighting Irish early at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and then held on down the stretch for one final push to secure their first title since 2014.

Herbstreit was talking with Fowler and Scott Van Pelt after the win, and he had to pause while talking about his former team’s championship.

Van Pelt and Fowler then kept going, and Herbstreit grabbed a tissue to wipe his eyes.

Herbstreit was born in Ohio, and then spent four seasons playing for the Buckeyes as their quarterback from 1989-1992. He was the starter and team captain as a senior, too, when he threw for 1,904 yards and four touchdowns. His dad both played and coached at Ohio State, including when they won a national championship during the 1960 season, and one of his kids is a walk-on tight end with the program.

Naturally, like Van Pelt noted, the connections for Herbstreit are there.

With his long-running ties to the program — and after seeing how Ohio State rallied after losing to Michigan at the end of the regular season, which kept them out of the Big Ten championship game — it’s hard to blame Herbstreit for getting emotional.

Then on Tuesday, Herbstreit revealed that there was more going on in his life that led to his emotion. He told ESPN's Pat McAfee that his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer in recent months.