Honestly, as much as I truly believe (and have heard from people who would know) that there is a bit of a rift between Herbie and OSU, I do like what he does on/for ESPN outside of his unnecessary jabs at his alma mater (note the word "unnecessary"). He does his research and is well-spoken but his anti-OSU sentiment is bothersome given his history (he was a captain here for fuck's sake).
Since you're owning up to saying you think his opinion is objective, let's focus on his final AP vote. Since I don't feel like typing too much more on the matter take a look at this article pointing out some truly puzzling rankings from his final AP ballot...
http://theozone.net/football/2011/herbstreitballot.html
And the only somewhat public explanation from Herbie thus far is that he was half asleep when he filled out his ballot. I say semi-public because I believe that was texted to Bruce Hooley then Hooley said it on the air.
Fowler, who must have been half asleep with Herbie, was the other person to vote us 9th in the final AP poll (the lowest rankings out of any voters in the AP poll - every single other voter in the country had us higher). His explanations on Twitter have been high comedy. Said we were lucky to win the Sugar Bowl (can't entirely disagree with that considering what happened in the 2nd half) then justified having Alabama ahead of us in his final poll by citing the fact that they were up 24-0 on Auburn... a game they ended up choking away and losing. It's really pretty incredible all around.