The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Alabama & Clemson go down, what next? Michigan jumps Ohio State in Klatt’s Top 10

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt discusses the biggest games and storylines from Week 10. Joel shares his thoughts on Georgia’s statement win over Tennessee before getting into who benefits most from Clemson and Alabama’s losses in the chase for a College Football Playoff spot. Joel also explains what those results mean for these two programs going forward. Then, Joel explains why he moved Michigan over Ohio State in his top 10 rankings this week. Finally, Joel discusses Oregon’s 8-game winning streak since their blowout loss to Georgia in the season opener, and he questions why Oregon scheduled to play Georgia in the first place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tuggan finally gets some time, Gus. And watch, he's trying to attack that zone deep in the right middle of the field. He gets the time and now he's able to get into that throw. And it's a beautiful route. And there's the completion and the touchdown. And Davis walks in. Hey, hey, what's going on? Joel Clatt here.

It is the Joel Clatt show. I am super excited about this week because we just had an epic week of college football. listen, every week I feel like every Saturday gets a little better as the season goes on, and that's certainly how I felt last week. So there is so much to get to. Remember, if you are new to the show, thank you for joining us here at the Joel Class Show. If you haven't left us a review or rated the podcast, go ahead and do that, subscribe to the podcast so you know exactly when they hit and they'll be right there for you, wherever we get your podcast. And just remember always, Wednesday, Wednesday, and Thursday here during the season.

So we've got a lot to get to, okay? There was some epic games and some epic matchups. Before I get into really the meat of what I want to talk about, the big winner of the day, Georgia. How about that? You know, Georgia, you guys are in a class of yourselves at this point. And Georgia fans should be elated with the way that everything happened on Saturday specifically because of all the big ones.

winners from Saturday, and there are many, and I'll go through them all. Georgia seems to have done all but cemented themselves into the college football playoff again this year. So that's what that win over Tennessee did for Georgia in Athens. Now, you don't see Georgia losing before potentially the SEC championship game. And at this point, it's a lot like last year and you're probably in even if you lose that game. So the Georgia Bulldogs, big winners from the day, their defense way motivated to play that Tennessee team. And I didn't know if they were going to,

if they were able to, or going to be able to, produce the pressure necessary to beat Tennessee. And they did it. Okay, they had 10 sacks coming into the game on the year, and they had six just on Saturday. So the pressure is what ultimately did it. Tennessee's offense could not do anything, really, for the first time all year. The Heisman Trophy front runner, favorite, if you want to call him, that Hinden Hooker, did not have a great day.

That opens that race completely up. More on that during the course of the week here on the Joel Clachio. But Georgia was the big winner of the weekend. There's no doubt about it. You can put them basically in Penn in the college football playoff, and they are the team to beat. That's why on my rankings, I put one, Georgia, and then I put a big gap, and then two through the rest. So let's get to the rest, because there's a lot going on, and there's a lot that we've got to discuss about who was Saturday

good for, who was it bad for, and what does it all mean? So let's get things started with Clemson and Alabama. Here we go. Snap the Daniels, spread out, throw to the right, caught, right corner of the end zone. Mason Taylor, Tigers win. What a scene, what a scene, what a scene. And I got to I mean, it makes college football great. You get done watching that game and you're just like, I love college football. Tweeted it out. A lot of you agreed. Love college football.

That was everything that you want. And by the way, the second time this year, we see this epic game in an SEC environment involving Alabama. So Alabama goes down. Clemson also goes down in primetime on Saturday to Notre Dame. So now you've got these two teams, right? Let's think about what happened on Saturday. And a lot of you were reacting to it, by the way. on social media on Saturday.

It's like there was a lot of elation about, oh, finally, we got a year without Clemson and Alabama. They're done. They're out of the playoff. Oh, yeah, this is great. All right, all right. Well, why have you felt that way? Because these two teams have totally dominated the landscape. So what did it all mean?

Okay. So first and foremost, you have to wonder yourself. Well, are they out? I don't know if they're totally out. maybe one more than the other, but there's small pathways and cracks in there for both Alabama and Clemson. But the fact remains is that these two teams have totally dominated college football during the college football playoff era. Seven appearances in the playoff out of eight years for Alabama. Six appearances in the playoff out of eight years for Clemson.

Ohio State and OU have four. Nobody else has more than two. Georgia and Notre Dame and then a lot of teams with one. appearance, right? So nobody has been dominating this sport like these two teams, more on those numbers in a little bit. So you have to wonder to yourself like, well, who does this help? Okay, so if Clemson and Alabama might be falling by the wayside, who does this help? Well, I think there was one team in particular on Saturday that probably should be more happy than any other because their path got totally cleaned up in front of them. I was in Fort Worth, Texas, getting ready to call

that TCU game. And the conversations that I kept having with frog vans and even people within the program were like, hey, do we control our own destiny to get to the playoff? And I was honest with him, just like I was honest with you last week. And I said, I don't know. I don't know if you do because at this point, the committee clearly values at that point Alabama and even Clemson without the resume, Clemson didn't have the resume, over what TCU was doing. So even if, TCU were to win out, all things being equal, it was a question. There was going to be a debate at the end. And I'm not saying that there won't be a debate at the end now, but boy, doesn't it seem a lot cleaner for the TCU horn frogs? Those frogies all the sudden have a clean path to the playoff.

You can, I think, argue that now with only the potential of three Power 5 conferences, having an undefeated champion at the end, the SEC with the potential of Georgia, the Big Ten with the potential of either Ohio State or Michigan, and now the Big 12 with the potential of TCU, the bottom line is, I don't think that the committee will leave out a Power 5 champion that's undefeated if there's only three undefeated Power 5 champions. So you get what I'm saying here, Saturday was great for TCU, great for them. They come back. It was a little harder than maybe you would expect against Texas Tech, but that's the Big 12. Remember, there's not a lot of margin between every one of these teams.

And so now I think TCU can clearly say, if we win, we are in. Now, that's going to be really difficult. Why is that going to be difficult? Well, they go to Texas, two Baylor, and then they host Iowa State. They likely lose one of those. I think that they clearly go to the Big 12 championship game, but when you're talking about the playoff, that is a really tough road. In particular, those two road games.

And what I would consider the other two best teams in the conference, at Texas and at Baylor. Quentin Johnston has got to get healthy for them, their wide receiver, in order for them to run that table and be an undefeated Power 5 champ for that clean path. So that was number one. Who did the Clemson and Alabama loss help? Number one, TCU. Number two, Tennessee. Tennessee, regardless of what happened in Athens. You look at it now, and from my perspective, Tennessee has a pretty clean path to the playoff. Why? Well, there's only three potential undefeated Power 5 champs. It's kind of the exact same argument I was just given for TCU.

It cleans it up because now there is an argument for number four regardless of what happens. Tennessee is going to be in that argument. If you're 11 and 1 with your only loss to Georgia in Athens, there's absolutely an argument there for Tennessee. In fact, I think that their playoff hopes are about as equal. as they were going into the game, as an undefeated, as the number one team in the playoff rankings. They still have a great win against Alabama at home. And this is still a team that even if they, you know, if they win out at 11 and 1, I think they have a great chance. They avoid, by the way, and this is the big one, they avoid the Bama, Georgia SEC championship game.

So why is it helping Tennessee so much? What happened on Saturday is because they avoid that one-lossed Bama SEC title, with Georgia being a one-loss non-champ. And then it's like, are we really going to include a third team from one conference? See, I don't think the committee would do that personally. And because of that, now it cleans it up for Tennessee. They're clearly going to be the second team from the SEC so long as Georgia goes in there. and takes care of business, let's say, against MNLSU in that SEC championship game.

So that's number two. The third group that it really helped out, Clemson and Alabama's loss, was the Pact 12. And I think that that's pretty evident. It helps Georgia, or, excuse me, Oregon, clearly. It helps UCLA and it helps USC. Now, if you're just going to look at it from a Pact 12 perspective, yeah, their path is, I think, a little more clearly defined now. But you can also say and argue UCLA and USC might have a better chance than Oregon. Now, that's not suggesting that I think they're better than Oregon.

I'm saying that they may have a better chance than Oregon. Only because in the event that this Pac-12 ends with a one-lost champ, if it's USC or UCLA, they don't have the Georgia game hanging over their head like Oregon does. See, because if Oregon is that team, if they're the one lost Pac-12 champ, all else being equal, let's just say, sake of argument, that the two teams being argued for in that 4-5 slot are Oregon and Tennessee. Well, I don't know what to tell you. I think Oregon might lose that argument.

Now, I don't agree with that. I think that we should be taking and honoring championships, but the committee over the last eight years has not been very consistent. they don't honor championships when they should, and they tend to be a little bit brand biased. Now, I'm not saying Oregon and Tennessee are all that different as it relates to brands, but I am telling you that one conference and their brand clearly wins the day in that argument, and that would be Tennessee. So I think Oregon still has some work, but boy, UCLA and USC is a one loss, Pac-12 champ.

I think they would win the argument over a Clemson team that basically has no resume at this point. And so it clearly opens up a path for the PAC 12. So the three groups that were most happy with what happened in South Bend and then down in LSU, where TCU, Tennessee, and the PAC 12. There is a fourth group, but it's not a specific group. I think it's a more overarching group. And the overarching group is, I think, the college football playoff, and maybe even you could argue college football as a whole. I'm not in the business of saying, like,

it's better for the sport when the big brands lose, but I will tell you, I think it's better for the health of the playoff if we start to get more participants in the playoff. I just showed you the numbers earlier. These two teams, Clemson and Alabama, have totally dominated the last eight years and good on them and good for them. I'm rooting for them to always be great, okay? But at the same time, when you have a year in which you could see,

hey, we might get some new blood. I do think that that's good because I've argued, and I think correctly, that there are too many fan bases that feel marginalized on the outside of the top into college football. And I think the more teams and fan bases and programs that we can bring into the fold, the better. That's just kind of point-blank period for me. So when you look at Alabama and Clemson, there have been 32 spots available in playoffs so far over the eight years. They've occupied 13 of those spots. 13. That's 41% of possible playoff spots have gone to two teams.

They've represented 10 of 16 spots in championship games in the Natty. That's 63% and they've represented five of eight titles. Good on them. I'm telling you that's what they should be doing. They should be trying to dominate. That's 63% of championship game spots and 63% of the titles so far in the last eight years. All I'm saying is like, hey, it's not bad for the whole of the sport, for the global aspect of the sport, if more people start getting involved, right? I think that it could be decent in that respect, to have a little bit of new blood, to have more teams with skin in the game as we get in the middle of November and then ultimately into the end of November.

So that's who those losses were good for. but what does it mean for those two programs? I just talked to you about the dominance of those two programs. So where are they going? Where are they headed? What does it mean for Clemson and Alabama? Well, let's look at that for a moment. I want to look at it from the Alabama perspective first.

So the tide loses the second game this year. They're not going to win the national championship, it looks like. Looks like they're not going to win their division. And it looks like they're not going to win the SEC. Now, could they? Yeah, maybe. Like, there's small paths there, okay? The door is not completely shut. But what I did see a little bit on social media and listening to some other things out there was everyone's closing the gap on Alabama. Oh, this is a clear shift in the tenure of Nick Saban at Alabama. The prowess of Alabama. I totally disagree. I totally disagree. I totally disagree.

I think Alabama is going to be just fine. Just fine. Look what it just took to beat Alabama. Now, you can say, well, it's been twice. Yeah, I get it. Look at the three road environments that it took to threaten Alabama this year. 105,000 attended the game in Austin, Texas. Alabama still won.

101,000 attended the game at 10,000. Tennessee. And they needed a kick to go over the crossbar by a foot after Bama missed a kick in order to get a win. 120,000 attend the game in Death Valley on Saturday night. And they need a two-point conversion attempt in the first overtime to beat Alabama. Folks, like, Alabama's going to be okay. Alabama is still Alabama. It takes. It takes a lot. It takes. It. It takes unbelievable venues and great performances from elite teams that have to scratch by by a play or a kick here or there in order to beat them. They're going to be okay. And this isn't even a great Alabama team.

They don't have the wide receivers that they've had, nor will have. I don't think their offensive line is quite what their offensive line has been or will be in the future. you think Nick Saban is not going to recruit at the level necessary to rebuild those two areas of his football team? You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind. Alabama is going to be just fine. The average of those three attendance is 103,000, by the way. So they're one and two in those three road environments.

Guess what? Last year, guess what it took to beat Alabama? $100,000 in college station and a kick that just went in the upright. And then it took Georgia, historically great defense, in a national championship game environment. Like it's still not easy to beat Alabama folks. They're not going anywhere. Clemson, on the other hand, I don't quite feel as confident about Clemson. Why is that?

Well, people are like, you're a Clemson hater. Nope, not at all. Absolutely not. In fact, I thought Clemson was on one of the more historic runs. It just happened to coincide with a Bama run. But the Clemson run that we saw over those few years with Deshawn Watson and Trevor Lawrence, That was as good a run of college football as we've seen in a long time. And it's incredibly hard to sustain that.

And I do think that Clemson has clearly fallen down a little bit from what they were when they were winning those national championships in that heyday run against Alabama. It seemed like every other year. I'm concerned because of the teams that they're losing to and the teams that are playing them close. It doesn't take those 100,000 seat environments and a kick that barely goes in. And like it doesn't take that. It doesn't take the two-point conversion in the first overtime from a good LSU team. I mean, look at their last three losses when you look at Clemson. They lost at Notre Dame who lost to Stanford and Marshall in that stadium this season.

They lost to Pitt. They lost to North Carolina State. Those are the last three losses for the Clemson Tigers. Doesn't that ring a little bit different than Bama's three losses? LSU at LSU at Tennessee and Georgia and the Natty? Right? Like it rings a little bit different. By the way, they lose to Notre Dame,

and they played one possession games and wins against Syracuse, Florida State, and Wake? Right? Like, it's just, it's different. You've got to be playing at the top end of college football to play with or even try to beat Alabama. That's not the case with this Clemson team. They are not good enough right now on the offensive.

line and they're not good enough at quarterback. And the numbers bear that out. The data bears it out. Clemson's offensive line is not playing very well. Over the course of the last two years, okay, when you look at this year, they're 54th in yards per carry in the country. That's

not good enough. Last year, they were 56th in yards per carry. So they're not even in the top 50 in yards per carry. You cannot be that and be elite. I just, I totally disagree with the notion that you can be a non-running team and beat an elite college football program

because that's what we're comparing them against. Not if they're good. Yeah, Clemson's good. They're not elite right now. So they've clearly fallen down a step from where they were. Their quarterback situation unsettled. I had people take off on me on Twitter.

Like, how can you call their quarterback situation unsettled? Well, they continue to pull their quarterback in order to try to come back from deficits against teams that I don't think are very good. And it didn't work on Saturday night. Didn't work on Saturday night. By the way, that game wasn't particularly, close and that's a Notre Dame team that's totally one-dimensional, cannot throw the football very well,

and ran it effectively against a Clemson defensive front that we thought was the strength of their team. Clemson has clearly fallen down a notch from where they were at at the heyday of their run under Davos-Sweeney. I can't say the same for Alabama. Alabama's going to be fine. Look what it took to beat Alabama in their last three and in particular in the last two this year. Last thing I would say on these two teams. Bama has this weird crack in the in the path right. LSU loses all a sudden they get in and if they win the SEC championship game over a team like Georgia, they would probably still get in. So like there's this meandering path still for Alabama that keeps them alive. And I know that, you know, people are like, no way. Yes. Yes way.

Clemson, even with a loss, with that resume? Absolutely not. All right, committee? Absolutely not. They were going to be a really bad participant as an undefeated this year, much less a team that actually lost a game. Okay, like, Clemson's done. Committee, put them out of their misery.

Their resume is not very good. They're not very good in the eye test. Nothing keeps them in the loop. Nothing keeps them with hope except for the ghost of Deshawn Watson and Hunter Renfro and Trevor Lawrence. And those guys aren't walking through the door. Okay? Clemson this year, this Clemson team is done. Absolutely done.

All right, let's move on. Michigan, Ohio State. Why did I change them in the rankings? Here we go. And the ball game is over. As the two teams leave their sidelines and go to shake hands, Michigan improves to 9 and 0 on the season with a year. 52 to 17 win and stays on a collision course with Ohio State.

All right, so Michigan and Ohio State clearly on a collision course at the end of the month. And I sat there and watched those games and I've watched a little bit of the film already today of those two teams. And here's the deal. I moved Michigan ahead of Ohio State in my poll. Now, you could say like, well, it's the weather. Okay, I understand that. But there is a truth right now about what I believe about

these two teams. There's my top 10. Georgia, clearly. Michigan 2, Ohio State 3, TCU4, Tennessee 5, Oregon 6, LSU 7, Bama 8, UCLA 9, Utah 10. That's my top 10. So, Michigan goes

above Ohio State. Why? Here's why. Ohio State may have the higher ceiling, but Michigan Michigan has the higher floor at this point. And I hear you, Buckeye fans, about the weather on Saturday. I hear you. And I, by the way, I understand it better than you do.

In 2005, I had to play a game against Iowa State in which there was a tornado. Not just like, hey, you know, we played the cyclones. No, no, no. There was a tornado delay before the game. So we delayed the game for about an hour. And then we had to roll out there. And it was like 35 mile an hour wind right in our face in the first quarter. So I get it.

I get it better than you do. But here's the problem. Here's the problem, Buckeye fans. You play in the Big Ten. There are going to be elements. There are going to be elements. You see, we shouldn't be sitting here with one of the most talented rosters in all of college football. With an offensive line that's experienced and as big as what Ohio State is,

with an offense that can produce the run game that it has under Ryan Day, we should not be sitting here. And Buckeye fans should not be sitting here furiously updating their weather apps checking on November 26th. Because that's what's going on. Ohio State does not run the ball well enough, and they're not tough enough on the line of scrimmage on the offensive side to overcome the weather. Their passing game is unbelievable.

It's the best in the country. All due respect to Tennessee, it's the best in the country. And yet, if they cannot play a physical game in the elements, then who knows? So you've got to check the weather. So now Buckeye fans are just crashing weather.com. or whatever site you use for November 26. Like, when are we going to get a forecast? When are we going to get a forecast on November 26?

And that's not how it should be. What happens if the weather is bad that day? You see, if the weather's bad that day, I know exactly what I'm going to get from Michigan. Because rain or shine, wind or no wind, dome, no dome, turf, grass, I know exactly what I'm going to get from Michigan.

And it might not be the seventh gear that I've argued that Ohio State has. but I know I'm getting fifth or sixth gear every single time. And so it's that consistency. It's that offensive line play that leads me to put them at number two. Now, I don't think that or I don't know exactly the team that I would pick, and I'm not going to make a pick, obviously calling that game. But at this point, like, Michigan's probably kind of earned it.

Like you can't go do that against Northwestern. I don't care what the elements are doing. If the elements are like that against Northwestern, a one-win team, their only win in week zero in Ireland against Nebraska, you should run the ball for 300 yards. You should run it 55 or 60 times for 300, 350 yards and they should not be able to stop you. You're Ohio State. And the bottom line is the offensive line can't play that way or at least hasn't played that way. They need to get better in the run game. Their offensive line has to improve.

And I think even the most hardened Buckeye fans would agree with that. Let's just put it this way. I'm more concerned for Ohio State in the next three games than I would be for their potential last three games. So they're going to play Indiana in the shoe this weekend. I'm coming into town, by the way. Fun, fun week to have this take, Joel, going to Columbus. Buckeye fans, listen, you and I both know that this is true. Everything that I'm saying is true. You play in the shoe this weekend, Maryland next week, and then back in the shoe against Michigan.

I'm more worried about those three weeks because of elements. I mean, who's like, what happens if you get a torrential rain? What happens if you get the wind again? And it's not a one-win Northwestern team that you can kind of like, oh, ugly by 21 to 7. What happens if it is a team like Michigan on November 26th? That doesn't care what's going on with the weather and plays on their terms and is consistent, right? Like, you've got a problem all the sudden.

So I'm more concerned in those three weeks than I would be for them in a dome in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game or let's say like the Fiesta Bowl in a college football playoff semifinal down in Glendale at Arizona in a dome or in a national championship in L.A. and SoFi Stadium. Like in those three environments, heck, Ohio State, I'd put you up against anybody. In fact, I'd love to see it. I'd love to see Ohio State play Georgia.

I think those are the two best teams at the top end in the country right now. So I'd love to see it. But can you get there? I don't know. I don't know. Because the offensive line is not good enough to sit there and play a physical run-oriented game. They have to throw the ball.

It was laid bare against Iowa. It was laid bare against Penn State. And to some degree, even though they averaged five yards, a carry, it was laid bare against Northwestern. Like, you've got to go out there and just dominate them, right? Like, you should be able to do that, and they didn't do that. Michigan is a little bit more consistent. They're also a team that has been totally dominant. They have not been tied or they have not trailed in any fourth quarter all season.

So why is Michigan up there at number two? Well, it's because of that. And the bottom line is, I know Ohio's, State has a lot of money, but guess what? In the next two weeks, three weeks before November 26th, you can't build a roof over the shoe. And so checking the weather app, that's a tough, proposition. That's a tough proposition. Michigan 2, Ohio State 3, at least for now. Last thing before we get going tonight, scheduling. Go ahead. Final score of 49 to 10. Boy, they take that score off the board in a hurry.

The ducks with a victory, 4910 over Colorado. All right, so Oregon goes in and just like, you know, beats up my buffs and like that's all well and good. This Oregon team is really good. Bo Nix has played outstanding ever since they've got beat by Georgia, which leads me to this last kind of point during this show. Why in the hell did Oregon agree to go play Georgia?

Georgia and Atlanta. Like scheduling matters a great deal. It might be one of the only things that matter. Like college football has become about recruiting and scheduling. Honestly, like recruiting and scheduling. Do you have the requisite talent and are the games played in the right spot? And this year is a case study in that fact. schedules are made really by two means, by choice and by draw. Okay? And the choice part

becomes the part that is, I think, most fascinating for me. This game, Oregon played against Georgia in Atlanta, by the way, which is just a road game. It's a road game. You might, like, go play them in Athens and have them come back to Eugene. They did a one-off, quote-unquote, neutral site with Georgia. not reciprocated, at least to my knowledge, up to this point, that they agreed to play at the end of 2018. So they do this game, they scheduled in 2018, right after Georgia had played for the national championship.

So they know Georgia's really good. They're recruiting at a high level, and they're like, yeah, we'll come down and play in one of those kickoff games in Atlanta. Oh, like, what are we doing? doing? Because here is a fact about this season. If Oregon would have just played Hawaii in week one, in Eugene, fill up your stadium, play Hawaii. They'd be number two or three in college football right now. And on the smooth sailing road to the college football playoff,

that game did nothing but hurt them. There was no real. reason and no benefit to playing that game. None. Scheduling matters. I have no idea why they did that. By the way, you could say the same for Utah. Utah is doing a home and home with Florida. Way to go. You went and played in the swamp. Guess what you get for it. No path to the college football playoff. None. Texas has to go to Alabama next year. Good luck making the playoff going to Alabama. Why is that? So like, why is that, Joel? Why do you just say that right now? By the way, Florida, going to Utah next year, they're going to Salt Lake. Well, good luck. You could make a magical run through the SEC. You're likely to have at least a loss. Why? Because you're going on the road

to a good quality opponent. And this is where the draw matters. So you can choose your non-conference opponents and clearly Oregon shows poorly, but then the draw within your league. Look at the discrepancy between what's going on in your home games. and your road games if you're a good quality team in college football. I touched on it a little bit last week, but look at these numbers. And by the way, how about this last weekend? Notre Dame at home, they get a win. Georgia at home, they get a win.

LSU at home, they get a win. Case study, case study. There have been seven this year, top 10 matchups that we've gotten in college football. Do you know the road team? Guess, wait for it. Oh, and seven in those games. There have been 11 top 15 matchups in college football this year. Guess what the road team's record is.

One and 10, the only win in the top 15 matchup so far is Ohio State at Penn State. So what are we doing? What are we doing as far as scheduling goes? well, you got to have the right schedule when it comes to your conference draw, but you better choose to play the correct schedule in the non-conference. And that's not good. This is why, folks, this is why we've got to expand the playoff so that we can incorporate and play these games in the non-conference

so that we can have these games in the non-conference. And yet, there's still a clearly defined path to the postseason for anybody that plays those games in the non-conference. because right now these teams are not being rewarded for taking or playing these games. They're not. And you can say to yourself like, well, what if Oregon were to beat Georgia? But they're not going to, right? Because look at the numbers, seven top 10 matchups.

Road team, 0 and 7. You just don't beat good teams on the road. So why agree to go play them in those environments, even in home and homes? Because then you're flipping a coin based on the year of where you're going. Alabama. What did I tell you about earlier this year or earlier in this episode? At Texas, 105,000, at Tennessee, 101,000, at LSU, 102,000. They got screwed by the draw and the choice.

So they lose those two games in that regard. The schedule matters in college football. And that's why we need an expansion of this playoff. We need the defined path to get to the conference championship game and to win your conference so that we can still have these games in the non-conference because right now there's no incentive to playing them and ADs are going to stop scheduling them. Even, by the way, Ohio State and Notre Dame, so they play in this year in the non-conference. Is that really helping Ohio State all that much right now?

No, because you beat them and it's like, well, they're no good. They've got a loss. This sport just doesn't lend itself to those matchups. So in order to keep them, we need to defy. find the path to the postseason. I think that's a critical, critical part to all of this. Schedules matter, folks. And in a sport in which we're all chasing after one championship, we all play very different schedules. Very different. Utah and Oregon are playing basically six true road games this year apiece, while Michigan and Ohio State are playing four

true road games apiece. We need to fix that. We need to fix that. And I think we can do it through the expansion and through a couple of other means that I've talked about before, but that can be fixed and hopefully should be and will be in the future. Okay, so that's going to do it for this episode. I'll be back on Wednesday morning. Remember, full college football playoff rankings reaction. So I will tape that right after they release those rankings. I will release that to you on Wednesday.

Make sure to tell a friend about the show. Make sure to come back and subscribe, rate, review us, so that we have all that. If you want to follow me on social media, I'm Joel Clatt, at Joel Clad on Twitter, at Joel underscore Clat on Instagram, and you can follow this show on all the social media platforms at Joel Clatt Show.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching if you're watching out there. Gotta love this sport. It was a great Saturday. I hope you love these thoughts, and we'll do it again on Wednesday morning.