The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - CFP Rankings Reaction, more Michigan news & Klatt’s Tiers of National Championship Contenders

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the latest news in the Michigan sign-stealing investigation before giving his thoughts on the second College Football Playoff Rankings release. He discusses whether there should have been movement among the undefeated teams in the Top 5 and why Alabama needs some help if they are going to make it to the Playoff. Klatt then updates his “Above the Line” National Championship contenders list, placing the top teams in the country into tiers based off his evaluation of each team. He wraps up the show with some Playoff-themed mailbag questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up on today's Joel Clatchel, we've got CFP rankings to react to, so we'll get to that. I'm going to revisit my above and below the line which teams can actually go win the national championship. And then the college football playoff rankings edition of the mailbag all coming up. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. I believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport,

over again. Hey, what's up everybody? Joel Clad here. This is the Joel Clat Show. This show is presented by Hampton by Hilton. Lots to get to today. Remember, subscribe wherever you are listening to this, wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe if you're on the YouTube channel as well. Comment, like below, do all the things. And if you're out there on social media, which I know that you are, go follow us at Joel Clat Show because we always have good content throughout the week in a little bit shorter form than it is right here. Lots to get into We've got another CFP rankings that we're going to react to. So we'll get to the top 25 as the committee gave them to us.

And then there's also been just quickly a little bit more news on the Michigan front. This story is not going away anytime soon, obviously. And if you're new to the program, you know that over the course of the last week or so, all I've done is urge that the process needs to run its course and that patients can't be confused with apathy at the this point. Now, as of this recording, I am right now sitting here on late Tuesday evening after the playoff committee gave us their rankings recording this. As of right now, there is no new news in the Michigan saga, if you want to call it that. There has been some reports that there's an imminent suspension and so on and so forth. As of right now, that has not taken place. As of right

now we do have some new developments in the story about a possible, you know, I guess, sign sharing operation that was going on in regards to Michigan's signs. There's been some reports out there that Ohio State was sharing with Rutgers and as well as Purdue, Michigan's signs. So as I was saying for the last week, the process needs to run its course. Why? Because this is all complicated, okay, because we don't always know all the information that everybody is privy to behind the scenes. So I think that the process needs to run its course. It needs to continue to run its course. Now, we might have something come down, you know, Wednesday. We might have something come down Tuesday or next week or after the season. I'm not sure. All I know

is that Tony Petiti is in a bind right now. That bind is and has been created by the lack of governance from the NCAA and what we know will be a slow process from the NCAA. So at this point moving forward, I just urge everyone like, hey, let's let it run its course. Let's get all the evidence out there. Let's let everybody respond to that evidence and then make a decision and move forward. And let's hope if and when rules were broken by anybody involved that they're held accountable. Okay. So now let's move on and get to some playoff rankings.

Let's see what the committee gave to us. top six remaining the same. Really, a lot of this remaining the same. So Ohio State still number one. Georgia is going to be number two, Michigan number three, and Florida State number four. So the same four teams in the same order as what we had in the first edition of the rankings. And then Washington and Oregon and the exact same spots that we had them last week.

So no change. Then you look further than that. You've got Texas at seven, Alabama at eight, and then you start getting some of the change up. Ole Miss goes to nine. Penn State, 10. Louisville 11. I stopped there because that's really where we draw some sort of invisible line just because we've never seen a two-loss team make the playoff, and I don't think that we're

going to see this year. It goes from Oregon State all the way down. Kansas State is number 25. They're at 6 and 3 after that loss to Texas. So let's get back into it up at the top. Okay. So no change. Ohio State goes on the road. They beat a 6 and 2 Rutgers team on the road conference play. Good for them. They still have what I think is arguably right now the best resume in the country. That's why they're number one. And this committee continues to do what they did a week ago, which was take like records, group them together, and then rank them within those like records. So all the undefeateds, rank them. All the one lost teams and then rank them. So you've got these undefeated and Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Florida State, and Washington are one through five.

My only question would just be like, isn't Washington's resume probably a little bit better than Florida States? I would say it probably is. Now, they've both struggled at times and they've struggled with teams that they shouldn't. I mean, face it, like Florida State should have played a lot better against Pitt. I get it. Coleman wasn't playing. Wilson wasn't playing. Yeah, that would make a huge difference for anybody, losing those two really talented offensive threats.

But the way that Washington went out there and played last weekend in what was an unbelievable game against USC, I thought there might be some movement there. If you're asking me, I think Florida State is probably right now the weakest of the undefeateds. Now, some people don't believe that. That's fine. This committee clearly doesn't believe that. I think Washington is at least with the Oregon win, probably better from a resident. a resume standpoint. But you know what? I mean, it remains to be seen how it's all going to play out in particular in that conference.

Meanwhile, Florida State, they have a very clear path to remain undefeated with their future schedule and winning the ACC, which would put them in. So it doesn't matter. What I think about Florida State doesn't matter. In fact, I think Florida State has the cleanest path and the most sure seat at the spot in the table of the playoff. at this point Florida State is the team that I'm most confident will be in the college football playoff.

Okay, I'm good for them because they did something in the first month that I didn't really believe that they were going to be able to do, which was beat both LSU, then Clemson. Didn't know Clemson was going to fall off the face of the planet, but they did. Good on Florida State. Jordan Travis has played well, and obviously when they're healthy on the outside,

boy, they are good offensively. They're good defensively as well. So that's a good football team. Then we get to the one-loss teams. Okay. And Oregon is 8-1. Texas is 8-1. Alabama is 8-1.

Ole Miss is 8-1. Penn State's 8-1. Louisville is 8-1. And at first blush, I'm like, okay, that looks fine. That looks great. And then I start to think to myself, well, hold on for a second. Because if you're just going to go by resume, which was clearly the case with Ohio State at the top, over Georgia and Michigan, then why isn't resume carrying the day for Texas?

because Texas has a better resume than Oregon, even though I think Oregon is really, really good. And you've heard me say that on this podcast. So I'm not knocking Oregon. I'm just outlining a few of the inconsistencies there because Texas has a better win, winning at Alabama in Tuscaloosa with the way that Alabama has looked, with the way that they just played against LSU,

how did Texas not get a little bit of a bump there and become the best one-lost team in the country? Not sure how that happens. they found a way and they did so with their backup quarterback over the defending Big 12 champions in Kansas State. Now you can say like, well, it was sluggish, well, it was this or that. Okay, you do it with your backup quarterback, you know. It's let's put it this way. If you ask Florida State, would you rather play without Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson or would you rather play without Jordan Travis?

They'd be like, oh, absolutely. I would rather play without Coleman and Wilson. because the quarterback is so much. So now with Quinn Ewers out, Texas was in a bit of a pinch. They played really well early, held on, got the win. With the win over Alabama, they probably should have been the best one-lost team in the country. Those are the two that I thought maybe would have moved up. Of all these teams in the top, you know, six, seven, eight,

I thought Texas was going to get a bump over Oregon. And I thought Washington might get a bump over Florida State. this committee just remains steadfast that it's like, okay, we're not going to do anything big. We're just going to continue to rank teams in their respective record pods. Now, that brings up my last point about like these rankings because there's not a lot here. There's not a lot of controversy here, not like previous years, not like previous years. Can you make arguments down there? Yeah, maybe, you know, maybe.

But the other point that I would just make is that when the committee does this and they just say your record is the main thing, regardless of schedule, they're telling everybody to stop scheduling anybody in the non-conference. Because the fact is the way that this committee is doing this, if Alabama schedules Texas State rather than Texas early in September, then Alabama's probably two or three in the country right now. Georgia and Michigan have played virtually nobody. Do we think that they're really good? Yes. There's no doubt. There's no doubt.

But if we continue to do this and rank teams like this and take the path of least resistance and just rank them in their record pods, there's some unintended consequences down the line. Namely being, look at Georgia and look at Michigan. They have played nobody. They've got really easy schedules. Now, that's changing here in November.

Both of these teams, the teeth of their schedule is going to be from this point moving on. And we'll see if they're able to play through that. But in the non-conference, they didn't do anything. Now, Georgia's, and I get it, all the Georgia fans will be like, well, we were supposed to play Oklahoma. That went away because of the conference re-alignment. I get that. But the bottom line is that there's no incentive to,

to play tough non-conference games if this is the way that the playoff committee is going to rank teams. And you could ask me like, well, wouldn't that go away in the 12-team playoff? Well, probably not. Probably not. Because if we're just going to incentivize record over everything else, all we're going to do is move the line down from between four and five to between 12 and 13. So now instead of being like, well, are you undefeated or do you have one loss?

Or do you have one loss or two losses? It's going to be, do you have three or four losses? So you look at some schedules like we're going to have next year when these super conferences and the SEC and the Big Ten arrive. Look at the Big Ten schedule. The Big Ten is going to become the new Pac-12. They're going to eat each other alive, which means there's going to be no incentive to play tough non-conference games. Next year, Michigan hosts Texas. With those two respective league schedules that those two programs are going to play,

what happens if they lose three league games? And then the loser of that game has a fourth loss. They're basically playing themselves out voluntarily. And that might be happening to Alabama. More on that in a little bit. So I'm just saying there are unintended consequences to having no controversy. When you take the path of least resistance and you rank teams just based on their record and not based on their resume, then what you're inviting is easier non-conference schedule.

Because if I'm a coach right now, anywhere in the country, I'm calling my AD after this one. After this just got released, I'm going to be like, yeah, yeah, pull every difficult game off my non-conference immediately, buy out of the games, immediately. That's what I'm doing. So, like, I'm hoping that's not the case, but that looks to be what's going to happen here in the future unless we figure out a different way. And what's the way? I'm not sure, by the way. what's the fix to this? Well, it's not going to be through an incentive in the playoff.

And I don't think that the committee moving forward, even in a 12-team playoff, is going to be able to fix this based on the way that they rank teams because you do have to still honor wins and losses. But what you do have to do is start playing a more similar schedule across the country. This is why, listen, the SEC should play nine conference games. We all know that. We all know that. but I also believe that at least one of your non-league games throughout the country should also be controlled by the CFP.

And we should be playing those based on where you finished in the previous season so that we can play and turn into more parity. So we can play more difficult schedules for the teams that are better. If you're a better team like in the NFL, you should be required to play a more difficult schedule than others. I don't think that that's controversial. And in fact, the people that would yell and scream about that being like not good for the sport, how? How is that not good for the sport?

So again, what are the unintended consequences of not having controversy in the playoff rankings? The fact that we're not going to have any great non-conference games. How do we fix that? It's not going to come through the committee. It's only going to become or become fixed. through standardized schedules that are made for the teams outside of their athletic directors. All right. Hey, it's my favorite time of year. November. I love November, by the way. It is football season, and it's the most important part of football season.

And as you know, I take it seriously, clearly. So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite team, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I stay. You know this. Wherever I go, I know that I can count on Hampton by Hilton, for sure. I can depend on their comfortable rooms, their warm and friendly service, and their free hot breakfast, as you know, is a game changer. I've been getting pictures, by the way, on social media.

Those of you that are out there taking a road trip, you're out of Hampton by Hilton and you're eating the breakfast and you're having the waffles, which I love, send me a picture on social media because it's awesome. And I've been getting some of those and I really appreciate that. Whether you're cheering on your team from the stands or never leaving the tailgate, Hampton by Hilton will always give you that win.

Okay, we need to revisit something that we used earlier in the season with the podcast. And I really enjoyed this back then because this season has given us more top-end caliber teams than I think we've had in a long time. And it remains all the way into now we're about to play our second game in November. And we still have a lot of teams that I would categorize as above-the-line teams. By above-the-line, the definition for me is you can win a national championship. National Championship caliber teams. Caviot, there is one team that I'm not going to put above the line that can put themselves above the line this weekend.

Really two, but one in particular. I'm going to do this in three tiers. I've got two tiers above the line, and then I've got a tier just below the line. So let me go through my tier one teams first and foremost. And these teams are just like no-brainers. You know them and I know them. going to go in order here. Okay. So these are the teams that I think like basically are my rankings. Michigan. No letdowns all season. The most consistent, the most dominant team that we've had in

college football thus far. Michigan's a tier one team hands down. And I think that it's not getting enough tension, attention. Did I say tension or attention? Regardless. It's not getting enough tension how, did I do it again? Not getting enough attention how well their quarterback is playing. J.J. McCarthy is playing ridiculously well. He really is at a high level. I've talked with a couple of opposing coaches that have had to face JJ this year. And they've all said the same thing. They've basically said to me, yeah, Michigan is still really good. And they do all the same things that they were able to do in previous years, maybe not quite as dominant run in the football, but J.J. McCarthy is a total game changer for them. He's so much better than he was a year ago.

And the reason is, is because he doesn't make the bonehead decision. Last year, he would once, twice a game, just throw a ball to the opponent. Now, he did that three times against, I believe it, was bowling green this year, and he hasn't done it since. He is a much more, I would say he is much safer with the ball. He makes much cleaner decisions this year than he has previously. And he's also up to his game as far as throwing the ball down the field. JJ is an elite level. They've won every game by 24. So they're number one in my tier one. Then Georgia, 26 straight wins. Still ridiculously hard to beat that team. I don't care if they have Brock Bowers or not. It's tough to beat that team. Ohio State is in tier one. This is a team that is not. This is a team that is

not getting great quarterback play right now to Kyle McCord. You would think that that would improve during the course of the season, and we'll see if it does. But as they've gotten healthier on offense, it's just accentuating the fact that this is a team that can really rely on their defense. Their defense was outstanding against Ruckers. Now, were they totally dominant? No, but they were outstanding in the sense that a Ben Don't Break style defense

has to come up with stops, in particular in the red zone, they were able to do that. They forced Ruckers to kick field goals. They got a turnover. They got to pick six. Defense is a legit unit on that side. And with Marvin out there, with Trevion, with a Mecca, Abuca, you can't count them out. I think Oregon is in the tier one.

They've got it all with a quarterback that has seen everything. You know how I feel about Oregon. They're really good at the line of scrimmage. Love their coaching staff. That's a big one for me. This is a group that I can tell. they're going to win a championship at Oregon at some point. Is it going to be this year? I'm not sure, but boy, this team is built really well. They're deep. And again, they're quarterback. Bo Nix is

firmly in the race for the Heisman Trophy. And he's a guy that's just playing outstanding football. You talk about making good decisions quickly. Bo Nix is the epitome of that. Then the last team in the tier one is going to be Alabama. Alabama is in tier one because when you look at them play and you watch them play as the season has gone on. They've gotten better and better and better and better. They're better at the line of scrimmage now than they were against Texas. Milrow is a better decision maker now than he was against Texas. He's much more decisive when he wants to run. He is a guy that I think can really, when he's playing well, they can beat anybody. Those are my above the line tier one teams. These are absolutely national championship caliber teams.

Michigan, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, and Alabama. Now we're going to stay above the line, but now let's move to Tier 2. And these are the teams that are just kind of like, you know, they're holding on, but there's certainly a question that they have to answer or a spot on their roster where they've got to get better and develop. Tier 2, first team in Tier 2, Texas. Texas is outstanding in a lot of areas, namely their defensive line. Devandre Sweat and Byron Murphy give them such a solid interior of their defensive line.

And that allows them to make mistakes elsewhere. I don't think that their secondary is great, although they're opportunistic. Jalen Ford is terrific. I love the defense, but they've got to get healthy at quarterback. They're tier two and not tier one because Quinn Ewers is not playing quarterback right now. Malik Murphy is not going to win a championship for Texas this year. That's pretty clear to me. You look at the throws he made, even against BYU,

and the turnovers that he gave BYU, the turnovers that then he gave Kansas State, you're not going to win a championship with your quarterback playing that way. And Malik Murphy, at least at this point in his career, the game is moving too fast for him. They need yours back as quick as possible. They go on the road to TCU this week. that's going to be a tough game if they don't have yours.

Washington is a tier two team. And although they're undefeated, this is still a team that has to overcome a bad defense. That's still a defense that got shredded against USC. Now, they came up with a stop here or there. They got the strip sack, gave the football back to their offense. They were able to score, and then they scored after half. And that was really the turning point in the game.

Yes, that's great. But it's not a defense that's stopping many people. That can be worrisome. And the worry that I have is that we've seen this time and time and time again. Not just with Washington, but with Oklahoma, USC. I mean, Ohio State has tried it to a certain extent. You can't win a championship with just offense. So they've got to continue to develop on the defensive side.

And then the last team in Tier 2 is Florida State. The one thing that I would say about Florida State is that they are incredibly talented when they've got Keon Coleman and Wilson on the field. So they have the ability to overcome mistakes. They have the ability to go to a fifth and sixth gear, which we saw in the second half against LSU. The concern with Florida State is outside of one half of football this year, they have not looked dominant at any point. they just kind of play to their level of competition, just kind of constantly. I mean, even this last week, you can say that that was a dominant win over pit, but it wasn't. That's a pit team that is in total disarray, and it's a pit team that just got beat 587 by Notre Dame.

So I'm going to keep them above the line, Florida State, but they're in the tier two. So here are the tiers right now. Here's the above the line teams heading into week 11. Michigan, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, Texas, Washington, and Florida. to state. Now we get to the teams that are just below the line. And they still just, they have to prove it because these are not teams that right now I can just say, without, beyond a shadow of a doubt, yes, they're good enough to win the national championship. I start with Penn State. Penn State has the opportunity, okay? They played so much better against Maryland on the offensive

side. Drew Auler was so much more explosive. They pushed the ball down the field from a schematic standpoint. a lot more than they did in previous games. I thought that that helped them. They still need to feature these backs more. I get it, you want to rotate them, but why not put them on the field at the same time more? Like, Penn State has got to lean into their strengths on a more consistent basis.

And until they prove that they can beat Ohio State or Michigan, right now they're going to fall below the line. It's a really talented team, and I love the defense. I hope Chop Robinson is back this week. I really hope he's back. James Franklin sounded optimistic in one of his press conferences this week. It's a team that could very well win this week against Michigan that puts them above the line. There's no doubt.

But until we see it, until it's proven that they can do it right now, there's still a team that is in clear third position to Ohio State and Michigan. After the Ohio State game a few weeks ago, it was abundantly clear that their offense wasn't close to good enough against an elite defense like the Buckeyes. Well, now you got another elite defense, so we'll see if they've made the adjustments necessary to go above the line. Next team just below is Ole Miss.

Ole Miss, for me, they've got their opportunity, just like Penn State against Georgia. But let's face it, it's like, you know, you look four of their eight wins or by one score. They feel like they're squeaking by A&M, I believe, had a field goal late that had a chance in that game. Ole Miss, their record suggests they should be in the top 10, but they just don't feel like an above-the-line team, at least right now.

And then the last one will be Louisville. You know, we'll see, and they'll have a chance to play Florida State. So all of these teams below the line will have a chance at some point. Louisville has separated. They've played really well over the last couple of weeks against Duke and Virginia Tech. But those teams are going to be just below. So let's recap this, above the line, below the line. Above the line teams, teams that I think are legitimate national championship contending teams.

Michigan, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, Texas, Washington, and Florida State, and then the ones just outside with chances to prove that they can go above the line, Penn State, Ole Miss, and Louisville. There we have it. Let's get into the mailbag, shall we? I want to get into the mailbag here on a rankings reaction show. Let's go to John D on the mailbag. And by the way, you can send your questions in anytime. The Joel Clash Show mailbag at gmail.com.

You can ask me about anything. We could have a clatt chat about life. We could ask about the playoff. We can ask about your favorite team. Whatever you want, throw us an email. We'll try to get to him during the course of the year. So let's start in the mailbag with John D. He says, as an Oregon duck fan,

I am obviously interested in our playoff hopes. But assuming Washington goes undefeated, during the regular season and gets a rematch with the Ducks in the Pack 12 championship, and Oregon wins. What are the chances that two teams, both 12 and 1, get into the playoff out of the Pack 12? Would their resumes be better than the Big 12 champ on an 11-1 Ohio State, Penn State, or Michigan? It just seems that there are so many good teams. Georgia should be basically automatic and Florida State doesn't have any threats left until the ACC championship game.

So the real question is whether or not 12 and 1 Michigan, Texas or Oklahoma gets in over a 12 and 1 Oregon or Washington team. Good question, John. And I'm just going to take that and kind of launch into the fact that with the rankings, how they came out last night, you look at this. And to me, I start painting the pathway. So in the Big Ten, I just think with the strength of the top of the Big Ten east, the winner of the Big Ten most likely is going to be in the playoff. Whether that's Ohio State, Michigan, or maybe even Penn State, although it looks more likely that it's either Ohio State or Michigan. Let's just say, sake of argument, that either, let's just say Michigan wins this week against Penn State. that puts Ohio State and Michigan winner likely as an undefeated into the Big Ten championship game against probably Iowa.

Okay, so you see where I'm going with that. I think the Big Ten champ is likely just in. Okay, so put them in. And they would be in over a one loss, Pac-12 champ. Florida State, put them in. Path of least resistance to the playoff right there. Let's throw in now we've got two. spots and you see where we're going. Let's just say now we've got two spots for the following.

Texas, 12 and 1, big 12 champ. Let's just say sake of argument right here. Bama, 12 and 1 SEC champ, and in your case, you've got Oregon, 12 and 1 PAC 12 champ. That would leave Georgia and Washington as 12 and 1 non-champs. You see where I'm going with that? So I've got five 12-1 teams, three of them champions, two of them not champions, and only two spots left in the playoff.

John, you see where I'm going? To answer your question specifically, no, I do not think that two teams from the Pack 12 are going to be able to go because of what you also asked in the email and stated in the email. There's too many good teams. there's too many good teams and in fact we're going to have a really good champ left out this year

it's going to happen there's no doubt in my mind again i think that the big 10 champ is in i think that florida state as an undefeated would be in Washington if they were to remain undefeated would definitely be in but let's just say like sake of argument texas bama oregon all go 12 and one and they are champs one of those three is going to get left out and this is what's interesting about the rankings they were given to us last night. The likely team out, based on the way the committee views these teams currently, would be Alabama, the SEC champion. You would have Big Ten champ, Florida State, Texas, and Oregon. Can you imagine a scenario where Georgia's 12 and 1, Alabama's 12 and 1, and the SEC is not in the playoff? There it is. Undefeated Big 10, Florida,

to state undefeated and even like Texas or Oregon. Let's say Washington remains undefeated. They would take that third spot for sure. And then it would be a Texas, like, wow. That win Texas over Alabama is going to come back to haunt the Crimson Tide. Haunt them. Because the way that they're looking at this right now, Texas is the one in the pickle. Could they get in?

Yes. Is it going to be tough? Yes. Do you know what Alabama really needs? Like badly? One of two things has to happen for Alabama. Florida State has to stub their toe. That's number one. Or Texas needs to stub their toe. That's number two. If those two things don't happen, I don't even know if Alabama controls their own destiny right now. That's just the, and by the way, not my opinion. That's just based on what the rankings they gave us here on Tuesday night. All right, let's move on. Next mailbag question. coming in from David. David says, hey, Joel, my question relates to the 12-team playoff that starts next season in 2024. You've mentioned a couple different times how you would love if a team like Alabama this year had to go on the road to play a team like Air Force in a CFP game. That leads to my question. Do we know yet how the 12-team playoff will decide who gets the home games?

I assume the top four ranked conference champs will get the four first-round buys. So is it just going to be teams ranked 5 through 8 in the final CFP poll, regardless? regardless of conference, get to host, or will highest ranked conference champs that don't earn a buy as a top four team get the fifth and six seeds to host a playoff game? There is so much in that. We got a long mailbag questions, but you know what? It's a great question. Okay. Let's get to this.

This is all about playoff structure. Okay, playoff structure. So the first thing that you have to know is that in the next two years, what we're going to get in 2025, no, 2024 and 2025. Yep. I'm right, is a modified version of an expanded playoff because the playoff is going to expand without a new television deal, which means that the playoff games have to be played in the New Year's six bowl games. So now what we have is, well, I digress.

So the top four teams are going to get buys. those will be champions. The way that I understand it currently is that as of now, teams five through eight will host in the first round, regardless of if they're champions or not. So let's say the group of five champion, you know, that is going to get into the playoff, presumably, presumably will likely have to go on the road to one of the big boys. And by the way, especially with the way that we're going to have teams in these conferences next year, they'll likely be having to go to an SEC or a Big Ten team because I think the majority of the at-large teams are going to come from the SEC in the Big Ten. You bring up a great question.

And I, listen, if it was up to me, you would have to be a champion or you would have to be a champion to hope the first round, host the first round, or one of the top two non-champions to host the first round. But it's not up to me. What I think is more interesting. though, is as we peer way into the future to 2026, when the current television deal ends and they're under a new television deal, they're going to have to figure out the way that they're going to structure the playoff. And this is when I think it gets much more interesting because then they would have a chance in the second round of the playoff to give the top four teams who have gotten to buy a home game. And this is a must. Ads around the country are so reluctant to do this,

and they are totally off, completely off. What all of us would want, fans, fans, players, coaches, is for the teams that earn the top four spots win a conference championship game to not only get a buy, but to host. I want those teams to have an advantage. Why?

Because I need to incentivize them to play hard through the end of the regular season. I want the conference championship to mean something. I don't want two teams that, don't know they're both going to the playoff to be like, well, it doesn't really matter because, you know, ho-hum, we're all going to the playoff and it's the same playoff. No, no, no, no. I need a buy for a conference champion, best four conference champions.

I need a home game in the second round for the best four conference champions. That's how we incentivize them to play hard through the end of the season. And that's how we get the best teams towards the semifinals and the national championship. You allow the best teams to play at home with an advantage. That's what we do. in every other sport that matters is that we allow the best teams, the most successful regular season teams, to generate the biggest

advantage in the postseason. Why wouldn't we do that in college football? And if you tell me that we've got to save the bowl games, I just totally disagree with that. Completely disagree with that. Blockbuster was not at the table when they were forming Netflix. Netflix didn't ask Blockbuster's input when they were forming their business plan.

Shocking, I know. So why in the world with the college football playoff ask the Bulls, their input, about what should happen moving forward? The playoff and the bowl system are oil and water. They don't mix. I digress. I don't even know if that answered your question, David.

You just got me on a playoff related topic. So appreciate that. That'll do it for today. we've got a lot of previews of games, so you're going to want to come back for that. And I'll just continue to keep you updated on the Michigan saga, if you will. And I would just continue to say that, like, keep the main thing, the main thing, right?

This sport is a great sport. And the main thing is that we've got college students that are also great athletes that are going out there and they are competing at a ridiculously high level. and I want to celebrate that. And adults constantly ruin things in and around this sport, and I'm not going to let them ruin what has become one of my favorite seasons that I've covered ever. Why?

Because we have more teams above the line than we've ever had at this point in the season. So I would encourage you to keep the main thing the main thing. Watch these games for what they are, which are just like incredibly exciting. kids playing their hearts out. I love college football. This season has been incredible, an incredible season. Don't let this taint that. Let the process play out, and we'll arrive at a conclusion soon enough.

Okay, so that'll do it. Follow us on social media at Joel Clat Show. Subscribe to the pod wherever you're listening. Subscribe on YouTube. We will be back. Sorry, I'm stumbling all over my words. We will be back tomorrow with a bunch of previews. of some great games this weekend in college football.

Thanks for listening to everybody.