The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - CFP Rankings Reaction: Why Notre Dame is in big trouble + latest on Penn State’s coaching search

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the latest CFP Rankings going into Championship weekend. He breaks down why Notre Dame falling behind Alabama into the last at-large spot at #10 should make Irish fans very nervous. Klatt also explains why Texas looks boxed out of a potential spot despite the big win over A&M and why he believes Miami and Texas’ head-to-head wins should be carrying more weight with the Committee. He then reveals why A&M’s drop all the way to #7 is a huge deal for their hopes of making a run in the Playoff. Klatt then explains why this Playoff selection process is so subjective without defined criteria and gives his fixes for making the process better – including losing weekly reveals. He wraps the show by discussing the latest coaching moves including Kalani Sitake staying at BYU amid interest from Penn State before giving 3 names he believes the Nittany Lions will target now. 0:00-1:42 Intro1:43-4:28 Klatt’s CFP ranking reaction4:29-10:11 Should Notre Dame be worried about getting left out on selection Sunday?10:12-14:22 Texas looks cooked in the CFP race14:23-15:52 Texas A&M drops to 7 behind Ole Miss15:53-20:28 Could the ACC be left out of the playoff entirely?20:29-34:00 What criteria should be valued the most by the playoff committee?34:01-37:27 Coaching news Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've got Crumble Cookie News and something tells me the sales of Crumble cookies in Provo, Utah are going to go through the roof. Notre Dame fans, you should be nervous. I think it would be impossible for the committee to rank Miami behind Notre Dame in a direct fashion. If we keep this current 12-team format that is a selection-based format, I do think that there needs to be two adjustments made. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clad Show. I'm Joel Clyde. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. As always, we've got another rankings reaction show ready for you here. We've got some new rankings and some

movement. So we'll get to all of that in just a moment. Plus, we've got more coaching news around college football that's been dropping. We've got Crumble cookie news, which, by the way, those are delicious. And something tells me the sales of Crumble cookies in Provo, Utah are going to go through the roof. All of that a little bit later. But first, hey, make sure to subscribe to the show. that would really mean a lot to us, obviously. Invite a friend. That would be awesome as well. Leave a comment down below. We'll get to some things that I'd love to comment on and discuss down in the comments from today's show. I'll get to that a little bit later. If you haven't followed us on social media, you can do that wherever you like to social media. I know that everyone has a different preference. We're on all of them.

At Joel Clat Show, you can get our content in shorter form. And then wherever you're listening to this, if you're listening to this just as an audio pod, make sure to rate and review us. That would be awesome. That would be very helpful. So tonight we've obviously got huge reactions from the college football playoff rankings release on Tuesday night. Let's get right into it because, listen, there were some things that changed up that are going to be really impactful for the playoff, obviously, not only for the teams that are trying to get into the playoff, but also matchups within teams that we already know are going to be in this college football playoff. Here's the top 25. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it right there. And as we know, once we get this late in the season, it doesn't really matter until you get to about 13, 14 right there. Those are the bubble teams that we've been talking about.

So from 15 on in, you've got Utah at 15, Vandy at 14, Texas at 13. Miami is at 12. They continue to inch up. BYU at 11. Notre Dame, this is a big change. I think a massive change, and I'll get to why in a moment. But Notre Dame goes to number 10. And Bama, somehow after that performance against Auburn and the Iron Bowl, Leap, Bronx, Notre Dame?

Okay, I guess so. But Bama goes to 9. OU is at 8. A&M falls all the way down to number 7 after that loss of the Longhorns. Then it's Ole Miss at 6, committee trying to, well, as I'll say later, maybe prop up a team that they feel bad for. Oregon's at 5. Tech is at 4. So they now are inside of that bubble line in terms of a buy.

in the college football playoff. And then Georgia 3, Indiana 2, Ohio State 1. Off the jump, I just have to tell you how excited I am for Saturday night. Big 10 championship game live on Fox. Gus, Jenny and I are going to have the call. 8 p.m. Eastern is when it's going to get kicked off. Coverage starts at 6.30. One versus 2.

We haven't had a 1 versus 2 conference championship game ever in the Big 10. And we haven't had one in all of college football since all the way back to the Tebow-Bama days where we're getting Urban Meyer against 9th. Nick Saban and those Florida-Alabama matchups. I cannot wait for this one. I think it's going to be fantastic. Not only do we have the number one seed in the playoff on the line, we also have the Heisman Trophy on the line with Julian San and Fernando Mendoza going

head-to-head, I think the best performance and the winner is likely going to win the national, or excuse me, the Heisman Trophy and again get that number one seed. So I can't wait for that. That's at the top of these college football playoff rankings. But that's not what's interesting and that's not what we're going to talk about here tonight. There are a few things that I want to get to. Let me just start with the most obvious, and that's Notre Dame falling to the 10 spot. And as we know with these two spots with a group of five and an ACC or two group of fives, more on that in a bit, what we see now is that you've got to

be inside of that 10 line in order to get an at-large spot and get included in the college football playoff. And that's obviously what Notre Dame is trying to do. That's what all these teams are trying to do. BYU, if they don't win this week in the Big 12 championship game, Miami, with a win over Notre Dame is sitting there at number 12. Obviously, Texas has been politicking, rightly so for their resume as a 9 and 3 with big wins, including that one last week on Friday against Texas A&M in a rivalry game. But Notre Dame going to 10 is massive. And I can just tell you right off the jump when I saw that, I immediately thought to myself,

Irish fans, Notre Dame fans, you should be nervous. Notre Dame should be very nervous about being on the 10 line right now. because a lot of things are going to put them in a precarious spot. Let me just start with number one. Why did Alabama jump them after an unconvincing win at 5 and 7 Auburn? I don't understand that. I don't understand it at all. You can't use, I guess it's resume, even though this committee the entire time has been using more of an eye test philosophy.

I guess it's resume, but 5 and 7 Auburn with an interim head coach and a quarterback that they've gone back and forth. with. Meanwhile, Bama needs a fourth down. I mean, like, I don't understand that. Now, they did it, and it has massive consequences because a lot of these teams, including Miami, don't have another game. So we've got all the data points that we want, that we need. Here it is. And so they moved to the 10-line, and now Miami has only BYU in between them and Notre Dame. And as we know, Miami has a head-to-head victory over Notre Dame. That should make them nervous. Then you've got the BYU conundrum. If BYU wins the Big 12 on Saturday over Texas Tech,

they are almost assuredly going to jump in. They get the automatic spot, so they'll be in the playoffs. They'll jump inside of the top 10. And then the question is, is the number four team in the country, Texas Tech going to fall all the way behind Notre Dame? Probably not. Probably not.

I don't see them falling that far. Do you? I don't. And in particular, because we know, the committee. Now, even though last year's committee was a different makeup, don't you get the sense that they're going to honor conference championship games? Don't you get the sense that they're going to say like, okay, Texas Tech was an 11 and 1, not a 10 and 2. So at 11 and 2, with an extra data point, we're not going to pitilize them and throw them out of the playoffs if they lose to

BYU. I don't think that's the case. BYU's only loss up to this point is at Texas Tech. So if BYU wins, Texas Tech will not. not fall below Notre Dame. Thus, Notre Dame would be out. They would be out. There's no more data points. So if you're a Notre Dame fan, you have got to root hard for Texas Tech and that Big 12 championship game on Saturday. Here's the next thing.

BYU loses. All right. You're like, oh, okay, sigh of relief. We avoid that whole conundrum with the Big 12. Yeah, but then, but then does BYU still stay above Miami? And in that case, I don't know. I don't know. Now, would they be penalized for the extra data point?

Unknown. But I think they would at least move down a spot, maybe two. Maybe Texas and Miami jump BYU. Guess what that presents. A side-to-side comparison with Miami and Notre Dame. And folks, you cannot unsee the head-to-head victory. for Miami. You really can't. So now you see the predicament that Notre Dame is in. I don't know if there's a way that they can stay in. Honestly, because if you've got the resumes next to one another,

they're similar. Record versus CFP top 25, Miami's 1 and 0. Guess what that one is? Notre Dame. Notre Dame, they're both 10 and 2. Obviously, the losses for Miami are not nearly as impressive as Notre Dame. And I understand and would agree that if we were to play that matchup on a neutral site this weekend, I would pick Notre Dame. They would be favored by, I've seen hypotheticals anywhere from four and a half to five and a half. They would be four and a half to five and a half point favorites. I totally understand that. But we did see the game. Okay, so that's in the event of a BYU loss. And a BYU win, they're almost assuredly out. So I don't see a scenario where Notre Dame stays in the playoff.

I think that they're in a precarious spot. And if I was a betting man, which I'm not, I would bet on Notre Dame falling out of the playoff. I know that that's wild. And maybe something drastic or different can happen. Maybe BYU won't be penalized and they'll remain a buffer between Miami and Notre Dame. Maybe that's a case.

But boy, it's pretty easy and plausible to sit there and see where all the sudden either BYU jumps them and Texas Tech doesn't fall outside or BYU falls behind Miami and then they're in a direct comparison in a head-to-head matchup in which they lost to Miami. Because here's the thing. Here's the thing. Every single tie break known to man starts with head-to-head. And I'll get to that in a little bit when we talk about criteria and everything like that. But there's, I think it would be impossible for the committee to rank.

Miami behind Notre Dame in a direct fashion right next to them, even though I think Notre Dame would beat Miami this weekend. All right. So there's that. Texas now. Here's the next observation from tonight's rankings. Texas looks, they look pretty cooked at 13 right now. I don't see how they jump Miami.

Maybe they could jump BYU with a BYU loss. Maybe. And maybe if Bama. gets absolutely drilled by Georgia. Maybe Bama falls way out, but there's no more data points for them. There's no more data points for Notre Dame. There's no more data points for Miami. Like, we're not, there's too many teams in front of them that I don't really think are going to move. Like, how do you jump all of those teams? I'm having a really hard time finding how you jump all of these things. How do you jump Notre Dame if you're,

or, yeah, Notre Dame if you're Texas? I don't see it. So Texas looks cooked right now. Three huge wins, but three losses, two overtime wins to bad teams, Kentucky and Mississippi State. We can't unsee those, right? As much as like I agree, and they've done a nice job, and Steve Sarkesian should argue for his team, and that's what absolutely he should do. And I get it, like, their resume is pretty solid. And they've got big wins. And in one respect, like you don't want to penalize them for playing that non-conference game against Ohio

State. And yet, you know, the committee is basically telling us here, hey, if you were 10 and 2, you'd likely be in with your big wins. You've got the Oklahoma victory. You've got the Vanderbilt victory. You've got the Texas A&M victory. You're sitting there. And you could even claim that OU was on the bubble, maybe, or in that pack of teams. And you could say to yourself, like, okay, if you're Texas, you've got a win over Vanneville and Oklahoma, right here in this in this kind of neighborhood of teams. But it just doesn't feel like Texas is going to have enough to jump all the way in there. Unless something absolutely crazy happens, BYU gets drilled, Alabama gets drilled.

And even in that case, like, what are we doing? So I think Texas is probably going to be out. Hey, here's what I'd love you to do is get down into the YouTube page, subscribe and then leave a comment. I'm going to try to get down there in the next day or so and chat with you guys. Who should be in the playoff that is currently on the outside? Is it Texas? Is it Miami or is it BYU? Now, I haven't talked about BYU.

And there's a lot of people that have said like, Joel, why don't you make an argument for BYU? Well, let me tell you why is because they still control their own fate. They still have their fate in their own hands. So to me, I don't have to argue for BYU. You know, in some sort of hypothetical loss, should they be jumping Notre Dame and a hypothetical loss? Well, probably not. Probably not. Now, should they be ranked ahead of them right now?

I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. But again, we're going to get to a discussion about criteria and valuing criteria. And it's really hard. There's a lot of different things that you can value. There's things that I really like about BYU. But here's what I know about BYU.

They've got a game on Saturday for 60 minutes that if they win that game against Texas Tech, they're in. They're in. So I don't feel like I have to argue for BYU because they're basically in a play-in game. And good for them. And that's what all these other teams would take. If you're Miami right now, if you're Texas right now, if you're Vanderbilt right now, you would take a play-in game. You would do anything for a play-in game this Saturday, which is exactly what we talked about in Monday's show.

If you didn't watch Monday show, please go back and do so. Again, you can check it out on the YouTube. You can go find it on the podcast. I actually outlined, not at great length, but I outlined a defined path style of playoff, a 14-team playoff where we would have play-in weekend within conferences. And frankly, everybody, fans in particular of these teams, you know it's better.

You know it's better than what we've got, this subjective, committee-driven, at-large selection-based playoff, which is, let's face it, wildly frustrating and wildly inconsistent, wildly inconsistent. Let me give you a couple more observations before I move on. Texas A&M drops all the way to number seven. I think that's a massive deal, a huge deal behind Ole Miss. I don't know if this was a sympathy thing for Ole Miss.

I'm not sure. Interesting week to give Ole Miss the benefit of the doubt over A&M. They lose their head coach. Now, I do believe Charlie Weiss Jr. is going to be back with Ole Miss and call plays for them on the offensive side of the ball. So that's a huge plus for them because they're going to be able to retain some of that staff. Now, I don't know if he'll be then going to LSU or staying at Ole Miss. I think that remains to be seen. But I do think that they're going to have some tie to that offense from what we saw with Lane Kiffin.

So he said he's grateful to LSU for allowing him the opportunity to finish the season with Old Miss. Coach Kiffin and the LSU administration have been nothing but supportive. I'm excited about the playoff run. That's Charlie Weiss Jr. So he'll be calling the plays for Old Miss. That's massive. That is massive. because, again, if they lose that entire offensive staff, that's an offensive-driven team. So that's a problem for them, and we all kind of know that. The resume between A&M and O'NM and O'Ns is similar. A&M does have an edge and strength of schedule.

But this is why it's such a big deal because that difference in the 6-7 line. You know, I mean, look at the A&M strength of schedule is vastly better. But the two wins over top 25 for Ole Miss, I believe, are carrying the day here. in particular like that Ole Miss, or excuse me, that Oklahoma victory, and Oklahoma is obviously in the playoff. The big deal, though, is that the sixth seed likely plays either Virginia, because if they win the ACC championship game over Duke, they will be in the playoff, or a group of six team.

Because if Duke wins, then there's going to be a second group of six team thrown into the playoff. Right. So here's the bracket as we see it right now. Ohio State would have the one seed, Indiana, the two seed. Georgia is sitting on the three. Tech is sitting on the four. The 5-12 game would be Oregon against whoever gets in, probably from the group of five. So you're looking at like a possible JMU, possible Tulane, possible North Texas, one of those three. The 8-9 game looks awesome right now. Oklahoma and Alabama, Alabama would have to go to

Norman in a rematch of a game in which Oklahoma beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. You've got Ole Miss at the 6, which is, again, what I'm talking about here, why is that so massive? Because they would get either Virginia or a group of six team. Well, that's obviously easier, obviously easier. You know, think of the path that some of those teams had, like, let's just say, you know, sake of argument, Penn State last year. They got to play SMU at home, and then they got to play Boise State in the Coisie Quarterfinals before ultimately losing to Notre Dame and the national semifinal. That was an easy path. So that's why it's so big, because here's A&M sitting on the seven seed. And at 10, it's Notre Dame.

Dame. Now, just remember, I don't think Notre Dame is going to stay at the 10 seed. I just don't. Now, pending an Alabama loss, that might be Notre Dame's best case to stay in the playoff, but that's only if the college football playoff committee were to penalize Alabama to the point of exclusion for making the conference championship game, which there's no precedence for. And in fact, there's precedent for the opposite last year when SMU lost their conference championship game to Clemson and still was included in the playoff. So again, Notre Dame at 10 might just be a placeholder

right now and Texas A&M might be welcoming a team like Miami. Well, would you rather welcome in a group of either JMU, Virginia, North Texas, or Tulane if you're Ole Miss, or

if you're Texas A&M, you're going to welcome either Notre Dame, Miami, or Bama. Hello? Hello? That's why that seed matters. That's why that seed matters. So again, strength of schedule not carrying the day, maybe the two top 25 wins carrying the day for Ole Miss. Maybe it's a sympathy position. I don't know. Would that be crazy? I think it would. ACC is in huge trouble. If Duke beats number 17 Virginia, then we're almost assured to have two,

group of six winners. The American winner, so Tulane and North Texas play. James Madison is number 25. They're playing in the Sunbelt Championship. You've got like an outside shot also that like you could have maybe a Mountain West winner be ranked higher than Duke. So if Duke wins, they're almost almost 100% not going to make the playoff, which means that the ACC would be out unless Miami sneaks in because BYU lose.

then they get a direct comparison with Notre Dame. So a lot going on. There's a lot going on in everything right there. What's up, Clats Show fans? If you're looking for something fun to do or a great holiday gift idea for your friends and family, look no further than Seekek. With over 35 million downloads,

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and you can have that code automatically added to your account. So you can use it later on in that app, Seekek. And thank you to Seekkeek for sponsoring today's show. Let's get to some big picture thoughts. So those are just observations about the rankings. And I think that we all kind of understand that. Big picture thoughts about the process and where we're at right now. I think that it's frustrating.

I think people understand that. Let's start posing some questions and just kind of thinking, through them really quickly. What is the committee protecting? And then what are they using? Okay, what do they value? What is the criteria? This has always been the problem, even going back to the selection of the top four teams for a four-team playoff and this idea that we're selecting the best four or the best 12. Well, it's so ambiguous because you can use all sorts of different criteria. And so if those criteria are not ranked and ordered as a time, you're going to be able to, tiebreaker would be in every conference or in every league and every sport that we ever have.

So what I'm basically talking about is when you have a tiebreaker in college football within a conference, you immediately go to, okay, who won head to head? And then you go down the list of the criteria. So you're basically prioritizing your criteria in a tiebreaker. Well, we don't do that when it comes to the playoff. We just say, hey, just select the 12 best, which means you've got a list of criteria and you can pick and choose based on whatever you want. Well, that's where we get, I think, wild inconsistencies.

In one respect, I do believe that this committee has honored the eye test watching film, just thinking, who wins next Saturday on a neutral site? You know, I think that Indiana's resume might be better than Ohio States, but we just think Ohio State is better, so they carry the day. You look at even Oklahoma, and you would look at that and say, well, that's more resume-based. because if you just pit them against some of these teams next Saturday, it's hard to see them scoring 10 points. Okay, so you see inconsistencies with the criteria that they use

because it's not ranked. What do we go to first, second, third, so on and so forth? They can't value everything the same, and there's no directive to the committee for how to weigh each criteria. It becomes extremely subjective and frustrating for all of us. So that's hard. So let's talk about some of the criteria, not every single one, but some of them. Here's what I see them valuing.

If I were to say like, okay, this committee values what? I think the first thing is, is I look at Oklahoma and I can say like, okay, they value resume. Because in an eye test, Oklahoma is not where they're at with this committee. They're not ranked that high. They're not better than Notre Dame on an eye test. But they are based on resume. You get boxed in because of the Alabama head-to-head, but then head-to-head doesn't carry the day when you've got Miami, two spots behind Notre Dame. I do think that they value the eye test because Notre Dame is sitting there and they're sitting there above BYU and above Miami.

And again, Miami has the head-to-head victory. I do think that they're honoring the conference championship game because I think that's what propelled Alabama up the rankings is that they qualify. for their conference championship game. We saw it last year when SMU wasn't hurt. So I do think that they're going to honor and value the fact that you got to and played for the conference championship. I think that's what they value. So then the question becomes like, well, what don't they value?

Well, in this case, I think it's pretty obvious that they don't value head to head. Or at least they're not prioritizing it. It's like fourth in line right now. Miami over Notre Dame, Texas over OU. those are things that are not being valued by this committee. They're down the line. What's something else that they're not putting a lot of value in or emphasis on? Non-conference scheduling.

It's not coming up. Texas is being punished for scheduling Ohio State going to the shoe and losing to what is now the clear number one team in the country. The committee is telling us, based on where Texas is ranked, that they should not have played that game. and they should have played Texas State and won the game by 20 and maybe even slept to walk through some of it. Maybe Arch throws a couple picks. It doesn't matter what you look like. It's just about the win and the loss. That's what they're telling us is that they don't value that willingness to schedule the non-conference game.

Now, I do want to say like, I hesitate a moment because again, you've got the Florida loss. You've got the two bad wins, Kentucky and overtime, Mississippi State, and overtime. overtime, but it does remain true that they're not valuing or emphasizing or prioritizing the non-conference schedule. So we're emphasizing possibly resume, I test, and conference championships. Okay. I understand that. I see them, however, ranking these wrong.

When I look at college football, in particular, when I look at things that I believe are on their way out, on their last leg, possibly dying, I don't think that we should value those quite as much. See, in the history of our sport, we have a history, the powers of being our sport, of holding tightly on to things that we know we're going to die. This happened with amateurism, okay? This happened with transfer rules. And now I believe this has happened with bowl games. and now I believe it's happening with conference championships. We're desperately trying to hold on to the value of the conference championship, and yet the structure and the nature of the sport is moving past that.

Obviously it did with amateurism. Obviously it did with freedom of movement from players. The bowl game and holding tightly to these bowl games and where they're played and we've got to retain them has ruined the schedule in college football, ruined it, because we create a playoff that doesn't. It doesn't make sense. We have to compete with the NFL, and we bleed into the transfer portal window, which is now in January. It doesn't make any sense. Why? Because we hold tightly to something that we know eventually is going to die. Eventually, the quarterfinals will be on campus because we have to honor teams that are qualifying in those spots and put them on campus where they have an advantage.

These are obvious things. Okay. So we hold on tightly. We create systems that are not, advantageous to the sport because we hold on to them tightly, and then we have to adjust later once it's too late, and we're doing that with the conference championship game. They're holding on to this, and folks, we are also actively killing the conference championship game because we don't give automatic buys to the conference champions. If we just are going to straight seed, which is new this year,

it means that in the Big Ten championship game this week, Indiana is absolutely still going to get a buy if they lose. Ohio State is absolutely still going to get a buy if they lose. So in one respect, we actively work against the nature of the conference championship game, and then here we're trying to prop it up by valuing it in the college football playoff rankings. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. That's what we do in this sport, and we need to stop.

We need to look at this and have a little bit of an eye towards the future, four or five, six years from now. What does this need to look like? what do we need to value? And a couple of final thoughts here. If we keep this current 12-team format that is a subjective format, that is a selection-based format, and we keep this in the committee's hands, where we're just going to rank teams, and at the end of the year, here we go. I do think that there needs to be two adjustments made, and I think these are important. These are very important. Number one, enough of the weekly ranking show. This is just putting the committee in a corner and a bind for nothing, for nothing. This is not valuable for college football. It's purely

entertainment. And it's not helpful. It's not helpful at all. It just creates problems and it's made for TV and it doesn't serve anybody, maybe except for the other network. It's not like anyone, here's the thing is like, once they give us a ranking, they get boxed in. They don't have any ability to adjust. They can't sit there and say, do we really like that? See, I think that the committee should meet weekly in November. They should do rankings weekly in November and then lock them in a box and don't tell anybody. Because then at least you have some freedom of movement. You can say to yourself like, okay, let's reevaluate this. And we don't have to go out to the masses and basically it's like, we're just kidding with you. You know, like, so now what do you do? What do you? What do

do? So the weekly ranking show needs to go away. Sorry. I do think we also need more variables. If we're going to keep the same system, we need not just a committee, but maybe two, and then also incorporate some computers. We need more statistical variance. I've argued this for a long time all the way back to the 14 playoff era. We need more of that. Those are just adjustments that you could make. If you're not going to change the structure of the playoff holistically, those are two changes that would make this better. Because at least we wouldn't feel lied to, at least we wouldn't be getting our hopes up for this team or that team.

And then all of a sudden it needs to adjust or it doesn't adjust. And we don't know why. Like, if you're going to keep the same format, just give us a ranking at the end and tell us what the playoff is. Because if let's just sake of argument, on Saturday night, Sunday morning, let's just say we got a playoff and Notre Dame was at 11 and out and Miami was in and 10.

Every one of us would be like, okay, that makes sense. And you could argue about resume, but you would ultimately say, like, well, head-to-head carried the day, which it should. Why? Because in every sport known to man on the planet, if you have a tie-breaking situation, which this essentially is at 10 and 2, what is the first criteria? And everyone said, head-to-head. It's the first criteria in every situation. So if BYU were to lose, Miami's likely going to go. I just don't understand why they put themselves in this position where it has to look like, well, without playing a game, all of a sudden, now we're using a different criteria.

It reeks of hypocrisy and a lack of knowledge in the first place. And yet, is it? No, it's not. It's just different criteria being valued at different times. So we don't need the television show. We need more variables. And then if you just want to be honest about it, we just need a new system. And it needs to be access-based, defined how each of these teams get in, and it needs to be on the field.

And then at the end, once you have play-in weekend, like, again, go back and listen to what I gave you, the 14-team model. There only needs to be two buys, not four, so that you can reward the two best teams in the country. Then you can put more games at home, or they should, because we need bowl games to go away because they don't help us in college, football anymore. I'm sorry, but that's just the case. That's what I think it should be, a defined path, a defined path. So that begs the question. Joel, what would you do? All right. What do I think the ranking should be? What do I think the playoff should be? If I'm ranking these teams based on who I think wins this weekend, I'm going to give you one set of rankings. If you ask me to create a playoff based on who deserves to go, based on the

criteria that I value, I would give you a different list. So with that being said, at the risk of sounding hypocritical myself, because I gave you a top 15 list on Monday, but I will just tell you this is going to sound different. Because in my opinion, once you get down to inclusion or not and creating a playoff, the criteria that I lean on first and foremost is head to head. As a former player, I have to do that because you have to honor the result on the field. I can't just say, what does Vegas tell me about which team is better? I have to go to what happened on the field. Honor the plays that were made by the team that won the game. And so in that respect, Miami would go to the playoff in my estimation. And I would say the same thing about Texas and Oklahoma.

In my estimation, if I was creating the playoff, and I know that this is controversial, but those head-to-head wins, Texas and Vandy, Texas and Oklahoma, Miami and Notre Dame, if I was making the playoff, my first criteria would be head-to-head wins, and therefore, in my playoff, Miami and Texas would be included. That's what it is. I've always said I've leaned into deserving and not best. I think that the biggest, the single biggest problem and issue that, that, you know, that we've had in the playoff era is that we decided to term it the four best teams and not the

four most deserving, and now the 12 best teams, not the 12 most deserving teams. I've said that for a long time, so I'll stay with it. Real quick, before we get out of here, some coaching news. First, Will Stein, the offensive coordinator at Oregon, is going to go back to his roots. He's from Kentucky. He's going back to Kentucky. He will be Kentucky's new head coach. Young guy, Kenny Dillingham, left from Oregon.

He's done really well at Arizona State. And now another young guy, Will Stein, goes to Kentucky. He's going to be a head coach. I've known Will for a long time. I think he's a hell of a football coach. Good luck to him. By the way, Will Will is going to coach the college football playoff and continue to be with Oregon as long as they are playing. So Will is going to stay with Oregon while he's working for Kentucky and trying to build their roster.

That's what's going on there. Pat Fitzgerald officially announced as the Michigan State head coach. Pat Fitzgerald is going to be back in college football. I, for one, am very excited about this. I think Pat Fitzgerald is one of the great men and coaches in our sport. If I had a son, I have said this a long time, for a long time. He's one of the rare guys that I would say absolutely go play for Pat Fitzgerald. So Pat Fitzgerald going to Michigan State.

I think that's a great hire by Michigan State. And we'll see if he can turn that thing around there for the Spartans. Kalani Satake was apparently being courted pretty heavily by Penn State. That was the news over the last couple of days, but now officially going to extend and stay at BYU. Thank you, Crumble Cookie guy. You bet. How about Kalani Sataki?

And by the way, all the memes on social media are incredible with everybody that's a BYU fan, basically posting a screenshot of their delivery order and Uber Eats order from Crumbull cookies. It's amazing. College Football for Life. This stuff is amazing. If there's a Crumble cookie logo on BYU's field next year,

If there's not, I'll be shocked. I'll be shocked. And then that leaves Penn State. We don't have news out of Penn State right now. So obviously they were going after Kalani Sataki. I do think that there's a few names that I would be aware of. I would be aware of Brian Daibol, obviously, last with the New York Giants. I would be pretty surprised if they're not at least talking with a guy like Jeff Brom or targeting a guy like Jeff Brom.

And, you know, you never know. But the fact that it's lasted this long. It leads me to believe that there's a guy still coaching this week that is a head coach that might be a target. So I don't know who that is. Obviously, Signetti is locked up. Day is locked up. Kirby isn't going anywhere. You know, Joey McGuire isn't going anywhere.

Sataki isn't going anywhere. You know, like, is it Kalin DeBoer? You know, I don't know. You start to process of elimination. Why is it taking this long? Why haven't they announced something? Is that coach still coaching? Who's locked up?

Who's not locked up? Maybe they're targeting Kailen DeBore. I'm not totally sure. But we'll see maybe in the coming days or a week what Penn State is planning on doing with their opening there. That'll do it for today's show. We'll be back tomorrow with our picks and previews for the conference championship game.

Can't wait for that. And again, remember, leave a comment down below. Let's have a discussion. Who from the outside of the top 10 do you think deserves to, be in the top 10, thus getting into the college football playoff. That's the conversation that will be going on down below in the comments. Subscribe to the show. Follow us on social media, Agile Class show, and we'll be back tomorrow with picks and

previews. Have a great night, everybody.