The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - College Football National Champion Draft with Chris “Bear” Fallica

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt is joined by Chris “Bear” Fallica from Big Noon Kickoff and Bear Bets to go through a Draft of the teams they think have the best chance to win the National Championship this season. The two go back-and-forth as they debate who to select with their picks: Is Ohio State a no-brainer at the 1st pick? How long until the first SEC team comes off the board? How high should Indiana be picked? Does Notre Dame warrant spending a high selection on? Do teams like Oklahoma and Texas even get picked and where does Vanderbilt fit into all of this? The guys each pick 6 teams as they make 12 selections to win this year’s title. 0:00-1:44 Intro1:45-4:33 Chris “Bear” Fallica joins the show!4:34-5:43 Ohio State5:44-8:32 Indiana8:33-10:51 Oregon10:52-13:21 Alabama13:22-16:10 Georgia16:11-20:40 Notre Dame20:41-22:29 Texas A&M22:30-23:48 Miami23:49-26:06 Texas Tech26:07-28:51 Ole Miss28:52-33:13 Vanderbilt33:14-39:04 Texas39:05-41:17 Recap of picks Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I am going to stay in the Big Ten and go to the Oregon. I did not expect that. It's obvious, it's easy. It's the team that won last year, and it's a team that is probably going to win again this year. Gosh, if they could just play offense, like if they could just find a quarterback. Those first six, I will not be shocked if any of those six win the national championship. Hey, like today is why we love college football. Hey, welcome into the program.

This is the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support as always. Hey, if you haven't subscribed to the show, please do so. That would be awesome. I was in the comments down there on Monday after Monday show. A lot of you frustrated with my own six against the spread last week.

I get it. I get it. We're going to try to do better this week. Hey, shooter's going to shoot. So we'll just keep previewing. We'll just keep picking. That's what we do. Hey, if you haven't followed us on social media, please do so as well.

Wherever you like to social media, we're out there at Joel Clatt Show. You can catch us there. Today, I'm super excited for what we've got going on today. So here's what happened. We always do a call with the Big Noon Saturday, Big Noon kickoff guys on Monday. And Bear, Chris, Bear Felica, he brought up this thought experiment. And I immediately was like, oh, that has to go on the show. That is absolutely perfect.

And so without further ado, let's bring on the bear. The bear is going to join the show today because we've got something really special about this. So Chris Bear Felica joins the Joel Class show. What's going on, Bear? How are you, bad? Not a heck of all. Already looking forward to the show, looking forward to the weekend. And yeah, a good little fun call on Monday.

And sometimes every now and then I have a good idea. And the way I presented it, I thought it worked. And I'm happy you felt the same. I'm looking forward to going through this. I loved it. Let me outline what it was. Okay. So on Monday, Bear poses a question to the whole group.

And he just says, hey, if you were just drafting a team, or teams to win the national championship. So just all or nothing, win the national championship. How far do you go before you select Notre Dame, the two-loss Notre Dame Fighting Irish? And everyone's like, oh, dang, I mean, you'd probably select them fairly early as it relates to where they sit in the poll.

So I immediately thought, well, we got to have the national championship draft on the show. I didn't want to do it alone. And Barry, you are the absolute perfect one to do this with. So that's what we're going to do today. We are going to go back and forth and draft teams up to 12, so six picks each. And it's just all or nothing, win the national championship. So that's how we're going to draft these teams.

And we thought, like, you know, we can't just have, like, me take the first pick or you take the first pick. So we wanted to play a little bit of a game for the first pick. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to throw up a trivia question. We have not been able to look this up. You get the first crack at the trivia question. We'll just go back and forth until one of us get it. Okay, so I think they're going to throw the trivia question up on the show.

Okay, here it is. It is. What is the most common mascot in college football? So we're talking at BS, I'm assuming? I guess. To be honest, I don't even know. I don't know the parameters here. I would have to guess it's tigers, right?

I would guess that too. Is it tigers? It is. All right, there it is. Bear wins. I feel like Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks and Dave DeBuscher in the 1985 and the NBA trap with the frozen envelope. Perfect.

That's right. LSU, Clemson, Auburn, all of the above, the Tigers. That's what I would have gone with as well. My next one would have been like some sort of bear or something.

I don't know. Bear or Wildcat. Wildcat would have been a good one as well. But it is Tiger, which means you get the first pick, which is a bit of a bummer. I think for you because I think that the first pick is just the most obvious pick. And then like that too, it gets really interesting.

So without further ado, let's start. This is the national championship draft. Okay. We're not drafting our 10 best teams. Or just can they win it all or not? And with the first pick of the national championship draft, Bear have at it. It's obvious. It's easy.

It's the team that won last year. And it's a team that is probably going to win again. this year. It's got to be Ohio State. Most complete team out there, young Julian Sane getting better week after week, continue to work him into the offense and throwing the ball more. I think the backs will get better. Defense is impossible to score against. Yeah, they'll probably run up against the team in the playoff better than the offense that played so far. But how can you go against Ohio State? They won it last year. Pressure's kind of off them a little bit. Ohio State's clear and obvious number one pick. I would have gone with Ohio State as well.

You know what I loved about last week against Wisconsin? As everyone's been talking about like, well, you know, has the offense really turned it on? And they threw the ball just as well or better against Wisconsin than Bama did. And we all think that Bama's passing game is an elite or the elite passing game in college football. So, you know, I agree. And then the defense to 41 total points through seven games is wild. I mean, that one would have been obvious.

This one is more difficult. All right, the second pick. I was really hoping I was going to get the first pick because so was I. Because I didn't want to be here. Oh, man. All right, I'll just tell you right now, I'm debating between two teams.

And I'm going to go with, this is against my gut. My gut tells me to go with one, but I don't know if their defense is good enough. because, as you know, Bear, the last four national champions, the worst defense of those four has been fourth in college football. Three of those defenses were number one in the country. So I'm going to go with Indiana.

Okay. Why wouldn't you? Okay. So you thought that was obvious? Yeah, like I feel like they at least prove themselves at Oregon. Now, the question I do have in the back of my mind, I don't think was obvious at all. But I would think they went and answered the question, Eugene.

The question I do have, though, is can they do that three straight weeks? Yeah, that would be interesting. But of everyone else who's out there, like, I can't argue against it. If you would have taken them and I think there are a couple other teams he could potentially take as well. But yeah, I got no issues about that. So here's why I like Indiana in this spot is that they're balanced. They can run it. They can throw it.

Mendoza's have an incredible year. And then their defense is just better than people give them credit for. They got a lot of pressure on Oregon. Look what Oregon has done against just about anybody else. And Indiana has been lights out on the defensive side. One worry that I have is that, you know, I bring up the stat about just, you know, the teams that win the national championship have a top five defense. And that's kind of why I went with Andy.

Indiana, but also national champions tend to have a top 15 at minimum roster. And Indiana does not have that now. I think that that is a flawed metric because some of these players did not have those stars coming out of high school or in the transfer portal and they're playing like that. Elijah Surat is one of those guys. And so it's not necessarily just like, what is their composite? It is for me, what is their depth like? So to your point about three straight times, if the wrong guy gets injured, do they have the depth of some of these other power brokers in the sport to go through that?

Remember all the injuries that Ohio State had on the offensive line. They were able to survive those and continue to go on and win the national championship. So that would be my fear with Indiana. But Indiana is my second pick or the second pick of the draft, my first pick. So third pick in the draft goes to you, Bear. Where are you headed? I am going to stay in the Big Ten and go to the Oregon. Now, it's a little surprise, surprise, right?

I did not expect that. Yeah, there were two teams I was considering Oregon, and then we'll see who you go with your second pick. You mentioned the roster construction and blue chips still matter. Like, Oregon's got a ton. They maybe are a little young, but they have potentially the best mix of portal and recruiting and homegrown talent. I think the loss at home may.

maybe will be a good thing. We saw Ohio State lose a couple of times last year, and it kind of serves as a little bit of a motivational-type deal. I think Dante Moore, and I think learning from what went wrong and how they can maybe correct some of those mistakes, and they weren't able to get out of some situations. They often struggled against Indiana,

and now they have a little bit of a blueprint. Okay, this is what teams are going to do to us, and now we can kind of adjust and do something else, maybe that other teams aren't ready for on film. So I love Dan Lannning. I love more. I love the defense. It did concern me a little bit that they couldn't run as well on Indiana like I thought

they would. But I think people maybe have gone a little bit too far from one extreme to the other. Like after the Penn State game, we're like, oh, my God, Oregon's number one in the country. The best team, Whiteout, they won. And they lose to Indiana. It's like, wow, they lost it home. And Indiana and went there and won. More looked terror.

The truth was always somewhere in between. But I think we've gone from one extreme to the end. other Oregon is still a very legitimate. Yeah, and they just didn't protect Dante Moore very well. And part of it was because they didn't run the football well. And then they turned around, you, you, I just like put myself in their practices last week. And you know Dan Laning after that second half was like, no, no, no, no, we're going to run the ball. And then they rolled out and put 400 and what was it, 15 yards rushing on Rutgers. So, you know, only only 750. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. Here's a bonus question.

Does Wisconsin score or they get shut out for a third straight week this week? I'll go with three points. I don't think they get in the end zone. So I was not expecting that, Bear. I thought you were going to go here. So I thought I was going to get Oregon with the fourth overall pick. So with the fourth overall pick, I'm going Alabama. Alabama looks like the team out of the SEC that is most formidable.

they continue to get better on defense. Tennessee was the number one scoring offense in the country, and granted, that game could have looked a lot different based on that sequence at the end of the first half. Could have been a 16-14 game, and then maybe it's different in the second half, but they were able to get the stop, mainly because Tennessee's coaching decisions there, I didn't think were fantastic. But this is one of the premier passing games in the country, and if they continue to get better running the football and they continue to get better on defense, then they should be right there.

And then just the run that they've been on. You talk about, you brought up, you know, with Indiana, can they win three straight games against quality opponents? Well, we've just seen Bama four straight wins against quality opponents, top 20 teams. And in fact, if you take a look at the four teams that they just beat in consecutive weeks, those teams are 23 and one against everyone not named Alabama. So they're beating really good opponents.

and I'm going to go with Bama with my fourth pick right there. So my second pick, fourth pick in the draft is Alabama. Ty Simpson is so good. And their passing game has more depth. Last year it was a lot of Ryan Williams. But now with Jeremy Bernard and these guys, like they have a real depth of weaponry on the outside. So I'm going to go with Bama right there with my fourth pick.

Yeah, yeah, Williams against Missouri didn't catch a ball. And I think that that's good, though, that they have more. variety this year because I think at times last year they really tried to rely on them too much and it didn't work but I think again maybe people were late coming around Alabama I was certainly late coming around on Ty Simpson entering the year I think what happened if Florida State was more of a a Obama issue where it was just a total one-off injuries Simpsons first road start and people they lost to Florida State and that Florida State's no good but yeah it was either going to be Oregon or Alabama there with that pick and I and I went Oregon just because

I don't necessarily know if the road will be easier, but there's still, there potentially could be something about Bama. Defensively, they do allow some yards through the air and some guys have had some big games. The defense at times is a little sketchy. So that was why I went Oregon instead of Alabama.

So fifth pick in the draft, Bears got the fifth pick in the draft. Where are you going? This is, I think I know the two teams you're thinking about right now. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think you know, you know what I know. I'm good. And it kills me because we were just talking about defense and how you have to have a top defense to win

and have that Auburn 2010 team was like the outlier in terms of defense. I'm going to go Georgia. Okay. Yeah, I know you probably think I was going the other one. The only reason I'm going to go Georgia is just because of the mentality and the inability of teams to just kill this team. They're down double digits at Auburn, come back and went down double digits of Tennessee, come back and went down nine and couldn't get a stop against Ole Miss until finally they do.

I expect, I would hope that Schumann and Kirby's defense would get maybe that was the Waterloo moment the other day or the watershed moment the other day and they're going to completely turn it around. but I just have to trust the pedigree and everything that Kirby has done there so far. And I think that win was so massive because you're probably going to beat Texas at home now. You got the Georgia Tech game in the dome in Atlanta, even if he don't make the SEC championship game,

which I don't even know if they care about making it. I know they were probably a little disappointed last year that they had to play in it. But I think they're going to be in the playoff and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they're playing January 19th, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Gunner Stockton was in New York on the second Saturday in December.

He's been so remarkable. I mean, he really has. You know, he doesn't have the talent that some of these other guys have. But I said this on my Monday show, Bear, he's starting to remind me a lot of Max Duggan at TCU, where it's just gritty and, like, gets the job done. With comparison. 12 of 12 in the second half with a few touchdowns against Ole Miss. He was terrific in crunch time against Tennessee.

Yeah, that throw to Humphrey on Fumfrey's on fourth down was ridiculous. Yeah, and so he sits there and throws great passes when they need it most. And so, like, Georgia's interesting. I am, I'm with you, though. The defense, they're like, what are they, 33rd or something in the country? Yeah, it's something like that. That makes me nervous. I've never, I mean, seeing them get gashed like they did a few times, really the entire year is jarring

because we don't expect that from Georgia, watching Ole Miss school. on their first five possessions jarring because we expect so much more from the Georgia defense. But with the sixth pick, I'm going to go with Notre Dame. So there's the answer from the Monday question.

I thought you were deciding between Georgia and Notre Dame. I'm going to go Notre Dame with the rest of their schedule. I think they're virtually a lock to get in because I do believe that the committee is going to look at those two losses that they have, even though Louisville beat Miami,

they're going to look at those two losses, A&M and Miami, and realize that those are, you know, not terrible losses, in particular when you're breaking in a brand-new quarterback and C.J. Carr, they have leaned into the run game. What they did in the run game against USC

was just flat impressive with price and love, running for a million yards. They're really physical up front, and their defense is getting better. You know, early in the year, that was alarming to see them get really, I mean cut through against A&M in particular in their past defense. But that's gotten better.

And I will say like USC can throw the football. That's one of the better offenses in college football. And they did a nice job. Obviously the weather helped them out a little bit, but just explosive on the offensive side. And they survived CJ Carr's worst game. I don't think he's going to play that poorly moving forward. I don't think he's going to give just absolute freebie from,

what, third and goal from the two and run himself back to the 18 and throw. old pick, you know, like, I don't think that that's going to happen. So for me, this is certainly a team that's going to get in. I don't think they're going to have a home game in their first round, although we'll see how it all plays out. It might be close. But there's certainly a team I wouldn't want to play in that environment, in particular if they've got to play a cold weather game, regardless of location, because they can run it so well. So Notre Dame is the sixth pick in the draft, my third pick overall. All right, so we go to, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say, it's funny because you mentioned about a virtual lock to get it,

and I would agree with you. But one of my, one of my Twitter followers and someone that I, that I have a relationship with friendly, threw up a question at me yesterday when I brought, when I brought up how I thought the, the playoff was going to stack out in terms of conference participation. Let me throw this at you and let me, and see what you think. Miami wins out, 11 and 1, do not make the ACC championship game because of the tiebreaker scenario. Georgia Tech wins out, which would be a win against Georgia. Thanksgiving weekend, 12 and 0, go to the ACC championship game. Blue is a close game to Virginia.

Whomever. The conference champion's in. Georgia Tech's got a win over a playoff team. Miami's got a win over Notre Dame. Could that be the situation maybe where 10 and 2 Notre Dame is squeezed out? Yes. Yes, in that very specific scenario, Notre Dame is squeezed out. There's no doubt.

But I'm going to stay with virtual lock, not an all-the-way lock, because I don't think that scenario is going to play out. But, man, that is a fascinating thought experiment. Because, yes, in that environment, and by the way, Virginia has done a great job this season. So I know we haven't lost the Chandler Morris throwing the pick in the end zone, NC State. They easily could be undefeated right now. That's exactly right. My gosh, college football is wild. All right. So that was Notre Dame at six. Hey, Clatio fans, it's time to get out and do something fun, whether it's catching a game, seeing a concert,

or attending another live event. So I want to give the sponsor of today's episode, Seat Geek, a massive shoutout. With over 35 million downloads, Seatgeek is the number one rated ticketing app. They've got more than 70,000 events listed, everything from sports and concerts to festival, and much more. We're in the thick of college football, the NFL season, MLB playoffs, all are going on. Our team at Joel Clat Show, we use Seatgeek for all of it. It's quick, it's easy, and you know you're getting a good deal. Seatgeek has your back. Every ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Green dots are great deals. Red means maybe keep looking. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. Now, here's the fun part. You can use code, Clat 10 for your 10% off, your next purchase

at Seatgeek. That's 10% off any ticket with promo code, Clat 10. Just click in the link in the show description below and you can download the app. That code is going to be automatically added to your account for later. Big shout out and thanks to Seatgeek for sponsoring today's show. So now seventh pick in the draft, Bear your backup. I'm going to go A&M. I mean, big physical team. I think, I bet you thought I was going somewhere else there, which is all right. I got. I love my alma mater, but I got to be realistic here. Big physical, nasty travels quarterback that can throw and run. Those receivers, Craver and Concepcion are problems.

Elko's got it right in College Station. They got a tricky game in Baton Rouge this week against LSU who is fighting to kind of save their season. But A&M is a team that I think is going to continue to get. Look, their defense again, gave up 40 in South Bend, gave up the late touchdown, gave up 30-something points to Arkansas last week. But we know about the Petrino can coach offense and his teams are always going to score points. And those games, A&M Arkansas have historically been close.

But I think A&M is a team that do I ultimately think A&M can win the national championship? Probably not. But if they get the right path, like last year, Notre Dame got the path. They got the home game against Indiana. They got a shorthanded Georgia team and they physically dominated in the course. quarterfinal, they got at Penn State, the late turnover and come back in the fourth quarter to get championship. Some team out there who's playing and hosting one of those opening round games is going to make a run to the title game with that three game run starting on their home field.

Maybe A&M can be that team. I like A&M. I kind of agree with you. This is the point in the draft where I was like, do I really think that they can win the national championship? I start to him and Haw. those first six, I will not be shocked if any of those six win the national championship. I think that's where we're at right now.

So you went A&M. I like A&M a lot. I'm going to go with Miami. And for me, Miami, if Beck just plays well, they win that game, even though they didn't play that great. And Louisville is a team in particular under Jeff Brom, who like, they're going to trip somebody up every single year. I do like the way Miami is built, even though they didn't run the football well on Friday night. I don't think Beck is going to throw four interceptions, although that's in the back of my mind. I'm like, man, I will say, like, I get worried about Miami when we get some of these

big games down the stretch, whether it's an ACC championship game if they can get into that game, or if it's a playoff game, if they're in the CFP, which I do believe they're ahead of that direction. You know, like Mario Cristobald is not a great game manager. And even the way that they were going about that last drive on Louisville, it was slow and methodical as if they wanted to settle for a 48-yard field goal to tie the game. It wasn't overly aggressive. Maybe they were gun-shy because of the three interceptions that Beck had thrown to that point. But that would be kind of a worry for me, but Miami would be my pick right there. So that's the eighth pick in the draft. Now we're out to the ninth pick in the draft.

Bear, back to you. Let's see here. I will go a team that really is not guaranteed. I mean, now we're at the point of teams that aren't really guaranteed anything of making the playoff. We thought last week prior to the game that Texas Tech was the best team in the Big 12. Injuries on the defensive line, injuries the quarterback, mad comeback at Sun double stadium there. whatever they're calling it now. Nearly came back all the way and won ASU great game.

I'll go Texas Tech. Okay. I mean, they're still a significant favorite to win the Big 12. I think if they can get their injury situation scored away, I think the schedule works out well the rest of the way. I don't think ASU will be able to run the table and hold that tie break. I think Texas Tech will be in that Big 12 championship game. I think they'll be a significant favorite depending on who they play with.

which could be BYU, could be Cincinnati, could be ASU, could be, could be anyone. But I'll go to Texas Tech just because I think they potentially have the cleanest path to get the playoff. I think they're the best overall team, even outside of that loss to ASU. And obviously, yes, injuries played a factor. Levitt comes back for ASU. I do it like the Skylar Gil Howard injury at defensive tackle. It's not great for them, you know, because I remember meeting with them before that Utah game. And they raved about Skyler Gil Howard and how he was really the key to the pass rush,

even if he wasn't the one. presenting the pass rush, you know, the commitment that the offensive line had to make to the interior allowed the edges, you know, guys like David Bailey, to have the production that he's having. So that's a big injury. And he wouldn't be back until at earliest, the postseason. So they're hoping that they can get him back for a run. But it's not a guarantee that they even make the Big 12 championship game at that point. And if you don't make the Big 12 championship game, boy, that would mean that that conference

is getting two. And again, like you kind of preface that answer, you know, we're getting into the territory of these teams may not even be in the CFP, but kind of see how it all plays out down the stretch. Okay. What are we at? 10th pick? Okay, 10th pick.

Gosh, if they could just play offense. Like, if they could just find a quarterback, I can't do it. I can't, I can't. Their defense is easily the second best defense, I think, overall in the country. And they just cannot score. So I will not take that team. I'll go Ole Miss. I'll go Ole Miss at 10.

Exact opposite of a team that can can't score. Ole Miss, all I do is score. That's right. That's right. And I went back and I, because the internet was down. And by the way, on the big noon kickoff text chain, on Saturday nights is absolutely oh, it's so good.

It's my favorite thing of the fall. And it's a mixture between like Matt and Brady insulting each other personally and then Brady will insult me personally and then we'll react to games. And then somebody... Coach will ask what Adam Z. Yeah, Adam Z has like these travel episodes

that are these always next to like a support dog that's way too big for an airplane. You know, so it's like, it's this incredible text chain. But the other thing that happens inevitably is there's a couple people on the text chain that just are fire off a text. It's like, the internet is down in the plane. No. And that was my situation last week. And so I didn't get to watch the Georgia Ole Miss game.

I had to go back on the film. And so I watched the film of the Georgia Ole Miss game. And I give that long dissertation to tell you, like, they were so impressive for the entire game. And then all the sudden, you know, the moment becomes and the environment becomes a little too big for Trinidad Chambliss. And it's like, it's probably to be, you know, I think to be fair, that's expected at that point. This is his real first, you know, like he's played some big games, but not against Georgia in that building. And he misses a couple of throws and then boom, all of a sudden you punt. And that's my fear with Ole Miss is that do they have to win a game 45, 42?

when they play a quality opponent, and they might have to. You know, the defense was misaligned several times. They allowed some easy first downs for Georgia in critical times. And then Stockton was tremendous and ran around and made a lot of plays. But at 10, I do like Ole Miss because I just, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. I couldn't take the great defense that can't play offense right now out of a wet paper bag. So at 11, I'm very interested where you're going at 11 here. Yeah, I'm going to delay, and I know you kicked off the show and said you struggled,

and I know you had All-Miss last week. That's not why I'm saying that, but were you surprised that Oklahoma was a four-and-a-half-point favorite overall Miss this week? Like, if All-Miss bounces back from that game, they can get over it. Like, they got a really good shot of going into Norman and Wayne, don't they? I was surprised at that line. I think that it might be a bit of a swing. Last week, the home team's just dominated. You know, and so, like, I was guilty of taking a lot of points.

You know, Tennessee, I thought that was too big of a line. I took the points there. I took the points with Ole Miss. There was another one, LSU, I took the points on the road. And, like, you know, deep into October, you play league games on the road. Those are really difficult against quality of opponents. So maybe that's playing into this. And I do know, like, Oklahoma's defense is a real thing.

And it's not like Texas went up and down the field on them to score those points. You know, they had a couple of good breaks, a couple of short fields. A return. And so you look up. And if you're looking at like the top three defenses in the country right now, scoring defenses, Oklahoma's number two behind Ohio State. If you're looking at at stop rate, which a lot of people look at stop rate, they're number two behind Ohio State.

So bear like, long story short, I think that's maybe why it swung that direction towards OU just because they're at home and in-com. conference, but maybe that's it. But you are up here at 11. Are you going to you? I'm thinking about it, but I don't know if they can make it through this gauntlet with more than one loss, and that's probably fewer than one loss, and that's what they're going to need. It's a feel-good story, and they have no chance of winning the national title. But wouldn't it be great to see Vandy beat Missouri, go to Texas and win, go to Neeland in Wings, sitting there 11 and 1, get to the playoff.

Diego Povey is in New York to be at the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Why not, right? Clark Lee has done an awesome. They are so well coached. The offensive line is so underrated. They're physical. They run the ball so well. They're not going to win, but you know what?

In 11, they might not even make the playoff. You know what? I don't dislike it. I mean, and here's the thing. Yes, they lost at Alabama. They had a chance to control that game if Pavia doesn't turn it over. They have a chance to go up 14-0-0. On the road in Tuscaloosa, that is a good football team.

I think people still of our generation and age, they see the V on the helmet, V&D, gold, and they think it's, okay, they're going to lose 53-0 to Bama, and they really can't be very good. but ever since Bobby Johnson, James Franklin had some grabby teams. Now, Clark Lee's kind of taken him to the next level, and they've done a very good talent acquisition program there. And I'm not so. People keep throwing Clark Lee's name out there, like leaving for other jobs.

Like, I'm not sold. He's going anywhere. Yeah, that's interesting. Is this like a Kurt Signetti mold? You know, I mean, you kind of think like, well, Kurt Signetti will go to Penn State, and then boom, he gets $11.6 million. I don't know the resources or what they would do. But Clark Lee will be absolutely on a short list of all these openings.

There's no doubt Penn State will at least call them at some point. I think Florida will at least call them at some point. I don't know if Mike Norvell is going to survive at Florida State. I don't know if Brian Kelly is going to survive at LSU. That means that there's going to be probably some openings within the SEC like maybe Ole Miss. if Lane were to jump to one of those locations. Maybe Eli Drinkowitz jumps to one of those locations. And then all of a sudden, you know, Clark Lee is going to have his opportunity to go to a program, you know, as those dominoes fall.

So, I mean, call me nostalgic. I'd love to see him stay. You know, and just like build something like Signetti is hoping to do at Indiana. All right. Last pick in the draft. Here we go. Mr. Irrelevant. This is Mr. Irrelevant of the national championship draft.

I do not think the. These teams are going to win the national championship. I don't think these three teams might even make the playoff. In fact, I would bet against these. So here's, since you don't have another pick, I am debating between Texas, Oklahoma, and I know this sounds crazy, but after I saw them go back to their roots, Michigan. Those are my three that I'm debating right now at 12. For that to happen.

So Michigan, Michigan's got to beat Ohio State. That's exactly right. And I don't love that. So that's kind of the least likely. I hate Oklahoma's gauntlet. And Texas has to go to Georgia. So again, like, I don't know if any of these three teams are even going to go to the playoff, to be quite honest with you.

But I guess I'll just, I'll go back to basics myself and I'll go defense. Like, if Arch figures it out at all, at all, then Texas. They've got a great roster, a great defense. It was a favorite. It was a favorite before the year started, and now they just kind of falling apart on offense. But I'm with you. I'm sorry to cut you off. But yes, I think of the teams you just mentioned, that would have been more right away.

I don't love their chances in Athens. Although, you know, what have we been talking about with Georgia? Bear is like that defense is not great, you know? So is it a get right type of game and a big game for Arch and that offense for Texas? I just can't, I can't. I can't see a scenario where Texas doesn't figure it out at some point offensively. Sark's too good of an offensive coach. But obviously that offense worries me.

Listen, there's going to be teams, like I said, I don't know if Texas is even going to go to the playoff. Missouri probably has a better chance to go to the playoff. Georgia Tech probably has a better chance to go to the playoff. And so that's kind of where I said. I'm not taking a group of six team in a national championship draft. I might as well go with the best overall roster left available, the best overall defense available on the board, and an offense that you've got to at least think at some point can break out.

And maybe it's in Athens and they're able to win. Although, gosh, Georgia losing two games at home in a season. Yeah, after having, what, a 33 game on winning streak? Yeah, right. Here's the other, like, funny one as you're sitting here, when you were mentioning like teams that can't score before, like I was in using great defense. I was thinking you were maybe looking at LSU

because that's another team that would surprise anybody if they beat A&M and beat Alabama and found themselves somehow sitting there at 10 and 2 when all instead is done. I mean, that defense is great, and it's not like Nussmeyer is a terrible quarterback. He hasn't had the year people thought, but they could totally figure it out.

And then what happens at the Big 12? I mean, could you imagine if BYU or a team like maybe even Cincinnati wins the league? And then you're talking about a complete team off the matter. That's exactly right. You mentioned something that I wanted to just touch on again before I kind of recap these picks. You said, like, I don't know if Georgia would even want to play in the SEC championship game. I don't think people realize the blunder that is going to straight seating.

And I understand it was flawed last year. I totally get it. I totally get it. and teams got buys that certainly weren't top four seeds. But the devaluing of what's going to be the Big Ten championship game and even the SEC championship game is going to be severe. There's a chance that we have in the Big Ten championship game, two undefeated. Now, maybe you could say, hey, they want the number one overall seed,

but what is the loser going to get? The two seed? You know, the three seed, maybe at worst. And you like, you get the buy and you get to move to the other side of the bracket. That's exactly right. So I don't know. I don't know. That'll be interesting.

Maybe Georgia would want that extra week off and get right and get healthy and get their defense to play a little bit better. To follow up on that. So you're saying that if you're in the, if you're Indiana, Ohio State loser, you would rather have the home game in the opening round and not be, get the, get the automatic, get the buy through to the, through the quarters and play on a neutral site. I would always take the buy just because you get an extra week, right, to rest. There was something last year, and maybe it was the unbalanced nature of the seeds. But when we got to, like, winning that first playoff game and the momentum that it built for the teams that won the first round of the playoff at home, and then watching every team that had a buy lose in the, quote, second round, because they had to go play on a new. site. See, for me, like, this would be a lot better if we just moved the quarterfinals

to campus so that the best teams in the country got their first playoff game at home. That's a huge advantage. Look at what we were just talking about about road environments and how difficult it was for some of these road teams to go and even just cover, much less win the football game. And yet, we're saying, hey, your reward for one of the four best seasons in the entire sport is you got to go play on a neutral corporate event. I don't love that. Yeah, I don't either. Because you look at last year as well,

and I think, again, it was because the bracket was so unbalanced. Oregon's reward for beating Ohio State in the regular season, beating Penn State in the Big Ten championship game. Yeah, we're number one. We're undefeated. Oh, by the way, go beat Ohio State again in the Rose Bowl, at least for sure.

Let me recap the picks here. All right. So here's how it went for us, the national championship draft. Again, if you kind of scrolled through and you missed the beginning, Bear and I just selected in a draft fashion, picked teams solely for the purpose to win the national championship, not make the playoff, not doing anything, just win the national championship. Bear had the first pick in the draft. He took Ohio State.

I had the second pick in the draft. I took Indiana. The third pick was Oregon to Bear. I went with Bama at four. Bear went Georgia at five. I went Notre Dame at six. Bear went seven with Alabama. I went to Miami at eight,

tech at nine. I went Ole Miss at 10. Bear went Vandy. I love that pick at 11. And then the 12th pick, I went with Texas. So there's Bears picks up for you right there. And again, this was fun, man, the thought experiment. Hey, you can check out Bear and his podcast, Bear Betts on Monday, Thursday, and Friday.

You can check out Bruce and Bear on Friday. Of course, you will find them every week on Big Noon kickoff every Saturday morning. We are going to be live in Bloomington bear as Indiana hosts UCLA this week. Can't wait for that one. Can't wait to see Indiana Live and then just kind of feel the energy around this resurgent Bruins team with Tim Skipper and Jerry Newheisel and Nico I, Malayava. That's going to be quite a scene. But, man, I appreciate you coming on. This was an incredible idea you had.

and thank you for letting me steal it and putting it on this show and being a part of it. I appreciate it, bud. Of course, absolutely. Anytime. Happy to do it. And like you said, a good fun thought exercise.

Give me an I.O. Oh, wait. Come on. That's right. First pick. Fair. Thanks so much, man. That was really fun.

I love those types of thought experiments. I hope you did as well. Remember, leave a comment down below. I'll try my best to get down there and interact with you in the comments. Subscribe to the show on YouTube. Follow us on social media. Joel Klatshow, wherever you like to social media.

We'll be back tomorrow with picks and previews, and that's right. It's going to turn around. Don't worry. It cannot be as bad as last week, I think.