The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Deion Sanders & Colorado are for real, Georgia bounces back, Oregon survives & Klatt’s Top 10

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Colorado’s emphatic win over Utah and breaks down why Coach Prime’s team is for real in the surprising Big 12 and why Travis Hunter deserves to be the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. He then discusses Georgia’s big win over Tennessee and how it affected his ranking of the top teams in the SEC. Klatt considers whether Oregon’s comeback win vs Wisconsin is cause for concern for the Ducks. He answers mailbag questions about what changes he’d most like to see in the sport and whether teams are better off in the eyes of the Committee not making Conference Championship Games altogether rather than making it and adding a loss to their CFP resume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The odds makers are making that abundantly clear to every fan of college football, every pundant in college football, is that this guy is the favorite to win the Heisman trophy. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. 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 all over again.

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the program. This is to Joel Clatio. I am Joel Cladden. This show is always brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. We thank them for their support, as always. And we thank you for watching. We thank you for listening wherever you're listening. Wherever you're listening, we're consuming this program. We very much appreciate your passion and your enthusiasm for this great sport that we all love. Remember wherever you're listening, rate and review us, wherever you get your podcast. If you are watching on YouTube, congratulations, way to go. Subscribe to the show, please, and hit that notification button down below, leave a comment, do all the things.

then wherever you like to social media, we're there as well. You can leave us comments there. You can interact with us on social media. You can find our content there at Joel Clat Show on social media. Okay, great reaction here because, again, it was a tremendous day of college football. It always delivers, and it just delivers even more this year because we've got such a larger inventory of meaningful games because of the expanded playoff. And now all of a sudden we're sitting there. Gus and I are sitting in Boulder College. Colorado watching a Utah team that's struggling coming off of five losses playing a Colorado team that's seven and two. And it has huge impacts on the college football playoff. That's what I love about this expanded playoff.

And I believe that's what you love about it as well is it hasn't just expanded the playoff, but has expanded the meaningful games that we're seeing and witnessing here in the regular season and Saturday was no different. Let's start there. Colorado, that's a statement win. I know that Utah had lost five in a row. But the way that it happened, and at least to me, said volumes about what Colorado could potentially be on the top end. So they win the game 49-24. And the score maybe wasn't indicative of the game because they got a couple of late scores.

But I will just say, and I'll point out, you look up and they scored 49, really 42 with their offense because of a punt return for a touchdown. So a special team's touchdown. And then you look up there and you're like, you know, they didn't even play great on the offensive side, and they're rolling up 42 offensive points against Utah 49 total. That's pretty darn good. Shador Sanders was pedestrian at times early in the game, and yet you look up, and what is he?

He's 73 percent, 340 yards, three touchdowns. So this team at their best is incredibly explosive on the offensive side. I thought that they did some really small. things on offense. I thought that they did some things that Utah had a ton of trouble with. One of the things that I really loved from what they did is that Shador manages the game well. You saw that on the fourth down play early in the game that ended up being the touchdown. He goes with kind of the double clap, the hard cadence, if you will, in order to draw Utah offsides. He gets the free play and he immediately goes upstairs.

If you're going to go later in the game on a fourth down, you're watching it right now on YouTube, that great catch by Travis Hunter. What does he do? He throws it to it to him. a high point. So like, Chodor does some incredibly smart things. And yet he would even tell you that he was off early in that game, a couple of turnovers, the pick on the very first throw. He dropped a snap. And yet you look up 30-31, 340, and three touchdowns. That's pretty remarkable for a game in which maybe you don't play your best. So you look up in Colorado scores 49. And then you realize that this defense was finally healthy. This defense, they weren't suffering from some of the injuries that the offense for Utah was

suffering from. Is offense what, excuse me, is Utah what they should be right now? No, obviously. And that is born out of a number of injuries on the offensive side. And yet, the defense is actually healthy. The defensive front played dominantly against BYU, an undefeated team last week. Isaac Wilson actually, I thought, played his best game in the second half. And Colorado scores 49. The last time that Utah gave up 49. points was 2014 to Mariotas Oregon team. So like, guys, Colorado's pretty freaking good.

This is not the team that lost to Nebraska. This isn't even the team that lost Kansas State. I think we have to leave room for the fact that this team has developed into a top-tier team. And at its best, Colorado is the best team in the Big 12 right now. They're the most explosive, their quality on defense, and that would be my next point. This defense, led by Travis Hunter on the outside, who does get an interception in that game, is incredibly disruptive up front. That was not the case a year ago. And, I mean, that's obvious. They lost the battle up front on almost all occasions last year.

Both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. And now this defense, this defensive front is active. They're disruptive. And then better yet, they're productive. And again, they were productive in this ballgame. Four sacks for Colorado. nine tackles for loss behind the line of scrimmage. And now you look up and in their last six games, Colorado has 28 sacks.

That's the third most in college football. Only behind Ole Miss and Boise State. And Boise States actually played one more game within that time frame. So I think it's time to stop thinking about Colorado as a flash in the pan, as a PR stunt. This team does things that are going to be very difficult. to beat. And again, at their best, and every team does not play at their best all the time. And Colorado doesn't even play at their best for an entire game, which Coach Sanders talks about a little bit. But at their best, they are the best team in the Big 12 because they've got the foundational

pieces on defense to win the line of scrimmage, pressure the quarterback, create disruptive plays, tackles for loss. They've got excellent cover guys in the back in, including Travis Hunter, who's likely going to be the Heisman Trophy winner if they continue to win. This is a team that is playing as good as anybody in the Big 12 and certainly deserves to be ranked right there around that 12-13 mark. I think higher than what the AP should rank them or did rank them. Part of that is that you get the foundational pieces that I've talked about, but then you also get this unicorn player in Travis Hunter.

And rather than me try to describe what I saw, Let's ask his quarterback. This was Shudor talking with Jenny Taft after the game. Well, I have to ask for Dior about this guy because this week you were so vocal about why he deserves the Heisman. Tell me again, state your case for him. He's the best playing in the country, hands down, no doubt. There's not a lot of guys that could do what he do on the offense and defense. So it's really tough to compare him to anybody else because I feel like if he was at a different program,

they don't like us so much. they hit on us too. So it's real hard. And it makes me sad that they don't give a guy like him as credit because that's generational. It ain't going to happen again for a long time. That's right. Everything he said is dead on accurate. You might not like hearing it.

But everything that Shador Sanders just said about Travis Hunter is absolutely right. He is the best player in the country. No one's going to do this in this generation. And maybe a few more to come what he's doing. He played, again, 32 snaps. That's insane. He played 132 snaps in this one coming off of a game at Texas Tech that he played 170 snaps. He's producing on both sides at a level that's probably going to get him into the finalist conversation for both the Thorpe Award for Best Defensive Back and the Blitnikoff Award for Best Wide Receiver. He gets a rushing touchdown, which was incredible. And he provided not only another interception, but one of the catches of the year.

on a fourth down. Travis, and you know what, the only part that I will disagree with, with Chodor, and maybe even Dion as well as, I do think he's getting his flowers. I'm certainly giving him his flowers here. And I think others are starting to come around because the odds makers are making that abundantly clear to every fan of college football, every pundant in college football, is that this guy is the favorite to win the Heisman trophy because it's supposed to go to the best player in college. football. That's known right now. Travis is the best player in college football. That's known. Are there other players that are having great seasons? Yes, absolutely. And so I don't want this to be

some sort of argument that I'm trying to dis another player or subtract from a great season that they're having. But truth be told, Travis is the best player in college football. And that's pretty clear at this point. The odds makers are making that clear. I think a lot of people are making that clear. And if they continue to win and they get into that Big 12 championship game, then it is going to be his. And so just to button this up on Colorado, you're getting the things that you wouldn't expect like their defensive dominance. And then you pair that with the best quarterback in the country. And Chodor Sanders and the best player in the country and Travis Hunter, and they're going to be very difficult to beat. They're eight and two. They control their own destiny to

get to the Big 12 championship game. They control their own destiny to go to the college football playoff. It's quite something. It's quite something. Hunter is now as much in some sports books as minus 500 to win the Heisman Trophy. So he came into last week as minus like 110. He's grown his odds, or I guess subtracted his odds, however you want to call it that. But basically his odds are more in his favor to win the Heisman Trophy. Speaking of kind of the Big 12 race, because it's getting interesting, so I'll touch on this for a moment. Kansas goes on the road and beats BYU and ends BYU's undefeated season. On the road at night in Provo, that is impressive.

And this is something that we talked about last week on the preview episode. With Jalen Daniels and this Kansas team, when they stayed clean from a turnover perspective, they were insanely difficult to beat. And even though their record has not been anywhere near what we thought it would be this year. I mean, let's face it, in preview episodes for the season, and I was touting Kansas as a Big 12 title contender and maybe even a playoff contender, that hasn't happened for Lance Lippold, didn't go their way. A lot of those were one-score games, could have gone their way.

And in a lot of those games, like five of their six losses were one-score games. They were, I believe, coming into this one-frey-U-O and five in one-score games. They just couldn't get it done, largely because of the turnover issue. And that was largely Jalen Daniels issue. Now all of a sudden they roll out there and they beat BYU, and this is something that we could kind of see coming. The odds makers saw it coming, making, I think BYU is only like a three and a half point favorite. I took the three and a half with Kansas.

So Kansas goes out there and get that wins, which then lends you to like look at BYU and like, well, what is BYU really at this point? And for BYU, I know that the Cougar fans have been upset with where I have ranked or not ranked BYU to be more specific. But I've seen this coming week after week ever since we were there actually in Provo. They handled Arizona the next week they needed the miracle finish against Oklahoma State to win. And they just haven't been a dominant team really since. Even against UCF, you know, like they gave up a lot of points. You saw the game against Utah, a game that they really were dead to rights in.

They have a fourth down holding call against Utah. They give them some life and then they took advantage of that. they get the field goal. This was coming for BYU. And now they play a team that outside of Colorado is the hottest team in the Big 12 next week. They're going to face Arizona State in Tempe. And Kenny Dillingham is doing some great work with Arizona State. Arizona State picked to finish dead last in the Big 12 this year, dead last. And Kenny Dillingham, remember, he was the offensive coordinator for Dan Laning in his first year at Oregon.

And then he left to be the head coach at Arizona State. and they've had to deal with that entire cleanup from the previous regime, including some sanction issues and some program structural things that he's had to rebuild through. And now Arizona State is sitting here, they're 8 and 2. Just loving the development from Kenny Dillingham and Scataboo out there, just getting it done. Now, he wasn't as productive as he's been previously in the season. Remember, two weeks ago he didn't play, he was banged up, Scataboo.

They're running back. And then this one against Kansas State, they went on the road and they got a win against Kansas State, which a lot of people did not think that they were going to do. But Scataboo wasn't even his dominant self, 25 carries, only like 75 yards in that game. And so this team around Scataboo is doing things that I think that surprise maybe even them this year. It's happening quickly at Arizona State. Credit Kenny Dillingham, because this guy has got them playing very hard. I like what they're able to do.

And now all of a sudden they're ranked number 21. in the AP poll, they're going to face BYU and Tempe, and they control their own destiny. And the standings in the Big 12 look wild. BYU, 6 and 1, Colorado, 6 and 1. They're tied at the top. Iowa State sitting there with Arizona State tied for third at 5 and 2. So Arizona State controls their own destiny to get to the Big 12 championship game. Wild, man, I'm telling you, like, who would have predicted what has gone on in the Big 12?

By the way, the bottom two teams of the Big 12 right now are like, Utah and Oklahoma State, which before the year, you would have said those were going to be the best two teams in the Big 12. It's crazy. It's crazy. I think Arizona State has got a great chance to beat BYU. The trajectory of their seasons are going in the opposite direction. You've got BYU kind of trending downward while Arizona State is trending upward and BYU you better watch out because all of a sudden they could be a week after being undefeated and in the driver's seat, they could be on the outside looking in if all of a sudden they were to fall to the Sun Devils on Saturday and Tempe. Let's move to the SEC. Georgia reasserts itself in the SEC. That was a dominant performance from Georgia at home over Tennessee, 3117. And it wasn't just that it was 3117. It was the fact that in the last three quarters

of that game, Georgia went on a 31 to 7 run. It was a dominant performance. from Georgia. And in a lot of ways, was finally the Georgia that we've all been waiting to see. We saw a little glimpse of this earlier in the year in that second half against Alabama when they staged that incredible comeback. We saw a little bit of this Georgia against Texas, although again, I would repeat, like that game was about short fields for their offense. I thought that this week for Georgia was the first time that you got to see dominant defense and quality efficient offense all put together into one. one game. All put together into one game. The 317 route after the first quarter was as

impressive as Georgia has been all year. And I get it. They've beaten Texas on the road, which we don't see a lot of that in the SEC. We do not see a lot of teams go on the road to these, I would say, upper tier teams and win. Georgia was able to do that. But this game was even a better performance because it was a more holistic performance. It was a more balanced performance. If you've listened to this program for any length of time, first of all, thank you. I love that you're here, and I appreciate that you're here. And you will have heard me say that I didn't think that Georgia had a Carson Beck issue. That was kind of the narrative swirling around Georgia.

I didn't think it was Beck. When I watched the tape, Beck wasn't getting much help at all. like, for instance, the old Miss game. The offensive line played terrible. He's under duress. The wide receivers are dropping passes. So Beck's not getting really any help. And there was all this, you know, like people,

it was this talking point. Carson Beck, Carson Beck. What happened to Carson Beck? Carson Beck's fine. He's fine. And when his team decided to play to his level, they were pretty dominant. So you look up in their offensive line,

way better in this game, way better. No sacks, only two TFLs allowed and against a really good Tennessee front. We've been singing the praises of the Tennessee Front 7 for a long time and rightly so. And Georgia held them at bay. So their offensive line played much better. The wide receivers played way better.

I liked the game playing a lot. lot more. They got him on the move. There was things moving. He was accurate. The offense for Georgia finally looked like the offense we've seen over the last couple of years. Remember, coming into this last week, Georgia was 50th in total offense in college football. The last two years, they were in the top five. And what we saw against Tennessee Saturday night was more along the lines of a top five offense than a 50th offense. You know, I think they put up over 450 yards. You know, I think they put up over 450 yards. So great performance from Georgia. And to me, it's like, that's what I was kind of expecting. That's what I was kind of expecting. Really all year, and we hadn't seen that. Last week, I told you

that the anomaly was the quality play. And the norm for Georgia was the kind of like, what was that performances like we've seen against Kentucky and others? And what we saw against Tennessee was finally that ceiling, the top level. This is what they can be. That's definitely a team that can go win a national championship. And so then you look at Tennessee. Let me just quickly say this about Tennessee. I think Tennessee is a hell of a football team. I really do.

They are a top echelon team. There's no doubt, but they are not a top level team. All right. And those two things are different. Those two things are different. There are teams that can play great, and then there are teams that can win on the top level. level. And when I say went on the top level, I mean like you can win a national championship.

And I just don't feel like that about Tennessee right now. And I'm going to tell you exactly why. Tennessee right now is maxing out what they can do because of the way that they kind of play offense. So I felt this way about this offense for a long time. And it's a really hard opinion to give because it's an insanely productive offense. And it's an offense that can, at times, look like the best offense in college football. But this offense that they use, and really it has its origins back at Baylor under Art Bryles, and it's this spread, high pressure, downfield choice route, like passing game. And it's so spread out that you've got run game issues for the defense.

and if you can run the football, now they have to make a decision. Are they defending the runner? Are they defending the pass? And you've got these wide receiver splits that are way outside of the numbers. And here's what it's predicated on. Space and athletes. That's what it is. It's forcing you into a position that you're uncomfortable in as a defense

because if you're using that offense, you're banking on the fact that the guys that you have with the ball are better than the athletes that are trying to tackle them. And so you're putting that situation in space where there's a microscope on it or a spotlight on it, where one win for you creates even a bigger win because of the space there. So that's well and good until the other athletes are just as good as you. And this is what would happen to Baylor back in the day. And this is now what happens to Tennessee.

this offense has a ceiling. And you can tell me it can be the number one offense in college football, that's fine. As long as your athletes are better than the opposition, because when the talent is equated, and this is what it means to be on the top level is to win matchup games. So this is how I define matchup games is that you've got the same amount of talent on your roster as they do on theirs. Who wins a matchup game? You see, you can't implore systems that bank on the fact that you're going to have better players than your You just can't do that.

You can't win match-up games like that. Can you win here or there and you get them in your environment? And can it, yes, but can it sustain itself to a championship? Probably not. Probably not. Because someone's going to figure you out. And if you don't have a secondary pitch, if you don't have a secondary option as an offense, then you're going to get shut down.

And that's what we see from Tennessee. Look at this year in the games in which they have a clear athlete advantage, they're scoring a lot of points. And in the games that you would consider their athletic advantage minimized, they don't. They don't. And the reason is because there's not a second pitch. Like, where do you go when the athletes in space philosophy isn't working? You see, you've got to have an answer.

So if you look at the other great teams in the country, I think that they have an answer. Ohio State has an answer. They can throw it. They can run it. They can get big. They can get small. They can do a lot of different things. I think Georgia is probably the same way, as long as their wide receivers are playing well.

Texas can do this. Alabama can do this. Oregon can do this. They've got options. You take something away from them. Even if it's their bread and butter, they've got an answer. We can go do something else. And I don't feel like that about Tennessee.

So that's why for me, I'm really concerned about Tennessee at the top level. Is this a national championship caliber team? I do not think it is. And it's for that reason. That doesn't mean that they can't be really good. And it doesn't mean that they can't win games that are matchup games and in particular in their home stadium. But it's not sustainable because at some point you don't have your fastball. And if you don't have a secondary pitch, then you don't get outs to continue the baseball analogy.

So in the SEC now, this is what I love about the SEC is that we do have an expanded playoff. I believe that the top five or six teams, all of them could potentially win a national championship because any of them can beat any of them on any given day. Now, save for maybe Tennessee and A&M, because of what I already said for Tennessee and A&M, I don't think is quite on the level of those upper tier teams. But if you talk about those top level teams, any of them can beat any of them. They have. And they have.

You know, outside of Georgia beating Texas in Austin, nobody wins on the road. And so a lot of it is environment-based and game location, So let's do this. Let's separate Texas because they only have one loss. And let's take a look at the two lost teams in the SEC. And let's try to rank them. And it's going to give you a little bit of an insight into why I ranked my top 10 the way that I did. So let's first take a look at my top 10. In my top 10, I kept Oregon up there, even though they were sluggish against Wisconsin, but got the win. And more on that in a little bit, by the way. and I think I'm going to blow you away with a little bit of a stat about Oregon season. I still have got Ohio State up there. I've got Texas up there.

Indiana is still undefeated, and I think that they're better than people realize. Same with Penn State. So I'm in line with the committee and the AP up there. And then you've got to rank these SEC teams. I think that they're all better than Notre Dame. So I put Notre Dame at 10, and then you've got to parse out all the two loss SEC teams. You've got Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, and Tennessee, and they've all kind of beat each other.

So you've got to have some way to differentiate one from the other. You can't just use head-to-head because then you just go in a circle. You just go in a circle. So what did I use? Here's what I use. I said, who are you at your best? Let's take everybody's ceiling and let's rate the ceilings and then place them in my rankings based on their ceiling.

Well, then it starts to be a lot more clear because Georgia at their best is better than all of these teams. Because Georgia at their best can go and beat Texas on the road. None of the other teams have won on the road really with any substance over another great team. So that went on the road. They handled Tennessee in that game at home. And remember, they've just had to play more of these than everybody else. Their schedule is the only reason they're 8 and 2.

If you were to swap schedules with Texas, they're absolutely at minimum a one-loss team. I truly believe that. I mean, heck, they've played four games against the 10. top six teams in the SEC, three of them on the road. So the schedule has been very difficult. So at their best, they're sealing. I put Georgia up there at the top. Then I went with Ole Miss because they're the only team that thoroughly dominated Georgia for really an entire game.

Maybe it was weather related, you know, whatever it was, maybe it was environment related. They played great in that game. So at their best, Ole Miss is right behind Georgia. Behind Ole Miss at their best is Alabama. Alabama was great for a half against the Bulldogs. They were tremendous on the road against LSU, although that win on the road in Baton Rouge is starting to lose its luster just a little bit with the way that LSU season is going down the tank.

Next, I put Tennessee in there, and it's because their win over Alabama was really their ceiling, and it was at home by one score. So everybody else's ceiling is just a little bit above Tennessee, and A&M isn't really in that equation because, well, let's face it, a loss at South Carolina where they were totally dominated and their best win was a comeback win over LSU, which has fallen off the map.

So A&M doesn't really get into this discussion in the top 10. They fall just outside of that. One, they lost to Notre Dame, which is in the top 10. And then these other four, their ceiling is a lot better or a lot higher. And that's how I landed on that rank. And a lot of people are like, how can you have Ole Miss right behind Georgia after we just saw Ole Miss beat Georgia? Fair. That's totally fair. And yeah, I know Alabama beat Georgia as well, but guess what?

Georgia then beat Tennessee, which beat Alabama. You know, like, you can go around and around and around. And I just went to ceilings. I went to their high end and I said, who do I think is best? That's how I found or fell on that ranking. Is it right? I don't know. I don't know. But that's the way that I landed on them. Let's get to Oregon, shall we? Because how about Oregon goes to Wisconsin and they win 16-13? And it's like, well, I didn't see that coming because a big portion or reason why we all thought Oregon was clearly the number one team. And maybe they still are.

But they were the number one team because we just hadn't seen them throw out the stinker after they got themselves together in the non-conference. Remember, the first couple of games were their worst couple of games. And then they started to develop into a team that did not play poorly, and they didn't play poorly ever. They were as consistent a bunch as anybody in college football. They get a win over Ohio State by one, and it's like, dang, dang, they just do not throw out that game where you scratch your head and you think to yourself, what was that? What was that? And now we finally got it. 16, 13, in a comeback fashion on the road against Wisconsin.

And you scratch your head and you think to yourself, well, what was that? They trailed 13.6 going into the fourth quarter. They did the jump around with everybody in there. And then all of a sudden, here they were. They get the win. The offense was held to a season low, by the way, 16 points. And then I started thinking to myself like, well, guess what? Everybody in the country has one of these in conference.

play. The fact that Oregon didn't have this type of game in conference play until this point is actually pretty remarkable. Everybody else has done this. Everybody else has done this. So is it cause for concern? No. This is not cause for concern. If anything, it shows that they can go out there and win one of these games and not lose a game like some of the other teams have this year that they shouldn't have. They've also played eight straight games in conference. So hold on for a second. You look around the country and I started thinking to myself, I was like, wait, when was

their first buy? Because their next buy is this week. They're off this week. They're idle. And then they're going to play Washington, excuse me, to finish the year. So they've got this week off, which means it was like, wait, where was their first buy? And I was like, after the non-conference, which means Oregon just played eight straight conference games in consecutive weeks. They're the only team in the country that has done that.

The only team. And in those seven previous weeks to the Wisconsin game, they won seven of them by at least 19 points, so three scores. And the only one that was close was Ohio State. So they win a one-score game against Ohio State. They win six other conference games by a minimum of three scores, all in a seven-week stretch consecutively. They've got a buy week coming up. They go on the road at night to Wisconsin,

and they throw out a stinker but still win. Everybody has done this. So this is why I'm not concerned. And guess what? I know Saturday night I said like, oh, I don't feel great about putting them at number one. I put that in the tweet, don't feel great about it. And after thinking about it, and after looking at their season a little bit more,

and doing a little bit of research for this program, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, hold on a second. Everybody has done this. You are going to throw out a stinker at some point. You are going to have a game where you're not at your best. And the key is, if you're a great team, is that you can still win that game. Think about it. Georgia beat Kentucky 13 to 12.

Penn State beat USC 3330 in overtime. Texas beat Vandy 2724. Alabama got a win over South Carolina, 2725. Tennessee beat Florida, 2317 in overtime at home. So those are the games that teams won. It's like, hey, we allowed them to go throw out a stinker and everything was fine. I think the same should be afforded to Oregon. And by the way, there are other teams that went out, played by

poorly and lost. Ole Miss lost an OT at LSU, 2926. They also lost to Kentucky. Tennessee lost 1914 to Arkansas. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. So folks, college teams aren't going to be at their best every single week. We were spoiled by Oregon and they were doing it against a schedule that nobody else had to have to face. as far as a schedule makeup is concerned,

eight consecutive, eight consecutive games. In conference, no buy. That's pretty remarkable. And at the end, they throw out the one game where they don't play well, and you know what?

I'm now more impressed with them than maybe I was before because they were still able to get a win when they weren't out their best. That's not always easy to do. Let's hit the mailbag, shall we? Let's get to a couple of questions. in the mailbag. You can always

send us mailbag questions. I believe the mailbag is the Joel Clasheel mailbag at gmail.com. Okay? And this mailbag is brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. And so let's get to it, shall we? Let's get out to the mailbag and check out

Matt D. Matt D comes in and he gets respect. How would the committee handle it if a two-loss SEC team makes the SEC championship game and loses in that game. Are they immediately out of contingent for the playoff because they have three losses? And if we think that's the case, aren't teams better off not winning the SEC championship tiebreaker and sitting at home resting rather than going out there and potentially

losing them there and getting one of the at large spots? Excuse me. Basically, the gist of this is two-lossed SEC team goes to the SEC championship game. that game, are they still in the playoff? I shortened the email to that. The answer is yes. I do not think that they will be penalized for that 13th data point, nor should they. Greg Sanky touched on this and I actually totally agree with his take. I would say the same thing about a Big Ten team if this was a Big Ten situation. There probably will be, in fact, I know that there will be a two-loss team in the SEC championship game. Therefore, that team, if they were to

lose would absolutely still go. So the tiebreakers and how they are set up right now, Alabama controls their own destiny to get to the SEC championship games. So the most likely, based on the way that the odds work, let's just say Texas beats Texas A&M. Okay, they're ranked higher. Let's just say, and I know that it'll be a tough game in Kyle Field, but let's just say Texas beats Texas A&M, they would go to the SEC championship game. And if Alabama wins out, they would play Alabama. If Texas were to beat Alabama, would Alabama as a, at that point, what would they be? They would be a 10 and 3 team.

Would they still go to the playoff? Yes, I still believe that they would go to the playoff. Because to me, I wouldn't think, and I would suggest to the committee, that you do not punish them for going and qualifying for that game. I don't think that that would be the case. In fact, you would elevate them. In fact, I would honor them and actually try to get them into a seating that would get them a home game rather than a team that just sat at home.

So personally, the 13th data point can only help you. And I think that's the case this year in the SEC. It'll be the case moving forward in either conference, the SEC or the Big Ten, because those are the two conferences that this is most likely to happen because of the depth and strength of the conferences. And certainly we're seeing that play out in the SEC this year. So to answer your question, is that going to be held against these teams? No, I do not believe that that's the case.

All right, we do have time for one more. So let's get out there. Let's get one more mailbag question. Nick T. writes and he says, Hey, Joel, I'm a huge Buckeye fan, and I love when you and Gus call our games. My question for you is maybe a good idea for an off-season discussion. But if you had God powers in college football, let's call it Commissioner Powers in college football. What changes would you make to the sport and why? You can make college football anything you want for the better.

What would you do? First of all, I love this. and I'm in, by the way. If you want to tap me, if we're handing out cabinet positions around out, if you want to tap me for some sort of cabinet position in college football, I'm all game. I am ready to go. And it's actually pretty simple.

And it's not just one thing that I would do. It's a series of things to make the structure of the college football world work a lot better for both players. No, three people, three people, the players, the coaches, and the fans. I think I can make it better for everybody. So you ready? Here we're going to do this. The first thing that I would do, number one, is I would organize the players. So there would be a player's body or association, okay?

At that point, then you can do the second thing, which I think is vital, is force agents to register. We need agents to register so we know exactly what's going on. And then the third thing that I would do, this is the third thing that I would do, this is the third thing that I would do. is that I would have the conferences hold the contracts for the players. Okay? So this is what all of this is going to do. All right, let's start with the Players Association. Once the players are, let's just call it unionized, organized, whatever it is,

then you can start to collectively bargain with them. Once you can collectively bargain with the players as a group, you can start to limit the way that they move around. All right? I do believe that this is still pro player, and I do believe that this is still pro program, because all of those things are what we're after. Then the next thing that you can do is that you would have agents register. What I don't want anymore is these third parties, I don't need fifth uncles coming around

and negotiating NIL deals. I don't think that that's good for anybody. So once we have agents that are registered, now we can control tampering. We know what's being negotiated and where. And then the conferences would actually hold the contract for the players. So a player signs to play at, let's just call it like Georgia. All right. Well, rather than Georgia getting the revenue share from the SEC

and then distributing that revenue share after the House settlement, I would just have the SEC distribute the money to the players. That would be a lot cleaner. And then Georgia wouldn't really be involved. They would just say, here's our ledger. here's our payroll. We agreed to this much of our revenue share to this player and this much for this player and this much for this player and then the conferences will dole that out. And then what happens at the school level is the NIL. The NIL would then have to be just like true marketing deals.

And why would I know that they're true marketing deals? Well, because the agents are registered. And once the agents are registered, now they would have to register their deals. See, all of this just brings everything into the light. So what's the one thing that I would do, I would bring everything that's in the darkness out into the light. And I think that that starts with some sort of organized body around the players that you can negotiate with. And then you can start to really build some guardrails over the sport that help the players. They help the program. They would help the fans. All of those things would be better than when we have. I didn't have one thing. You can't ask me to have one thing. There's not a silver bullet. It's a series of things in

order to make the sport better for everybody involved. And if you do that, then we all win. We all win. By the way, like fourth, I would grow the playoff to 14, not 12, because a 14 team playoff is better than a 12 team playoff. And then the next thing I would do is every conference would play the same number of league games so that we can get inter-conference battles. And then, like, the fifth thing is I would say, like, well, your schedule would be made for you every year based on where you finish the previous year. So the best teams in college football would have to the more difficult schedules, and then the teams that were the worst teams in college football, they would get the easiest schedules rather than just the willy-nilly schedule making that we have now,

where Missouri plays nobody and Georgia's got to play everybody that's great. You start me on this, and I'm just going to take a whole mile. So I'm going to stop. Folks, thank you for watching the show, listening to this show. On Wednesday, we've got some great things to get into, including CFP rankings discussion. We'll get into that. I'm going to tell you why the SEC is rooting for Texas and not Texas A&M and why the Big 12 is rooting for Notre Dame over Army.

All of that's coming up on Wednesday. And yeah, remember to subscribe to the show, hit the notification button, do all those things, and we will talk to you on Wednesday. Have a blessed week, everybody.