The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Fixing Bowl Season in the CFP era

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares his thoughts on Bowl Season in the modern era of college football. Joel explains why opt-outs are not as big of a problem as people think, and provides solutions as to how Bowl Season can improve in the future. Joel presents some of his ideas on how to fix bowl season, including playing the national championship game at the Rose Bowl each year and giving the players a share of the bowl game revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now this is how you break on a slant route. Will Johnson read it perfectly. He's one-on-one coverage. Watch how quickly he breaks right when he sees the foot in the ground from Purdue. He takes off into the inside and beats the wide receiver of the ball. All Sheffield can do then is becoming defensive bat and tackle him. And now that's two interceptions for the young Will Johnson. Hey, hey, what's going on everybody?

this is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt and this is going to be a fun episode. Okay. I appreciate everyone that has joined us this season. This has been our first season of the Joel Clat Show. You have made it a wild success. We became the number one podcast in college football. So thank you so much. And we just encourage you to continue to download, subscribe to the show, leave a review for us and then share it with your friends. You can follow us at Joel Clatt show. You can follow me at Joel Clatt on Twitter at Joel underscore Clat on Instagram. So thank you so much just for being you. College football fans. You guys are the best. I have thoroughly enjoyed this. And as we move into the bowl season and into the off season, listen, this is going to change obviously a little bit without games to

talk about. But I didn't want to just go away in the off season. So what I wanted to do is is make this show more of a discussion about what the sport is, how it works, and who the main players are within the sport. So that's where we're going to be headed after the bowl season, after the national championship game. We'll be talking a lot about the NFL draft, which I'll be covering. So that's all upcoming.

So please expect and look forward to, hopefully, more episodes throughout the offseason. Okay. That being said, it's bowl time and it doesn't feel like it used to and that's okay. So I thought it would be important to talk about bowl season and what it is, what it could be and what it should be. I think all three of those are important. So let's get into it because there's a lot of bulls. and people, I think, take shots at bowl games and just bowl season.

And I believe that they are ill-advised. And I think the premise of bowl season is basically that bowl season is a quality part of college football. We just have to think about it a little bit differently. Okay. So what if I were to tell you? that I believe in the Bulls and the Bulls system. And what if I was also to tell you that I am a firm believer that the expansion of the playoff to 12 teams is necessary and needed,

although those are probably the same thing, but needed for the health of the sport. And then what if I also went a step further, and I said those two things should be totally different from one another. Okay? Let's start thinking about the future of college football while also not being prisoner of the past of college football. There's a lot of things that are great about the past.

There's no doubt. But there's some things that we're going to try to hold on to, I think, like bowl season being one of those and the importance of some of these bowls that could hinder the future of the sport. Okay, so let's just get into it. Let me just start with this. I really love the bowl system, and I think bowls are important. Okay, so let's get a few reasons why that's the case out in the open right away.

First and foremost, it's a really rewarding experience for the players. Okay. The overwhelming majority of players in college football really love going to bowls, love going to bowl sites, and love competing again for another chance to compete. So that's number one. And I'll expand on that in a little bit. It's also a rewarding experience for teams that get at least to the six win mark and beyond. There's that.

There's the development side for the program's sake of having those extra bowl practices. And then, you know, as I just alluded to, it's another chance to compete. You see, the overwhelming majority of college football players actually want to play in these bowl games. I think that we focus way too much, way too much on the opt-outs. And we think of them as a giant problem within the sport. Opt-outs are not a problem. All right? They're a champagne problem, meaning, hey, there's some of these players, like 1% of the players at most, that have put themselves in a position where they feel like they cannot improve their draft stock, which means that they're about to enter into a phase of life.

and a period of their life and their career where they can change their life and their family's life forever because of the skills that they have on the football field. Good for them. We should never begrudge that opportunity. And if they don't feel like they want to or need to compete in the bowl game, fine. You see, opt-outs are here. They're here to stay. And so we should probably put them in proper context, which is they're very rare, even though that's all we talk about.

but they are very rare. They're in a class of player that we can very easily say good for that player. And then we can also turn around and say, hey, the 99 other guys just really want to compete. So we should allow them to do that. I just think that there's way too much, way too much conversation about the opt-outs and how that's, quote, hurting the sport or hurting the bulls. Yeah, only if you think that the bowls are very much. vitally important to the season, which I actually don't think that they are. And let me back

into all of those things. All those elements that I was talking about lead me to this point where you've got to separate the bowls from the playoff. Okay. So this is where the rubber meets the road. The expanded playoff, while necessary, is going to, quote, kill the Bulls. Now, is it every one of the Bulls? No. It's only the Bulls that we want to, for whatever reason, hang on to as being vital to the sport. Now, you can say that Bull season and the bowl experience is great and should be retained and it needs to evolve a little bit and I'll get into those areas in a little bit. And then also realize that the importance of those games is going to continue to diminish, in particular once we get into this expanded playoff field.

So I do think that it's very important that we understand that the playoff needs to be the playoff and bowl season needs to be bowl season. We just need to separate the two. Okay, so that leads into this next thought, which is, if you're building the college football playoff, I think it's important that you focus on building. the best playoff possible. You're not sitting there trying to focus on, well, how do we also allow these things that don't really matter to be a part of our game just because we like the

people involved with those games and it's just kind of been a part of the history? Again, that should not be a part of the process of building the future playoff. I'm talking about 26 and beyond, right? So we're going to have the quarterfinal games in bowl locations. to get the 24 and 25 year and we get the 12 team expansion in those first two years. But 26 and beyond, this thing, I think, needs to evolve. Okay, so the playoffs should be built for the playoff's sake. And bull season should exist for the Bulls' sake. And they should be separate.

Let me give you a quick analogy. When Netflix was like first a thing, right? First, it was like, hey, it was this mail. order like DVD rental system and it was like well that's weird because there's Blockbuster and Blockbuster might be even like more convenient and it's just a part of like the nostalgia

of if you're my age I'm 40 years old and it's like you know in high school a lot of times you know you would hang out and you'd be like hey let's like go rent a movie or family movie night and the part of that entailed going down to Blockbuster and walking around the aisles and like trying to rent a movie

and so this Netflix thing it's like I don't know you know Like, is it really a thing? Well, then, you know, the internet exploded. And Netflix becomes a streaming entity. Well, when that's happening, did Netflix allow the executives of Blockbuster to sit in on their board meetings to say, like, well, this is how I think that you should build your business and expand while also making sure that we exist, please? Like, that didn't happen. they were in direct conflict.

And I believe that the bowl experience and the playoff expansion are also in direct conflict. So the more that we try to allow one to exist within the other, the more that we're going to build a system in the future playoff that, to be honest,

probably isn't the best possible system. for example I believe that we should be playing as many games as possible in the new playoff in home venues on campus I'll go a step further everyone saying like oh the first two rounds should be at home yeah they should be at home so should the semifinal

and by the way there's not a doubt in my mind you should further incentivize the top two seats you should further incentivize the top four seats like all of this should be on the table. We should talk about this. There's no reason to go play in a bowl game. What are you like, what are we going to within the playoff, you're going to call yourself like,

we're Peach Bowl champions. I'm sorry, that doesn't make much sense to me. There's only one entity from the Bulls that I think should remain in the new playoff. Okay, so in the new playoff, I actually think that the championship venue should

always be the Rose Bowl. So the Rose Bowl should be the equivalent of the Super Bowl. And college football, everybody's goal throughout the country should be, I want to go to the Rose Bowl. It should be the destination, very similar to how Omaha is the destination in college baseball for the College World Series.

The Rose Bowl should be the destination and the national championship venue and site every single year. What do you want to do if you play college football? Want to go to the Rose Bowl? That's the way I feel. I think that it's the most special bowl game that we have. All due respect to the others, which also hold a special place in,

a lot of people's hearts and memories, but that should be a destination for college football. And we should then back into the rest of the playoff being all on campus. I think that we should always see players with roses in their mouths if they're winning semifinal games. It should be the destination. Everyone comes out. It should always kick at about 3.34 o'clock. Always, right?

The sun's going down. It's setting. It's the most beautiful venue in all of football. And it's one of the most special games that you can possibly play in is that. the Rose Bowl game. So why not make that the destination and the focal point of college football? I think that that would be a huge win. Having said that, I also think that the playoff needs to think long and hard about how long they're extending the season. Okay, so the more that we can finish or the quicker that we can finish the college football season before the NFL,

the behemoth in the room, starts their playoffs, their playoffs, then the better. the more that we're dragging on is not great. So I digress this is not a fix for the playoff, but I'm saying that if you're the playoff, you build the proper system for you, dates, venues, sites, all of those different things. And then you let the bowl season kind of exist outside of that. So now let's move over.

Okay, so now we're not talking about the playoff. So what should the bowl system look like? What should it look like this time of year? Well, first and foremost, I'm fine with all of the, these bowl games, I think it's great. More football is great. More opportunities for these kids to compete is great. Why don't we just evolve the bowl system? Like for instance, let me just throw out some ideas. And you know what? And hopefully you tuned in. I gave a podcast that dropped earlier this week. And it was just me kind of remembering Mike Leach and what I thought was special about Mike Leach.

And obviously his passing is impacting college football in a profound way. And by the way, his existence as a coach impacted college football in a profound way. And one of the ways was this willingness to think outside of the box and to do things a little bit differently. So in honor of Mike, I'm going to just throw out outside the box ideas about the Bulls. I already did right there about the Rose Bowl and the playoff. So outside of the playoff, if we still have bowls, what should they look like? Well, I think you can still have tears.

You can still exist, by the way, if you're the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, and the Peach Bowl, you can still exist if you're the Holiday Bowl and the Alamo Bowl and all these other ones. And by the way, you play a vital role in the sport. I just think it needs to evolve a little bit. Here's an idea. No bowl game should ever affect the eligibility of a player. So if you're a freshman and you've played four games or you're thinking about a red shirt or so on and so forth,

or it shouldn't affect your eligibility whatsoever. It should not count against a year. So everybody on the team should be able to play, no questions asked, no eligibility requirements or parameters. That's number one. I think that the Bulls should start to allow the players to share in revenue. I think that we're headed in that direction.

I would be pretty surprised if the playoff, 26 and beyond, didn't share a little bit with the players. And I think that the Bull season should too. Let me give you an example. What if the top-end bowls, the ones that could make the most amount of money, that would be featuring like the 13th and 14th and 15th and 16th and 17th ranked teams in the country. The best team's not in the playoff. Okay, so what if the top end bowls were to pay the winner of those games 10 grand each?

And the loser gets 5 grand. Well, one, you're incentivizing guys to play, number one. And number two, you're creating another entertainment avenue. And you're creating an avenue of the player that they're going to feel incentivized to play hard throughout the season to get a better bowl game. because as then the Bulls tear down, the money would tear down for winners and for losers in those games. So the lower tier bowl games,

maybe you get $5,000 for the winner and $2,500 for the loser. But now all of a sudden, you've got a system that is creating entertainment, value for the player, and it can exist outside of the playoff. Like, why not? And you can't just tell me,

well, that's not how it's supposed to be. Well, maybe it should. be how it's supposed to be. You see, all of the things that come with a bowl game are important. One of those being player experience. I can tell you that we went to three bowl games when I was at Colorado,

and I enjoyed every single one of those. We went to the Alamo Bowl, went to the Houston Bowl, we went down to, what was it, citrus, or in Orlando. And every one of those experiences was unique, and it was special. There are countless memories that I have with my teammates from those trips. And there are so many opportunities to practice as a young player.

I can tell you right now that when I was a freshman, we went to the Alamo Bowl, and I got more reps during bowl practice period than I ever have or had before that. And it set me up to then compete for the starting job in the spring and then earn the starting job the next fall. A lot of that started during those bowl practices. Those were vital. We used to call them like Buff Bowl, you know, played for the Colorado Buffaloes. And we would, you know, the upperclassmen would sit there and they would be our coaches. And then all the young players that just had to be on scout team all year long got to go out there and scrimmage.

And we would do it almost daily. And it was awesome. Guys, you know, we were betting. We were doing all sorts of things. We were betting bowl gifts. And we had a blast. and that's kind of what a bowl period can be like is I think something that's really exciting for the players.

And if we just think outside of the box, then I think that we could have a bowl season that rewards the experience, enhances the experience, and that continues in college football. So again, I'll go back to my premise. I think that the bull experience and the playoff can coexist, just not within themselves. If you're the playoff, build the playoffs,

to be the best possible playoff you can. If you're a bull, think outside the box and make your game as entertaining as you possibly can. And I think if we do those two things that in the future, we could have a scenario where us as college football fans really enjoy bowl season and we enjoy the playoff. And they can coexist in the same year,

and they don't have to be intermingled with one another. All right. So that's going to do it for today's podcast. I know it was a little bit short, but as we get into the bowl season, I will have some more previews of some of these games, in particular to the top-end matchups. I'll have a playoff preview episode. All of that is coming down,

but I do want to share with you. That won't be happening until the 26th. Okay, so everybody around here is going to get a little time off. So we're going to take next week off. I will return on the 26th with new episodes of the Joel, Clat Show. We'll have a few that week in terms of bowl previews. I'll be doing an episode down from the Holiday Bowl, a game in which I will be calling. And then we'll also have CFP predictions as well as breakdowns for those two games leading into the national championship,

which will obviously have episodes for that as well. So again, the 26th. We'll be back the 26th. So check out the Joel Clat Show. Then, until then, please rate, review us, subscribe so that when we come back, you're going to know you're going to have that episode right there for you. Again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys being a part of this show during the course

of this season, making it a wild success. We'll have more content going through the bull season. We'll have more content throughout the off season. We are just getting started here and we appreciate you being along on the ride with us. I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt show.