The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt’s 2026 College Football Playoff Bracket Prediction & National Champion Pick

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt makes his predictions for which teams will make the College Football Playoff and who will lift the trophy as National Champions at the end of the season. He begins the show with his Conference Championship Game Picks before revealing his full predicted bracket – making his picks for each round in the Playoff. Will the Big Ten make it 4 straight National Championships? Will Ohio State and Texas both make the Playoff after playing each other early in the season then going through two of the toughest schedules in the nation? Is Notre Dame poised to break through or could Curt Cignetti and Indiana really go back-to-back? Who will be the surprise teams to make the Playoff after beginning the season outside the Top 10? Klatt also breaks down a difficult debate for the last at-large spot and considers whether this is the year that a 9-3 team finally gets into the field. Use my code for 10% off your next set of CFB tickets at SeatGeek*:https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Chapters 🏈0:00-1:10 Joel Klatt’s 2026 preseason cfp bracket1:11-10:12 Conference champion predictions10:13-24:31 CFP bracket prediction24:32-26:35 First round predictions26:36-30:22 Quarterfinals predictions30:23-32:38 Semifinals predictions32:39-33:41 National Champion pick Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I feel like I'm speaking for the fans. Why are we penalizing them by putting them in a neutral site? Can we stop doing that, please? More games on campus. I said they were going to win the entire thing. I can't go back to that well. My number 10 team is going to be my biggest wild card in college football. My national champ in my very first bracket prediction.

Hey, welcome into the program. This is the Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support as always. It is here. It is bracket prediction time here in the preseason as we get you all set for the 2026 college football season. Can't wait. It's coming straight up.

This is going to be, I think, an epic season. There's no doubt about it. And I think you'll see that as we predict the bracket right here. So the college football playoff, the way we see it, here we go. Let's get right into it. As we did a year ago, here's what I'm going to do first. I'm going to predict the conference championship games and the power four. So I'll talk about who's going to meet in those games.

who's going to win those games, and then we'll start to slot teams here, one through 12 as we get into a 12-team bracket. Let's start in the Big Ten. Now, I do think that the Big Ten is absolutely loaded at the top. I think all of us know that in particular after all of these preseason rankings have finally come out. We see Ohio State at the top of the AP. You had Oregon at the top of my poll in the preseason. And then you still have Indiana, the defending national champion. You've got teams like USC Penn State. You've got teams like Michigan, all going to be in there vying to try to level up into that rarefied air of those top three teams in the Big Ten. So how do I see it playing out as it relates to the conference championship game?

Despite being AP preseason number one, Ohio State schedule, I think is going to be too difficult. So if you're trying to navigate that schedule and get yourself into that conference championship game, regardless of what happens against Texas, which I actually think the Buckeyes are going to go down and beat Texas. But that slate that they have throughout the Big Ten is very difficult. They've got to play at Iowa. This is after opening in week two at Texas. They've got to play on the road several times against very difficult opponents.

They've got to go to USC. They've got to go to Indiana. These are all very difficult places to play. So because of that, I don't actually think Ohio State is going to make it to Indianapolis. I think Oregon, my number one team in the preseason, is going to make it to Indianapolis. So Oregon will be one of those teams. They've obviously also got a difficult schedule. But I do believe that they're going to be.

prepared to handle it. The team that they're going to face is the defending national champion. I think Indiana gets back into that spot, regardless of how it all plays out during the course of the regular season. Like I actually happen to believe that a more difficult game for Ohio State might be, let's say, going to USC going all the way out West Coast. Let's say they lose that game but beat Indiana. Indiana still has a loss, but then they win the tie break because maybe Ohio State loses another game along the way. This is how you get kind of to this conclusion that I have at least, Oregon and Indiana in the Big Ten Conference Championship game. Indiana has its own tough stretch. They've got the five-game stretch with Ohio State at home at Michigan,

home to Minnesota, home to USC, trip out all the way to Seattle to face Washington. That could be a difficult game for them as well. But I'm going to take the Hoosiers and I'm going to take Oregon. And then my pick for that game, I'm going to take Dan Lannning and the Ducks. This would be their second Big Ten title in Indianapolis in their first three years in the league. And I think that they get that win taken care of, and it's the Oregon Ducks who will be the Big Ten Conference champions. All right, in the SEC. Now, I think there are a lot of good teams in the SEC. This is a very deep conference. We all know that. We all know that. I think there are two that are probably, at least at this position, and in this month, right, we're doing this in August.

I think there are two that are maybe better than the rest. Now, we'll see how it plays out, in particular with a team like, let's say, LSU, but I do really, really like Georgia and Alabama. I really like Texas a lot, a lot. And I know I threw in Alabama. I think that that was just a Freudian slip there. I said it for so many years. My two favorites are Georgia and Texas.

Let me correct that. Georgia and Texas. My wild card is LSU. Outside of the COVID season, Georgia has made the last eight SEC championship games. I don't think that that's going to stop. They have a favorable schedule as it relates to the SEC schedule. I know they're moving to nine games, but when you look at their SEC slate, it's not as difficult as others.

And then you look at Texas, and I just think that they're going to be ridiculously talented. So I like Georgia and Texas getting to Atlanta and facing each other for the SEC championship game, and then you start to wonder yourself, can Sark really get over the hump? Let's just say, as I just told you, that Ohio State were to beat them early in the season, that could be a real defining moment for that organization. that program for them to turn things around and then to finally start to break some of those barriers later in the season. One of those barriers being Georgia and Kirby Smart. I don't want to bet against Georgia and Kirby Smart, but I don't know if they're going to have the firepower to keep up with what could be a very good offense in Texas.

You've got Arch, you got Cam Coleman on the outside. These guys could score a lot of points, and that's my one concern for Georgia, as you've heard during the course of the offseason. So what happens if they get into a bit of a shootout? At that point, I like Texas. I think Texas and Steve Sarkesian can actually get over that home. They can break through and they can win the SEC. At that point, they're obviously going to be one of the top seeds in this college football playoff, and that's the way I'm going to go.

I like Texas over Georgia. They don't play in the regular season, but I'm going to take Sark and the Longhorns to pull down their first SEC championship. And the Big 12, this one's pretty easy. Texas Tech is the most talented team in the league. and they've got a pretty soft schedule. They only have one ranked opponent on their schedule as it currently stands right now. It would be a Friday night game on Fox week three against number 23 Houston.

That's not a difficult schedule. In fact, it's the 71st ranked schedule in the country. More on that in a little bit when I talk about the group of five. So who will they face? Listen, I like Arizona a lot. I just don't love their schedule in the Big 12. They've got Fafita coming back. I really like what they've done with their.

program. I had them in the Holiday Bowl. Brennan's a hell of a coach. Again, though, you just, you look at these schedules, and I just don't love it. They've got at BYU, Texas Tech, home against Utah. That's difficult as it relates to the Big 12. So I think the second spot goes to the winner of the Holy War, BYU and Utah. And as was the case a year ago, I'm going to lean towards BYU. Listen, a lot of turnover with Utah. And as you know, I've always been very favorable and optimistic with Utah. There's no doubt. They don't have Kyle Winningham anymore. And meanwhile, BYU, they still have Kalani Sataki. They were

able to keep him, not steal him, but keep him as he was flirting with Penn State last offseason. They still have their quarterback, Bear Bachmeyer. They still have LJ Martin, who was the Big 12 offensive player a year ago. So I'm going to go with BYU, and it's a rematch of last year's Big 12 championship game

in Dallas as Texas Tech takes on BYU. Now, I don't think BYU is going to have the firepower in particular at the wide receiver position to go in and beat Texas Tech. Texas Tech is just they're at a different level as it relates to the roster compilation versus the other Big 12 schools. It's not particularly close right now, so I'm going to go Texas Tech, Texas Tech wins the Big 12, and they are again the champ out of that conference. In the ACC, Miami has a similar gap over the rest of the ACC. All right, I don't see

them losing an ACC game at least this year. They might lose to Notre Dame. I'm going to predict that they do lose to Notre Dame. Notre Dame's going to be undefeated in this bracket prediction, but Miami's not going to have a large issue when it comes to the ACC schedule, at least in my estimation. The real question is who are they going to face? So you start to kind of throw out those teams that you think might have the talent, might have the schedule to go out there and get themselves into the ACC championship game. I really have four teams that I considered here. Clemson, Virginia Tech, SMU, Louisville. Now, Clemson and Virginia Tech, I just don't know. Obviously, Virginia Tech could be in vogue. And I think James Franklin is one heck of a coach. Remember now,

he got Penn State all the way up to that point where they're playing in a national semifinal. They just couldn't get past that hump of a Michigan national champion or an Ohio state national champions. They were right there in the Big Ten. Can he do the same at Virginia Tech? Maybe. Let's hope that he does. I think it would be better for college football if the Hokies were back where they were when Frank Beamer was roaming the sideline. I don't know if it's going to be this year. Clemson, I just can't dip my toe in that water after a year ago, when in this very program, I said they were going to win the entire thing. I can't go back to that well. No, no, no, no, no. So now I'm going to come down to Louisville and SMU. They just

so happened to play a monster game in September against one another. Louisville and SMU are going to play week three. I'm going to go with SMU. And here's why. SMU is 14 and 2 in ACCC play since joining the conference two years ago. They already went to the playoff. The guy who started that game for SMU at Penn State was Kevin Jennings. He's still there as their starting quarterback. Ret Lashley could have moved this last offseason. They were able to secure him.

He stays in the Metroplex at SMU, and they have done a really nice job of becoming a destination in the transfer portal for guys that leave the Dallas area and then want to come back. So for those reasons, I'm going to lean towards SMU. I think SMU, the schedule really lines up for them in the conference. Their most difficult stretches early, they're going to play Florida State week one. They've got Louisville, week three. If they can navigate that, then they're going to be

right there. And I think they go and play Miami, but they're not in Miami's hemisphere, at least as it currently stands. I like Miami to win the ACC, probably as a one loss overall team. They're going to beat SMU and win the ACCC. So now that we have our conference champions and our runners up in those conference, let's get to the seating. Here we go, one through 12. Now, If this were to happen, and Oregon, let's just say, wins the Big Ten with only one loss, I think Oregon is the number one overall seed. The Ducks take the top spot. They are rewarded for winning the Big Ten, even though they would have a loss.

And my number two team, Notre Dame, we can reveal them now, would be undefeated. I think Notre Dame goes undefeated, but, guys, their schedule is just not anywhere close. So I think Oregon is rewarded for that. The committee puts them at number one and Notre Dame at number one. Number two. Now, could that be flipped? It might. It might. As we've seen, the committee always takes the path of least resistance, at least in most cases, more on that in just a little bit. So maybe they'll go Notre Dame 1 and Oregon 2, but they could be interchangeable. I'm going to go Ducks 1 and Notre Dame 2. And number 3, with only one loss to an undefeated Notre Dame on the road,

albeit, it's Miami, the ACC champion. The Canes come in to this playoff, back-to-back playoffs from Mario Cristobal. They come in at number 3. They're 12. and one with an ACC championship. That's good enough for that third seed. The fourth spot is a tough call because here we have, we're going to come down to two teams here, and I think this comes down to a team that did not play in their conference championship game,

but beat a conference champion from another conference during the regular season, at least in my prediction. So Texas is going to get my fourth spot because the SEC championship, fresh off a win over Kirby Smart and Georgia is going to get Texas all the love that they want. And they're going to be one spot ahead of a team that beat them in their home stadium, Ohio State, which is going to be number five.

Now, Ohio State's going to be rated just one spot ahead of the sixth place team, Indiana, because at least in this prediction, Ohio State would have a win over Indiana. So Ohio State would have a win over both of these teams, Texas and Indiana, but in this case, case, Texas as an SEC champion would get the benefit of the doubt. They would go to the four spot and get the buy, and they would be sitting right there awaiting the winner of the

512 game, which Ohio State would be in. Indiana would be in the sixth spot because even though that they played Oregon, they would have a loss to the Buckeyes and they would be number six. I think as an 11 and 2 right there, maybe 12 and 2 Indiana. Georgia would be number 7 after the loss to Texas and the SEC championship game. Again, you've got really good teams. And by the way, once you are doing these bracket predictions, you start to realize like, hey, maybe nine and three is not going to do it. We always start talking about these teams that have difficult schedules and it's like, well, with that schedule, a nine and three team could potentially get into the college football playoff. But then you start slotting them and you start to realize like, well, I don't know about that.

There's going to be a lot of one lost teams, two lost teams that are going to take up these spots, Georgia. I would think that at this point, they're, let's call it 11 and 2 at that point. And they would be a conference loser in the SEC championship game, they would get the seven seed. And that leaves Texas Tech with the eight seed with the Big 12 championship game. And again, their strength of schedule is just not anywhere close. So even as a conference champion,

unless they were undefeated and beating everybody by 20 or 25, I can see them losing a game in the Big 12 season, still getting to Dallas, winning that conference, and they would be the eight seed finishing at 12 and 1. And now it starts to get incredibly interesting. Because I think all of us kind of agree on these eight teams, right? I think that in this model, we can kind of agree like, yeah, these are probably the best eight teams. So now it comes down to these at large teams.

Who in the world is going to play themselves into these spots? Let's start with my number nine team. And this is where, you know, I'm bullish on a team that is going to have an incredibly difficult schedule. There's a lot of naysayers. A lot of people think that this guy is fighting for his job this year. But I think USC is going to have a real fantastic year. I'm a big fan of what USC is doing. I like what they're doing at the line of scrimmage, both offensively and defensively. I love the fact that they'll be able to run the football. I love the fact that they've got their returning starting quarterback. I've got them going 10 and 2 with losses to Oregon and Indiana, but they pick up a huge resume building win against

Ohio State on Halloween in the Coliseum, not to mention at home, a win against Washington on the road out east against Penn State. Their resume would be incredible. If they were 10 and 2 in this model. They would absolutely be in. USC is going to be my number nine team and they will play against Texas Tech. My number 10 team is going to be my biggest wild card in college football. And as I look at their schedule and I look at their roster and I know the track record of their head coach, I just think LSU is going to come out and play very solid football. Now, that doesn't mean they're going to win their conference. I don't know if they're going to go all the way up to that echelon. But we can certainly see them fixing what happened on the offensive side of the football.

Blake Baker is back as their defense coordinator. I like him a lot. Lane Kiffin is going to have them generating 500 yards of total offense week in and week out. We know that because that's what he does. That's what he always does. And this idea that it's somehow a question or an anomaly how this is going to come together with all these players out of the transfer portal, let's not act like he hasn't done this before because he has.

And he did it at Ole Miss. He brought in so many transfers at Ole Miss. So I do think this is going to work. and LSU is going to be a 10-2 team out of the SEC, and they will get the number 10 seed. Super talented roster. I like what they've got going on, and they would face Georgia in this model.

I've got them at 10-and-2, by the way. All right, now the 11 team. This is where it gets interesting. Let's just, we won't put them up just yet because I want to go in order, but we know the group of five team is going to be the 12 seed. So this is it.

We don't have two spots available. this is it comes down to a decision for essentially the last spot in the college football playoff. I've got three teams. Three. I think this is going to come down to

Penn State. They're going to be 10 and 2 in this question, in this scenario. I've got Alabama at 10 and 2, and I've got the winner of the Michigan Oklahoma game. Now, caveat.

I think the winner of that game still is going to go 9-9. and three. So they're going to have a huge resume building out of conference win. They'll still have marquee wins within their conference, but they're a nine and three. So we've got a 10 and two Penn State. We've got a 10 and two Alabama. We've got a nine and three Michigan, Oklahoma winner. I think that Penn State gets thrown out right away because at this point, they will just not have a resume building win. In this scenario, they would have lost to Michigan. They will have lost to USC. And there's really not another marquee game on their schedule. So I think

they're going to be behind the eight ball before this conversation ever even gets started. Alabama would be 10 and 2, and they would be pitted up against either Oklahoma at 9 and 3 or Michigan at 9 and 3. And here's the thing. Alabama, if you're looking at their scheduling, you're thinking yourself, 10 and 2, Joel, I thought you have been kind of down on Alabama. Yes, I have, but they did, I think, generate a fairly favorable schedule. They've already now announced their quarterback. They're going to go with former five-star redshirt freshman Keelan Russell.

has a starter. He's got 37 career snaps. You know that I'm a huge proponent of experience at the quarterback position. They won't have it. He won this battle over senior Austin Mack. He came with DeBore from U-dub, was the backup last year. But Russell is a dynamic, clearly very talented player, but he's going to be inexperienced. Fortunately for him, the schedule is going to allow him to get his feet wet early in this season. You look at early in this season. You're going to have games like East Carolina at Kentucky. That's a brand new regime with Will Stein moving on from the offensive coordinator role at Oregon to the head coach at Kentucky. They've got Florida State, who in the world knows what Florida State is going to be. They've got South Carolina

at home, even though they've got some talented top-end players. Beamer hasn't done a great job there building a roster that can really threaten a team like Alabama, which still has an incredibly deep, talented roster. Their roster building has not taken a back seat as it relates to what they were doing in the Sabin years, and they also have at Mississippi State in there. I think they really should be 5 and 0 when they face Georgia. They really should be, and I think that they're a 10 and 2 team, even with an inexperienced

quarterback, because he'll be able to get that experience early in the season. We saw a little of that with Ty Simpson, even though they lost that game to Florida State last year. You know that my concerns are with the inexperienced at quarterback, but they should be excellent on defense. They should have

one of the great secondaries in all of college football. This is a team that I think can get back to that Bama defense type of identity. And that's what their fan base and alumni base really want. They want to be physical. They want to do all those things. They might not be able to run the heck out of the football. They probably should help their young quarterback out with that a little bit better than

they did last year. But it will be a defensive-oriented team. So I like them as 10-2. I've got them 10-and-2. They go 2-2 in their tough four-game stretch. Losses against Georgia and LSU. That one's at LSU. But I think that they beat Tennessee also starting

a freshman quarterback, by the way. I think they beat A&M, and I think they could be headed for that 10-and-2 year, which leaves you with Alabama at 10-2 or the winner of the Michigan-Okloma game. Now, that Michigan-O-Coloma game, as you know now in this scenario, is looming huge. That is a monster game.

We will be there. Big Noon Saturday, big noon kickoff. Gus Jenny and I will have the call as Brent Venables and OU comes to Ann Arbor to take on the brand-new regime of Kyle Whittingham, the Michigan Wolverine. Now, here's the thing. I really love John Mateer.

When he's healthy, let's not forget. He was the Heisman frontrunner early in the year, in part because of the way he played against this Michigan team, that game being at home last year for OU. He was unreal. If they can just protect him a little bit with a run game, he should have a phenomenal season. You know I love experience, and I know Underwood is also experienced because he started a year ago,

but he's having to learn a new system. Mater is not. I think OU's defense will be outstanding. I think Michigan's defense will also be outstanding. That should be an incredible game, an incredible game. So you've got these two programs. I see the winner still struggling to get to 10 wins because of the gauntlet that they have moving on. You've got an Alabama brand name at 10 and 2.

you've got these two teams in Michigan and Oklahoma who decided to play the big non-conference game. And let's face it, the committee is always going to go path of least resistance. I already said it. I said it once and they're going to do it again. Will they reward the 9 and 3 team that took on the challenge in the non-conference or will they just take the 10 and 2 and say, nope, your record is better and move on? Now, Alabama, their resume won't be devoid of resume building wins.

Like I said, I've got them beating Tennessee. That would be on the road, A&M. We'll see what type of a record they have. I think that they probably should go with the 9 and 3, either OU or Michigan. I just don't trust them to do so. Does anyone trust that the committee, we spend all this time talking about the structure of the college football playoff and how many teams should be in and so on and so forth. and yet we spend very little time talking about the metrics that are used for the committee in the actual room.

I have argued for years that the thing that is broken about our postseason is not actually the format of the postseason. It's the selection of the teams and the process in which we select the teams. Having one committee of fallible humans do this all with all sorts of biases. Am I saying that correctly? I'm sure you'll let me know in the comments down below, subscribe on YouTube. All these fallible humans go in there with their preconceived notions, what they want to see, who they want in, with their incentives in some cases, based on conference affiliation and so on and so forth.

Do we really trust that their criteria is working? The answer is no. The answer is no. The problem with the playoff is not the format of the playoff, although we might grow it and we might go to 24 and could that be better for the regular season? Maybe. But the biggest issue with the postseason is the selection criteria or lack thereof or lack thereof. It's just in the dark.

Nobody trusts it, including me, including me. Those are all trustworthy people that are giving us a result that none of us can trust. What does that mean? But the process is broken. I see them going Alabama with the 11 seed. That was a long dissertation to tell you, path of least resistance. They're going to look at a tenant to Alabama. They're going to see the brand name.

They're going to see the conference affiliation. And they're going to say, bam, Bama goes in as the 11 seed. And that leaves the group of five team. Let's just go Boise State. Can anyone really predict the group of five? These rosters turn over to such a huge degree. Here's why I'm going to go Boise State. I was considering teams like UNLV, Navy, Texas, San Antonio, UTSA.

I believe Boise, though, out of the PAC 12, or they're going to have the firepower plus that feather in their cap of going to play Oregon early in the year. And as long as they don't get beat by 50 in that game, I do think that they'll be rewarded for playing a more difficult schedule. I told you about Texas Tech's strength of schedule. Their strength of schedule right now is 71st in the country. Well, Boise's is not far behind that out of the Pack 12. Not far.

They're 75th in the country. All these other group of five teams or group of six teams, whatever you want. I can't even keep track. Group of six teams, their strength of schedule is like way down there. UNLVs is way down to like a 128 out of 133. 37, 38, 39, I don't even know. It's wild. So the strength of schedule is going to be rewarded for this group of five, group of six spot. Boise's going to go from the smaller conferences. So that leaves the bracket and the

matchups as you see it right here. Here we go as we've got the 12-5 matchup. Boise going to Ohio State. I think there's another reason they'll go with Boise is like, are we really going to send Navy or UTSA to the shoe? No, no, no, no. Let's send Boise. We trust Boise. We already saw them play Oregon earlier in the year. let's send them in there to the shoe, and Ohio State's going to beat the 12 seed, Boise State Broncos, pretty handily right there. In the 11-6 game, I've got a rematch of last year's Rose Bowl. How about Bama going up north to face Indiana in Bloomington?

Yes, everybody would love that. More games on campus, please. Every time that we see a model like this, can we all agree that games on campus would be absolutely better? Absolutely, they would be better. DeBore and Company go up to Bloomington, and guess what? They still can't stop Indiana from running.

running the football. Indiana might run it 55 times in the weather up there. Indiana beats Alabama for the second straight year and Indiana moves on. That LSU Georgia matchup, you might be thinking to yourself, wouldn't they try to avoid an SEC matchup in the first round, but these teams don't play each other in the regular season. So I don't think that they have to avoid this. So LSU is going to go to Georgia. I like Georgia to win this game. Great year for Lane Kiffin. I do think that they need to win a playoff game for them to reach their expectations, the defining success type of element. we've already had a show based on that defining success. Go back and check that out, by the way.

It's in our YouTube library. Subscribe to the show. You've got all of those right there. And by the way, invite a friend because all of this is better with a friend. So Georgia moves on. They're going to play Notre Dame in the second round. And then USC Texas Tech. How about Lincoln Riley going back to Lubbock?

Remember, that's basically where he cut his teeth, where he got his start. So he takes USC to Texas Tech. And I don't think Texas Tech, based on what we saw last year in the postseason, getting shut out by Oregon. I still don't think that they're going to be up to par with a team, like SC, who will be very tested by that point and have some big marquee wins under their belt, including Ohio State at home on the road against Penn State. And I think that they go on the road to Texas Tech and they get a really close victory over the Red Raiders.

So Lincoln Riley and USC move on into the second round. Now we get to the quarterfinals. Now, let's just stop right here and just again make the point. These games would be better on campus. and these top four seeds which earned the buys as for the four best teams in the country, at least in the committee's eyes, why are we penalizing them by putting them in a neutral site? Can we stop doing that? Please, please, all of you who are making these decisions in these conference rooms behind closed doors,

would you stop worrying about the bowl games? I'm pleading with you. All of us are pleading with you. I feel like I'm speaking for the fans. please stop worrying about the bowl games. None of us care about another neutral site game. In fact, at this point, neutral site games in the quarterfinals are just a tax on fans. These teams are constantly in this position, or we're asking these fans to go to two, three,

four neutral site games every single year. I'm sorry, but fans don't have a $50,000 budget to travel around and watch their teams play and playoff games every year. Put the games on campus. It's what Texas deserves if they're going to host Ohio. state this time for a second time. Miami deserves it hosting Illinois, Notre Dame deserves it hosting Georgia, and Oregon deserves it hosting SC. This would be the second time in three years that Oregon were to get the number one seed overall in the college football playoff. It would be the second time in three years that they would have to do it on a neutral site. What are we doing? Let's say we put them in the

Rose Bowl. Great, you're going to go face SC in the Rose Bowl in their hometown? Come on, folks, come on. Do the right thing as the playoff transform and shifts. If you're going to change the playoff and grow the playoff, put the games on campus where they deserve. You want the regular season of matter for the top teams in the country? Give them the benefit of the doubt by putting them on campus to play their quarterfinal games. How about that? That was a bit of a soapbox. What do you think? Leave a comment down below. You want to see quarters in bowl games or do you want to see them on campus? Here's the quarters. Let's go. USC Oregon, rematch of the regular season game. I like USC a lot, not in this game.

Oregon wins this when they're my number one overall seed. You know that I have them number one overall in the country. I think Oregon wins that game. Georgia and Notre Dame. We already saw this in a playoff a couple of years ago. I think Notre Dame is going to be incredible. I really do. I think people in particular out of the SEC,

there's going to be a growing narrative all season long from other outlets, a lot of prominent talking heads. A lot of people are going to talk about Notre Dame's schedule and that they don't play anybody and that they're not tested. And then they're going to play Georgia and they're going to win. And Notre Dame's going to win that game for the second time in three years and they're going to move on to the national semifinals.

Indiana, Miami, a rematch of the national championship game. I love this matchup. I really do. And I thought it was a coin flip. And you know what? This might be just giving Kurt Signetti all the motivation that he needs, which he doesn't need much. Let's face it, I think he's probably the best coach in college football.

But man, Miami is just building something. You just get the sense that they're learning their lesson year over year to start to win in crunch time and in big moments. I don't think Indiana is going to block a punt without even rushing the punter and then score a touchdown because of it. So I think Miami wins that game. I'd like them to move on to the semifinal. And then in that Ohio State, Texas, this would be what was the fourth meeting in the last three years,

I have to take Ohio State. There's just, there's something about that program. They just have something over Texas. I think Ohio State beats Texas and they move on to the semifinal. And then we get into the semifinals, Ohio State against Oregon. This would be a rematch from the game earlier in the season in the shoe. And listen, I said that Oregon is super talented at this point. Who knows what the depth looks like for?

Ohio State, how much energy they had to expand to beat Texas. Maybe they're not healthy. I'm not sure. Maybe Oregon's not healthy at this point. Attrition is such a big part of having success in these extended playoffs, having to play 15, 16 games. Give me Oregon and the semifinal, and they're going to go on to the national championship game. And then Miami and Notre Dame, a rematch of the game in South Bend. I think Notre Dame wins the first one. I think Notre Dame wins the second one. Notre Dame is that good. I think this roster is outstanding, probably going to be the best defense in the country. Leonard Moore, probably the best defender in the country, and C.J. Carr, maybe the best quarterback in the country. And now you've got these two teams that I love from the

get-go. These are my one and two teams in my preseason poll, Oregon and Notre Dame. And here's the thing. College football season is almost here. And if you're like me, this is the best time of year. You're looking at the schedule, checking the matchups, and circling the big games, you have to see in person. There's just nothing quite like that Saturday Stadium at Now, once you pick your game, the next step is finding the best deal on tickets, and that's where Seat Geek comes in. With over 35 million download Seekek is the number one rated ticketing app. Featuring more than 70,000 events across sports, concerts, and live shows, I use Seat Geek because they make the entire process effortless. The app makes it super easy to search for your team, compare seats

across the entire stadium, and grab your tickets in just a few taps. Everything is sent directly to your phone. So getting through the gates on game day is completely seamless. Plus, every single ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. So you can shop with total peace of mind. And of course, I have a code for you guys. You can use code Clat 10 for 10% off your next set of college football tickets at Seekek. That's 10% off any college football tickets with promo code Clat 10. Make sure you click on the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account. So you can use it later on. We just want to thank Seatgeek for their support of the show and all of college football. It might be a curse.

The team that I pick as a national champ. Last year, I picked Clemson. So I'm going to remind you what we've got coming up, and my last words are going to be my national champion. And we're just going to fade out of here on the graphic. On Wednesday, we've got Colin Cowherd right here on the program. Subscribe right here on YouTube, rate and review us, wherever you're listening to your podcasts, all of that.

Follow us on social media at Joel Clatio. Next week, we will start as we get into week zero with our normal fall schedule of three shows, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And here we go, we've got college football. I feel like Clark W. Griswold asking for a drum roll. My national champ in my very first bracket prediction. Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Have a good week, everybody. Thank you.