The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt’s Top 10 Players for the 2026 Season

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his Top 10 players for the upcoming season. Klatt reveals where top players like Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin land and debates where Texas’ Arch Manning should be in his ranking following his strong finish last season. He also reveals which of Manning’s Longhorn teammates made the list and why Notre Dame is well-represented in his ranking following their College Football Playoff snub a year ago. Klatt finds a place for one big-name transfer in his Top 10 that will have a big impact for a National Championship contender.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 Top 10 Players for 20261:11-4:50 Number 104:51-6:22 Number 96:23-8:22 Number 88:23-10:28 Number 710:29-14:51 Number 614:52-17:22 Number 517:23-20:59 Number 421:00-23:42 Number 323:43-25:57 Number 225:58-31:09 Number 131:10-38:25 Notre Dame and Ohio State ink sponsorship deals for jersey patches Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Man, I wanted to put him higher, and this is a team with high expectations. And gone to the draft last year, I think he would have been the number two overall pick. That's the best roster in college football. Arch could have a monster year. It could be a monster year in Texas overall. I love this guy, man. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite players to watch in all of football, much less just college football. Hey, welcome into the program.

This is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by Graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support as always. and we are into August, folks. I mean, it is barreling down on us this college football season. I could not be more excited for this college football season. I hope you have enjoyed your summer because we're going to start getting into it right now.

I've got my top 10 players today. Next week, my top 25, the preseason top 25. That's coming straight at you. But I wanted to get you this list here as we start getting into August of the top 10 players in college football, any position. So here we go. let's get into it right now. I had a debate here at number 10. I'll tell you who I was debating between once I get through this list.

But at number 10, I'm going to go to Columbus and their quarterback Julian Sane for the Buckeyes. Listen, Julian's an ultra-precise passer. We know that this guy had one of the more accurate seasons that we've ever seen in college football history. It was third in the history of our sport with his completion percentage of just over seven, 77% and we saw it all year long, how accurate he was, whether it was down the field, short passing. I think Julian is a heck of a player. He came out of the gate and, to be candid with you, I think that they kind of had some handcuffs on him. They played it safe against Texas. They ended up winning that football game and then they just kind of brought him along, brought him along.

If you're looking at some areas of improvement for Julian saying, I've got a couple, a couple. Okay, first and foremost, for as accurate as he is throwing the ball down the field, and you're seeing some of those highlights if you're watching on YouTube. By the way, go subscribe. He's not a gunslinger. Now, I don't want him to get careless with the football, obviously, and neither does Ryan Day or Arthur Smith, their new offensive coordinator. But there are times, and I talked about it last year,

where there are throws to be made down the field, big throws to be made down the field. and in particular with that wide receiver core that they're going to have again in Columbus, led by Jeremiah Smith. There are times when the throw is there and he checks the ball down. Is it hard to argue with?

Yes. Yes, it's hard to argue with because he's not turned the football over. And in specifics with their defense a year ago, you definitely didn't want to turn the football over because they were the best defense in college football. But this year, is he more apt to take the shot down? the field when it's there. If he does, I think he could have a monster season. Monster season.

He left five or six, maybe even more touchdowns on the table a year ago and probably close to four or 500 yards just because he was safe with the ball. I think the next step and his maturation as a quarterback is to take those shots down the field. The other area that I think hurt them as a team was the fact that he's not a very big guy. Now, is that going to change over night? No, it's not. Did he do a lot of work in the offseason physically, trying to get himself bigger, faster, stronger? Yes, he did. But the short yardage issues for Ohio State were a thing, and they couldn't just lean on their quarterback late in the season to get a fourth

and one on a quarterback sneak, like they did in their championship year with Will Howard. Something to pay attention to for Julian San for this offense as they move through this season because this is likely going to be an offensive-led team. Remember, they're replacing all those great defensive points. players. Now, will they play quality defense? Probably. Let's be honest, probably. It's Ohio State. They've got players upon players. But offensively, they should be elite. This could be one of if not the best offense in college football, led by saying an experienced offensive line. They bring Bo Jackson back at running back. You still have Jeremiah Smith on the outside.

We'll see what Chris Henry does. This great true freshman hearing a lot of great things about Chris Henry here in the offseason out of Columbus. So this is an offense that could be potent, and he's at the helm of that. This guy is a fabulous player. He's calm. He's cool. He's collected. He learned some lessons late last year, losing in the Big Ten title game,

losing in the playoff to Miami. Those are big lessons to be learned, and I think he's going to be better for it as he moves into now his second year as a starter. So Julian's saying is number 10 on my top 10 players going into this season. Number nine, we go to the egg. We go down to the SEC. It's Dylan Stewart from South Carolina. This guy's a monster, man.

I love watching this guy on film. He's quick. He's fast. He's got a good motor. 6-5-245 pounds. Going into his junior year now at South Carolina. Remember two years ago, he was incredible as a freshman. Freshman All-American in 2024.

He backed it up with a pretty productive year last year. And I think he's likely going to be a top 4, 5, 6 pick in next year's NFL draft. Now, do I love South Carolina this year? Not really. Do I love Dylan Stewart? Yes, yes. This guy is an elite player. There's no doubt.

And this is what makes some of those schedules down in the SEC so difficult is that you look at South Carolina. And are you necessarily scared of them as a team? No. But could this guy absolutely wreck a game? Yes. Yes. And that's what makes South Carolina such an interesting case study on littered in some of those teams that we would consider to be elite teams in the SEC,

and they've got these games against South Carolina, and it's like, well, what if Dylan Stewart goes off? Because he can absolutely do that. Fabulous player. Again, love watching him play. He is inside of my top 10 here going into this season in college football. And like I said, I think positional value, getting pressure on the quarterback off the edge.

I think if you look towards next year's NFL draft, you could easily see him in the top four, five, or six. So Dylan Stewart at number nine from South Carolina. Number eight, we stay in the SEC, and I go to the offensive line. And this is a guy that I'm a bit higher on than most, probably because I've watched probably more of his career than most people out there. And that's Jordan Seton, transferring from Colorado now landing with Lane Kiffin at LSU. Jordan Seton was a five-star recruit, Prime landed him in Boulder, and he played right away. So he's played a lot of football in his opening two seasons in college football.

He's 6'5, he's 307 pounds, and he's got 22 starts under his belt. Now, it wasn't great when he was a true freshman, but let's be candid. He was already their best offensive lineman right when he walked in the door, and that was an offensive line that struggled at times, protecting the quarterback. You think about a couple of years ago and what Shadour had to deal with from a pressure standpoint. Seton's going to be my best offensive lineman in the country, and he's one of these guys in the transfer portal that lands at LSU, and this was an outstanding transfer portal class for Lane Kiffin,

there's no doubt. But I think people will be surprised down there. It's like, oh, yeah, this guy is an elite player, an elite pass protector, and certainly a guy that can anchor a quality offensive line. And he's one of the pieces that we're going to look at when this team plays Clemson to open the year, and we might be thinking to ourselves like, dang, LSU might have more talent than anybody. You know, they're a wild card this year in a lot of different respects.

With Lane coming in as the head coach, you get all these different transfers, over 40 transfers. I think Seton is an elite player, and I think this is the type of guy that could easily be in the top 10 in the NFL draft next year if everything goes well down there in Baton Rouge. But he's certainly going to anchor what I feel like is going to be a really good offensive team. Lane Kiffin has good offenses. He's going to fix the LSU offense. The LSU offense last year was abysmal. This is one of the pieces to fix that LSU offense. So Jordan Seton at number eight at LSU.

We stay in the SEC at number seven. Colin Simmons from Texas. Dude, this guy, the moment I saw him as a true freshman, it was like, yep, that's an elite player right there. And I loved what they did with him a couple of years ago as a true freshman, is that they didn't just force him to go out there and play every single down. They brought him in in specialized situations. sub package as coaches

like to call it like third down nickel situations and let him get after the quarterback. And what that has done is it has led to a ton of production over the last two years. He was elite last year as well, 12 sacks a year ago. Now he has 21, 21 sacks in his first two seasons in college football. Again, an elite pass rusher, edge player since he stepped

foot on campus there in Austin. He was the National freshman of the year in 2024, first team all SEC a year ago. And this is a defense that's going to need to improve. Will MustChamp comes in to be the defensive coordinator for Steve Sarkesian. And this is a team with high expectations. Maybe not higher than what we had for them last year. Remember, they came into last year, number one in the country. Arch was supposed to win the Heisman trophy.

They lose to LSU and didn't play well early in the year. But one of the mainstays and the consistent performers for that Texas team a year ago was Colin Simmons. He needs to have a great year for them to bring Will Mush Champ along, improve on the defensive side, not put everything on the shoulders of Archmanning. This is the type of guy that can do it, though. And when you've got an elite edge rusher, you've got a chance on the defensive side because they can do so much to disrupt the offense.

The quickest way to create turnovers, disrupt the timing of the quarterback, right? Affect the passer. The quickest way to be able to do that, stop the run on first down. So all these building blocks are things that he can affect and impact. And if he does so in an elite fashion, which I think that he can, that Texas team is going to be a heck of a football team. There's no doubt. So Colin Simmons, Edge from Texas, they're at number seven.

We get to number six. Man, I wanted to put him higher. I tell you, this is a great crop of players. And this is why last year in the spring, when we were getting ready for the NFL draft, you know, there was a lot of talk about, oh, next year's draft. year's draft. Well, part of that is that we believe, now, we don't know if it'll pan out this way, but we believe that the quarterback position is going to be a deep position. And again, I want to put this guy higher, but there's just incredible players ahead of him. Dante Moore from Oregon,

he chimes in at number six. Moore was outstanding last year. Outstanding. I think this is the type of guy that can make a huge leap. Now, truth be told, if he would have come out and gone to the draft last year, I think he would have been the number two overall pick. It was a light quarterback year, and he chose to come back, which, let's face it, is the type of patience that he has shown his entire career. Remember, he was a high recruit and immediately went to UCLA and played a little bit for Chip Kelly back in Westwood as a true freshman. Didn't go great. They didn't protect him as a passer. I can remember one game in particular at Salt Lake against a really aggressive Utah defense. And he was under a lot of duress. Didn't play great. So he transferred to Oregon to sit for a year

behind Dylan Gabriel. So Gitz playing time decides to go and sit. And that paid off because he came out and played great last year. If you look at some of his numbers, he was an elite downfield passer a year ago. In fact, 15 touchdowns on deep throws a year ago. Nobody was better in college football. And they're going to be an elite team around him. That offensive line should be outstanding. That running back room, which was incredibly young a year ago, they're basically all back. Great wide receivers on the outside. You got Decorian Moore. You got Evan Stewart. Let's say those guys stay healthy should be great. They've got a great tight end as well. He's going into now his second season as a starter. And as you know, when you listen to all of my

draft analysis, I'm a big believer in experience at the quarterback position. This was a great decision. Now, financially, would it have been fantastic for him to go and be the number two overall pick? Yes. But I don't think that would have set him up for long-term success in the NFL. Because remember, if you want to go and win Super Bowls, a great precursor to that is an experienced long college football tenure. Now he's going to have that as his second year as a starter here for Oregon. That's an elite team, an elite team. That's the best roster in college football. And a big part of that is because they've got their quarterback back, an experienced guy to pull the trigger in Dante Moore. So Dante Moore chimes in. He's going to be number six on my list. Like I said, I wish I could put him higher. But there are some absolute dogs up here in the top five. It's going to be a great draft next spring. And you're seeing why with all. all this depth even from 10 to 6. College football season is almost here,

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I love this guy, man. I got to tell you, he's quickly because, becoming one of my favorite players to watch in all of football, much less just college football. Malachi Tony from Miami. Let's go. I tell you, was there a better player other than maybe Fernando Mendoza than Malachi Tony in the college football playoff last year?

He was so good. He was so good. One of the most electric players in college football, now just going into his sophomore season. By the way, guys, he did all of that last year and didn't turn 18 until September. That's wild. That's wild that he was that ready to come in and dominate college football. He led the entire country in catches.

He led the entire country in yards after the catch last season. I think he could have a big year. I believe in Darian Minsa. I believe that they can, I don't want to say replace. I think that they can be really good at the line of scrimmage. It's going to be difficult. Obviously, they lost all those draft picks, both offensively and defensively on the line of scrimmish, defensive line and offensive line. But man, they've recruited so well. And that's Mario's MO. This is his lifeblood, his line play. And the only reason I bring that up with Malachi is because if they're able to run the football, guys like Fletcher, if they're able to control the line of scrimmage and Minsa comes along and he plays like we think he can, Tony's going to have a monster year again. And this is one of the reasons why the entire offseason, and I just continue to get more and more and more bullish on Miami. And one of the big reasons is this guy.

Again, I just, I love his playmaking ability. Here's the other part about Tony, a part of his game that I love, is his versatility in the way that he can impact and attack the defense. Can you get him the ball right away on the outside, just a bubble screen, and he's dynamic? Yes, absolutely. And the defense has to plan for that and account for that. Can you get him the ball in intermediate spaces?

Yes, he's a terrific slot receiver and has a really good feel for space for such a young player. Can you throw it to him down the field? Yeah, I'm just like, remember the catch on the sideline in the playoff? I mean, absolutely. So I'm a big Malachi Tony fan. That's why he's in my top five. Number five, top 10 players going into the college football season, the sophomore from Miami, Malachi, Tony. All right, now we're into the top four.

I know this guy, everybody loves to bag on this guy, man. And I'm telling you what, I think he got the worst rap of all last year. I'm talking about Arch Manning from Texas, quarterback. He's number four. Here's the problem with last year for Arch. The expectations were so outrageous to begin the year that it didn't matter what he did unless he put up an historic year and won the Heisman, everyone was going to be like, he was outstanding.

Arch Manning, if you look at after the first part of the year, after some of those poor performances early, young quarterback getting his first few starts in college football, he was elite a year ago. Nobody wants to actually hear that. But Arch was elite in the back half of the year. with a supporting cast that was completely subpar for Texas standards. See, part of the problem with Arch in particular early was that everybody else was falling woefully short of expectations around him.

Their wide receiver room, woefully short of Texas standards. Their offensive line, woefully short of Texas standards. Their ability to run the football, or lack thereof, woefully short of Texas standards, in particular with Steve Sarkesian, who's always had a good running game. So it fell all on Arch's shoulders. He looked panicked at times early, but then look at the second half of his year, folks.

Look at what he's capable of. In the second half of the year, so let's look at the last six games that Arch played at Texas last year. 320 total yards per game. 320, that's a lot. 20 total touchdowns, only two turnovers in the last six. That's elite. In the last six, there was maybe two other quarterbacks playing better than Arch,

and one of them won the Heisman Trophy in the National Championship in Fernando Mendoza. So see, you see what I mean? Like, we heaped all this expectation on him. Then everyone around him fell woefully short. He fell short of expectations. And then everyone wants to be like, oh, man, he was a bust. It's not a bust. It's the furthest thing from the truth.

He's got running ability when he gets loose on the outside. He's got that Trevor Lawrence quality to him. When he gets space, it's like, wow, he's fast. Now, he's going to grind it out like old Colin Klein or Will Howard. No, no, no, no. He's not going to do that, but he's athletic. He's athletic. If they can get back to running the football like Steve Sarkeesian's teams in the past have run the football,

if they get back to having quality wide receiver play and a solid offensive line, Arch could have a monster year. It could be a monster year in Texas overall. Two of them, two of those longhorns in my top 10 right there. You got Colin Simmons and you got Arch Manning. He's got Cam Coleman on the outside transferring in from Auburn. I think it could be a big year for Arch. And again, I'm just telling you, I think people need to step back and step into reality

and really evaluate the season without a manning on his back. Just strip the last name from his back and you look at his season last year. pretty damn good for a first year starter. There's no doubt in my mind. So he clocks in at number four, Archmanning, Texas, number four. The first ever all-electric 26 Subaru Trail Seeker

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the most capable EV Subaru has ever built. Test drive it at your local Subaru dealer or visit Subaru.ca. Number three. Truth be told, I have debated this quarterback list all offseason and watched a bunch of it. I love Dante Moore. I really like Julian San.

I really like Archmanning. But guys, I cannot contain my excitement for C.J. Carr at Notre Dame. So CJ Car lands at number three. I think C.J. Carr is incredibly talented. Did he play great all year? No. Did he have to? No, they had an elite run game, obviously, with Judarian Price and Jeremiah Love, both first round running backs. They've got an elite offensive line. Now, granted, he dealt with some injuries on the outside. Great House only played what was it four games. This is going to be a different style of Notre Dame offense this year. and candidly, I'm incredibly excited to see how it pans out.

They have been a run-oriented offense, rightly so with a guy like love, been able to pound the football. What people, I think, failed to realize is just how explosive they were and they can be this year offensively throwing the football. They averaged over 40 points last year, 42 to be exact. Do you know that's the second most in Notre Dame school history for a season? Do you know it's the most since, I believe, you can hit me on the comments. I believe it's the most since the early 1900s, since pre-1920.

Like, it's, they could score. And Carr got a bunch of experience a year ago. They've got a chip on their shoulder after not being in the playoff. This is an offense that's going to be more quarterback-centric than it was running-back-centric a year ago. Carr could have a monster year. He's got great house back. He got a great transfer from Ohio State and Quincy Porter. Jordan Faison is back, the former Walk-on who came on and had a pretty good year a year ago.

This could be a very explosive Notre Dame team. Their schedule is cake. He could have a monster, monster season in terms of numbers. He's probably my Heisman frontrunner because of that. Remember, their over under is 11 and a half. 11 and a half. Basically, Vegas is telling us Notre Dame's going to go 12 and 0. They've got that huge game against Miami. that's their most difficult game.

They've got another, I think, interesting game, if not also difficult when they travel to Provo to face BYU. But Carr should have a big year. All the offseason chatter, watching him throw the football, watching his film, C.J. Carr. So he's going to be my top quarterback going into next season, and I've got a couple of position players here left at 2 and at 1. Let's stay in South Bend.

How about Leonard Moore, the corner at Notre Dame? this dude can play. Man, one of the best cornerback prospects I've seen in quite some time. I think that there's, you know, boring injury and let's hope everyone stays healthy on this list. But I think he's absolutely the top cornerback in next year's draft. I think he is absolutely a top six draft pick. Leonard Moore is fantastic. And, you know, I've talked with offensive coordinators who have faced Notre Dame.

I've talked with wide receivers that have faced Notre Dame. and they all talk about Leonard Moore and just how elite he is in coverage. He's going to allow them to do so much on that defensive side, and this should be one of the best defenses in all of college football. Remember, he had five interceptions a year ago. He was a Thorpe Award finalist. I think he's easily the favorite to win the Thorpe Award this year. This should be one of the best defenses, if not the best defense, if not the best defense,

in all of college football. This is a group that can absolutely get after it. They're good up front. They're good at linebacker. They're really good in the secondary. And let me just tell you something. If we learned anything last year at Indiana, it's that a great elite corner can change the way that you play defense

and provide numbers and other areas of the field. And we've seen this time and time again throughout the years. Revis had that great year. What was it, 09? We saw it back in the day with Dionne Sanders when a guy is taken away half the field. More can do that. More can do that.

He can eliminate a great wide receiver. And again, they're not going to have to do that a lot with their schedule. their schedule is, I mean, it's, it's bad for college football, to be fair, but it's great for them. I can't wait to see him go up against Malachi Tony in that game against Miami. Can't wait to see what Leonard Moore does in the playoff. I think this is absolutely a playoff team. He's 6-2, 200 pounds. Again, five picks a year ago, elite, elite, elite.

I love watching him play. He can do everything. He plays well in zone. He's got good instincts. He can play well in man. He's got great coverage ability. He's loose. He's flexible. He's fast. He's terrific once the ball is in the air. Don't get five picks unless you're terrific with the ball in the air.

So Leonard Moore, my number two player in all of college football, the corner from Notre Dame. And that leaves us number one. And there's only one number one when this guy is still playing college football. And that's Jeremiah Smith. Jeremiah Smith is the best player in college football. He was the best player in college football a year ago. He was my number one last year. He's going to be again this year. He's six three, 223, 225 pounds. named an Iron Buckeye. He's physical. He's fast. He's great catching the football. Great. He's got amazing hands. He's a technician. I don't know what you do with him. He's got 29 total touchdowns in just 29 career games. And I'm telling you right now, if you watch the film

of Ohio State, like I do, Julian Sand left four, five, six touchdowns on the board and almost all of them were to Jeremiah Smith. There was one against the Texas week one. Opening series, they have a third and short. Smith is wide open. Samin checks the ball down. Right. Like if Sane lets it loose and throws the football down the field, Jeremiah Smith might have 15, 18 touchdowns this year. You can't cover him. You can't cover him one-on-one. He's one of those guys that I would call a regardless player. It's a regardless. I'm a quarterback. I come up to the line of scrimmage and I'm evaluating the coverage pre-snap. Is it cover two? Is it cover four? Is it cover one? Is it middle closed, middle open? You know, all these things are going through a

quarterback's mind when you come up to the, to take the snap. And when number four is on the outside, and he's your wide receiver, if I'm Julian saying, if I'm coaching Julian saying, and by the way, I had this conversation and turned into an argument actually with Chip Kelly a couple of years ago, he is a regardless wide receiver, which means regardless of what coverage they're in, the ball goes to him. I don't care what they're in. If you get time, he can be double triple covered. You can throw him to football. There was evidence of that even as a true freshman in that Rose Bowl game against Oregon.

Do you remember when Will Howard just regardless coverage threw it to him on a corner route over on the right side line in that Rose Bowl? He was triple covered. What did he do? Go up and get the football. Why? Because nobody can cover him. The only guy that I think could have a chance against Jeremiah Smith is Leonard Moore, my number two player. He's that elite. Now, he's had great players around him and other options that Ohio State can go to.

Obviously, you know, last year with Carnell Tate, year before that, you had Abuka and Tate, I'm very interested to see what that wide receiver room looks like, in particular with the true fresh. Chris Henry Jr. I've heard elite things out of Columbus. So one of two things is going to happen. Either Henry is going to also command some coverage, which is going to allow Smith to just take the world by storm, or Henry is going to have an elite first half of the season, and then Smith is going to have an elite back half of the season. Because I can tell you this right now, if you're going to go play Ohio State and their schedule is brutal, it's a fantastic schedule, man, it's fantastic. Week two against Texas down in Austin. If I'm Texas, I'm looking at the

film all year long. Wilmuch Champ is like, what in the world am I going to do with that guy? And candidly, I don't know what you do. I think you've got to double and triple cover him at all times. You've got to trick Julian Sand into going elsewhere. It's something that Texas was able to do in the playoff game a couple of years ago. But he's my number one player. And you can at me all you want, but it's candidly not even close. I did number one, and then I started to put together the rest of the top 10. Now, I wanted to go back to the number 10 position because who was just on the outside looking in? It's actually a third Texas player. I almost had three longhorns in my top 10 players. Cam Coleman was almost there. I really think Cam Coleman's going to have an elite year

with Arch throwing him the football freak athlete. Now he gets to pair up with Arch and Sark's offense. If they get back to what they've been, not last year, but historically, under Sark with those fast, wide receivers, the ability to throw the ball down the field, the ability to run the football and control first and second down, then I think Cam Coleman could have a big year. Auburn was a bit dysfunctional. Let's face it, right? I think that we all know that with the revolving door of coaches and quarterbacks and everything. And Cam Coleman didn't have much of a chance. He's got that chance now. He's got that chance now. So he was just on the outside looking in to my top 10. A couple of things that I wanted to hit on here as we, again, are now in August and we're getting ready for college football. Number one, if you haven't subscribed, you've got to subscribe to the podcast. You've got to do that right down here on YouTube, wherever you're listening as a podcast. Go ahead, like, review us, rate review us, and follow along.

Follow us on socials at Joel Clat Show. That would be awesome. And we're going to have great content during the course of the month of August. I've got my top 25 dropping next Monday and then a bunch of preseason stuff getting you all set for the start of college football season. One last thing before I get out of here. And I'm sure you saw it.

Last week, I was actually at the Big Ten Media Days and all this news started to come out about the jersey patch deals. Hey, how about a round of applause? Not for Ohio State and Notre Dame for selling jersey patches and making money, but for college football modernizing. Hey, what do you say? college football. What are we doing?

This was inevitable. I don't want to, I don't want, you know, you can leave a comment, but I don't want to hear it. No clutching of the pearls allowed. No, these jerseys aren't sacred. I know that tradition and history is part of the fabric of college football.

There is no doubt. But you know what else is part of the tradition and the fabric of college football? Evolution. Everyone believes that college football was the same for a century. and then all of a sudden we're adjusting now. That's not the case.

This sport has been moving and evolving every single generation. Conferences move. Everything moves. All right. And right now, we are in a revenue generation in college football. They've got to generate revenue. You have to. You've got to modernize.

Quite frankly, what took so long to do this? So if you didn't know the news, so-fi, it's going to have a patch on the Notre Dame jersey. That's apparently worth 18 to 20 million per year. year. I've heard more of the $20 million number. And Ohio State with J.P. Morgan Chase with somewhere $15 to $17 million a year. And two of the biggest brands in all the college football, doing the Jersey patch thing. We've seen it like, we've seen this now. So it brings up a couple of things. It's not just about modernizing and oh, this is great and a money grab and all

of that. One, these teams are going to have to do this. If you want to continue to have an entire athletic department and fund all of these sports that are non-revenue sports, you've got to generate the maximum amount of revenue that you can possibly generate. And here's the thing about college football. Nobody wants to talk about this, but this is the truth. All right? And I will tell you the truth. I respect you enough as fans of this sport and as a group that we all love this sport. College football does not maximize its revenue anywhere close to the other professional sports. Let me give you a quick analogy. The NFL, if they have a sponge, all right,

they are squeezing and wringing that sponge out as hard as they possibly can. Every drop of potential revenue comes out of that sponge. Where can we find it? Schedule? Maximize the schedule. Should we add a game? Add a game. Deals, deals, officials, official partners all over.

Should we play internationally? we should play internationally. They maximize everything, everything. New windows on Christmas and Thanksgiving, bringing in more partners. They are wringing that sponge out at every opportunity. Meanwhile, college football looks at their sponge at the bottom of a swimming pool

and has stared at it for a decade. Like, huh, that's cool. We don't maximize revenue in, college football. And right now, we're going to have to start. And it's not just so that we can pay players more, although that's certainly part of it. It's also for the health of the entire intercollegiate model. If you like the fact that your school and your alma mater has non-revenue sports and Olympic sports, and there are opportunities, thousands of them for females to go out there and compete in their sports and other guys to go out there and compete in their sports and get an opportunity to

go get an education, experience intercollegiate athletics, then guess what we're going to have to do? Maximize revenue. You can't just leave it at the bottom of the pool. You just can't. And so Notre Dame and now Ohio State have started to do that. They've pulled the sponge out of the pool and they're like, all right, let's start to squeeze this thing a little bit. And others will as well. And if you're not, if you're in an athletic department and you're listening to this show and a lot of you do,

and if you're not running down your biggest corporate sponsor right now, and thinking about trying to do a deal regardless of value for a jersey patch, then I don't think you're doing your job. And candidly, you're not doing your job. And you're doing all the other sports in your department a disservice by not maximizing the revenue possible out of your brand. One other thing on this is it does bring up the caution side of this. So I just talked about the aggressive side of this.

What's the caution side of this? Well, the caution side of this is that obviously we've got teams and programs that have higher market value than others. And you're seeing that, like, not many teams are going to get the deal that Notre Dame and Ohio State got. Maybe a couple of them out there can, but there's a couple of other big fish that are obviously going to think about doing this. And they're going to have huge value. Okay. What does that mean, though? What's the caution light?

Well, the caution light is, is that if we don't have guardrails in college football, from the way that we pay players and the pay structure, from the competitive structure of how we build a postseason, maximize the regular season, and try to encourage parity, if we don't build structures that are correct for the long-term health of the sport, then what we're going to turn into is Major League Baseball. Now, you could say, like, well, Major League Baseball is a good product. Yeah, but is it, is it when you've got payrolls that are $30 million and payrolls that are $400 million or whatever the discrepancy is? Is it really when you've got teams in Major League Baseball that are spending 40% of their revenue and others spending 80% of their revenue? You see, the business structure and the pay structure in Major League Baseball is so off that they're likely headed towards a stoppage.

At some point, and we don't want to see that. No one wants to see that. I don't want to see that as a former baseball player, but the pay structure is messed up. They've tried to encourage parity with their competitive structure. They've expanded the playoffs in baseball. And so what we see now is some teams have the opportunity to build themselves up. They have an opportunity to draft and develop and get themselves into the top end of Major League Baseball.

Okay, so how does that relate to college football, Joel? Well, if you're going to start to go down this revenue path and if you're going to start to put jersey patches on jerseys, you're going to start to see huge discrepancies in the value of these programs. And if we don't have a pay structure that fits the entirety, and if we don't have a competitive structure that leads to parity, then we'll turn into baseball, and I don't want to do that. I don't want it to be the same old teams, even though it tends to be the same old teams. We just need to be thinking about that and be cognizant of what we're building

and how we're building it as we move into this new age. All right, that'll do it for today's episode. Again, subscribe on YouTube. Go ahead and do that. Next week, top 25. Here we go. College football is right around the corner. If you're as excited as me, then you know what?

I salute you.