The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Klatt’s New Projected College Football Playoff Bracket

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

With the first month of the season in the books, FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt make his picks for what the College Football Playoff will look like on selection day in December. He begins by making his Conference Championship Game picks and works his way through the 12-team field. He reveals which current Top-5 team he has missing out on the Playoff altogether before answering the big questions left to be determined this season like who will make the Championship Game in the SEC and whether Ohio State will run the table. Will Penn State rebound from their loss to Oregon and get back to the Playoff? Could Michigan sneak into the field and will Notre Dame win out and make the field? Klatt wraps up the show by dipping into the mailbag and answering questions about potential trap games in the next few weeks, why college football has more scoring than the NFL and whether the U.S. Ryder Cup team could use someone like Coach K to lead the program going forward. 0:00-2:10 Intro2:11-23:06 Joel’s new CFP bracket23:07-27:19 What are some upcoming trap games?27:20-31:36 Why is there more scoring in CFB than in the NFL?31:37-36:39 Should the US get a coach outside of golf for the Ryder Cup? Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The October bracket prediction. Let's hope it's better than the original. I think that Texas is going to write the ship, and I think Arch will continue to get better. They were my dark horse to go to the college football playoff out of the ACC, Dante Moore, Ty Simpson, and C.J. Carr. Those might be the three best quarterbacks in the country so far this year. A day like today is why we love college football.

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the show. This is the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clatt, and this show is brought to you by Graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. Lots to get into today. And it's finally here. It's October. The fall has arrived. Here we are. And so I wanted to give you a new bracket. Obviously, my original bracket wasn't that great. So you know what? Let's try, try again. So I've got a new bracket as it relates to what we've seen so far through the first month of the season. So new bracket prediction. I'm very excited about that. And then we're going to dip into the mailbag. And we've got some great questions in the mailbag. So all of that is coming straight up. Hey, remember if you have not subscribed to this channel yet, please do so over on YouTube. Jump down in the comments. I was down there answering some questions and maybe even giving a little snark

on some of those responses in the comments from Monday show. So if you have not listened to that one, go back and listen to that one. My brand new top 10 for this week is in that episode, including my reaction to some of those monster games

from last Saturday. And then you have not followed us on social media or if you have not followed us on social media, make sure you go do that. All of our short form content lives on social media, wherever you like to social media, at Joel Clashio. All right, let's get into it.

little bracket prediction. So here's how I like to do it. I want to go through who I think, at least at this point, the way the schedule lines up, what do we think these conference championship games might look like? So I'll go through the four Power 4 conference championship games, who I think might end up in those games and then winners, and then we'll go one through 12, and we're going to slot these teams, seed them in, and then get these first round matchups. So here we go. In the Big 10, I think that this championship game, at least right now after last weekend's win for Oregon at Penn State, I think that you can safely say that it's not obviously a foregone conclusion here, but Oregon and Ohio State right now,

up to this point are the two best teams in the Big Ten. I'll do respect to Indiana, obviously, but those two would be my championship game participants. They do not play in the regular season. So in theory, they could each get there as undefeated. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. but Ohio State and Oregon. I think Ohio State would be the winner there. So that would be my champion out of the Big Ten. The SEC championship game. I've got Texas still going to the SEC.

And by the way, this is wide open, man. Like, this was very difficult. And I think that you could put a lot of different combinations in this championship game. I think that Texas is going to write the ship. I think this weekend is going to have a lot to do with that. They're on the road at Florida and what looks to be like a very precarious game.

I know that sounds crazy because of Florida's struggles so far this year, but more on that a little bit later in the program. And then another team that you look up and their schedule is just built in order to succeed this year. Their SEC schedule is not as difficult as other SEC schedules. And you look at the win that they had last weekend over LSU and it's Ole Miss. So I think Texas and Ole Miss are really good chances to go to the SEC championship game. Now, again, this could be. anybody. This could be one of six or seven different matchups. I think this league is very

balanced at the top, is how I'll say it. I don't think there is a great team in the SEC. I do think that it's balanced at the top. So this would be my guess right now, Old Miss Texas, and I think Texas would win that game as the SEC champ. They still have an elite defense, folks, and that's going to mean something in these types of games. And I think Arch will continue to get better as the season goes along, so I'm still going to hitch that wagon to Texas. In the ACC, this one's a little bit more difficult. Why? Because of Florida State's lost to Virginia last weekend. I think that you could see Miami and Florida State, which played this week,

the loser of that game still getting into the ACC championship game. But now, if that loser is Florida State, they would have two ACC losses. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech, who's still undefeated. and Haynes King, who's just an absolute warrior, running for 100 yards against every power four opponent that they've played, I think Georgia Tech would have a really good chance. Their schedule in the ACC is easier than Florida State or Miami's schedule on the ACC. So I think that Georgia Tech could go to this thing and play, let's just say this week's winner, let's go with Miami.

So Miami were to win this week, maybe they'd be undefeated, and then Georgia Tech would get into that ACC championship game. Again, not a foregone conclusion that Miami and Florida State will rematch, because of how those schedules are lined up or misaligned, if you want to call it that. I think Miami would win that game and they would be the ACC champion. I just really like the competitive character of Georgia Tech because of their quarterback. Because of Haynes King. They don't have to play Miami.

They don't have to play Florida State. They don't have to play Louisville. So watch out for Georgia Tech to be in that ACC. And by the way, they were my dark horse to go to the college football playoff out of the ACC. So a little prophetic there. Big 12. This is easy in one respect, hard in another. I think that we can all say pretty confidently, at least I can at this point, Texas Tech is the class of the Big 12 conference. So Texas Tech definitely in, and I think definitely winning the Big 12. Now, the other team is a little more difficult. They all play each other. It's a league that's very

balanced after Texas Tech. So I'm going to say Utah. Utah still gets. to that point. They played and bounced back very well last week. And so Texas Tech and Utah play for the Big 12 championship game. Texas Tech is the one that gets through there. Utah is going to be a tough out, even after the loss of Tech. Their next two games are going to be huge for Utah. They're home against Arizona State. And then they're at BYU. So that's where that's going to pan out. And then Tech, they're just really good on both sides of the ball. I'm impressed with their defensive line. Their offense has answers all over the place. They can run it. They can throw it. They can throw it deep. Tech is really.

good. I think tech might make a run in the actual playoff itself. So let's watch out for Texas Tech. I think that they've got something. Then in the group of five, you know, you can make an argument that maybe like a UNLV or an old dominion, a team that's not in the American may push to get themselves in position to be the group of six, if you will, group of five, group of six, representative. but that's hard for me because the American is so good. So to me, this is kind of panning out as like, they're just going to get the fifth automatic spot that conferences. Now, unless something crazy happens where a two or three lost team were to win that conference,

I think that the champion of the American is going to get this spot. I think South Florida is still a team that at their top end is probably the best team in that league. I've got them going to, I've got them playing. Memphis in a rematch of their regular season game in October. And I think South Florida is going to get that spot and win that conference and then ultimately be the group of six champion that goes with their automatic spot. So South Florida would go. So now we've got these five spots that are already in.

So let's start to seed these teams. Okay. Let's start to seed these teams. So now we've gone through the champ games. We kind of understand like who might be in. I'm throwing my pin around. Who might be in, who might be out. the number one overall seed, and specifically if you were to get Oregon and Ohio State playing as undefeated, which I mentioned early, which, you know, is that likely? I don't know.

I mean, these schedules are tough. It's tough to go undefeated in particular in these conferences. But let's just say that that happens, sake of argument. Well, then the champion would obviously be the number one seed overall, so that's Ohio State. I have them winning and they would be the number one seed and they would be getting one of the buys. In this scenario, I think Miami beats Florida State this week. I think that they win the ACC and they, they in all likelihood, would be an undefeated or at worst, a one-lossed team. And I think Miami would be the number two seed overall. Some high-end wins that win over Notre Dame is going to look better and better and better as a season goes along. So my number two seed is Miami. Now, if Oregon were to play Ohio State as an undefeated and lose,

they would be the three seed in this situation. Remember now, it's different this year. We are doing it differently than last year. It's not just the four best champions that get these top four seeds and the buys. It's just going to be seeded one through 12. Best four teams in the country get the buys. And so I think Oregon will be one of those in particular if they face Ohio State as an undefeated. And they would be the three seed. That would leave the SEC champ. And obviously with a loss to Ohio State and maybe one other loss along the way because of some, really tough games. Texas as the SEC champ would end up being the fourth seed in the college football playoff. I have them winning that league. And yet I could see them stumbling along the way,

still getting into that game and winning that game. So Texas would be the number four seed. So my four top seeds getting by is Ohio State, Miami, Oregon, and Texas. Now here we go. Number five seed. I think this team has a good chance to be at worst 12 and 1. At worst. 12 and 1. That's Texas Tech. So Texas Tech gets my number five seed. And again, I'm a big believer in Texas Tech at this point. After covering them and meeting with their team, meeting with their coaches, there's just something real about not only Joey McGuire, but that defense and that defensive line, their linebacker crew, including Jacob Rodriguez, who's one of the better players in the country, and he was the national defensive player of the week after that win over Utah. He had a pick

and a force fumble in that game. Their line can get after the passer. They can stop the run. They're aggressive. Again, their chemistry is fantastic. For a group of guys that came together through the transfer portal, their chemistry blew me away

when I was meeting with some of those players before that game against Utah. And Utah is not a bad team. And this tech team handled them at the line of scrimmage. That tells me a great deal about their ability to play physical. Texas Tech gets the five seed.

And they'll be battling for a top four seed, But let's just say, sake of argument, something happens. They stub their toe along the way because it's hard to be perfect in college football. They would be the five seed right there, the Big 12 champ. And number six, at this point now, I still have the loser of the SEC champ game. And that would be Ole Miss. And so I think Ole Miss gets the sixth seed. You're not going to knock them way back down for qualifying for that game.

And again, in this scenario, because of their schedule, their schedule is favorable, folks. Yes, they still have Georgia. They still have Oklahoma outside of that, not much. Not much left on that schedule. And you don't know how healthy John Mateer is going to be. We think he's going to be healthy by the time that Oklahoma plays Ole Miss, but we don't know for sure. And so because of that, like,

Ole Miss is going to have a great chance to go play for the SEC championship. And if they do, even if they lose, six would be a low end for them from a seed perspective. So there you go, the SEC champ loser, Oleis is the sixth seed. Now we start getting into these at-large teams. and this is where it gets really fascinating. All right. Number seven. Imagine for a moment that Texas A&M has a great year, great year. And they play Texas last game of the season at Texas.

And the winner goes to the SEC championship game. In this scenario, it would be Texas because they're the home team, which would mean that Texas A&M, him barely missed out on the SEC champ game. They've got that ability. I know they didn't throw it well against Auburn. They threw it well against Notre Dame. I think that Marcel Reed, while streaky,

has the ability to hurt you through the air, obviously with his legs. They're great at wide receiver. They can run the football, and their defense just showed that they can totally dominate and win an entire game almost with just their defense. Auburn was 0 for 13. on third down. The only reason they scored is that Reed threw an interception and Auburn got the

P&10, meaning the start of the series at the two-yard line, punched it in. So the score was not indicative of the game that was played. They didn't even gain 200 yards, speaking of Auburn. So A&M's defense can play. I know they didn't play great against Notre Dame, but that's a Notre Dame team that in subsequent weeks has scored at least, what is it, 56 and back-to-back games. So like A&M is going to be right there, folks. I'm just telling you, watch out for A&M. They're my seven seed. I like A&M to go to the playoff. Their key games left at LSU, at Missouri, which could be a really tough one, and then at Texas. So even a great year, they stumble along the way. Don't get into the SEC championship game, but I think they're in the playoff. Eight seed. This team is improving every single week. I think

their quarterback could be one of the better, if not the best quarterback in the country. And at times, he plays absolutely like the best quarterback in the country, which he did in the first half last week at Georgia. And I'm talking about Ty Simpson and Alabama. Give me them at the eight seed. I think Ty Simpson is really good. Now, they're going to need to run the football better. Their defense played decent, although they didn't stop the run all that great against Georgia. And let's be honest, if Georgia would have just taken their time and called something competent on fourth down, they probably get that fourth down.

But ifs and but ifs and but. were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas, as you know. So they didn't, Alabama won. Now, they're in a great position with their loss being in the non-conference to control their own destiny moving forward. Maybe they get the SEC championship game, but their key games remaining include Vandy, which is this week at Missouri. They still have Tennessee. They still have LSU. They still have Oklahoma.

And they still have at Auburn. So the road was just too difficult for me to put them in the SEC championship game, in particular with the road that Ole Miss is going to have to travel, which is, easier, okay? And that's not a knock. It's just kind of the truth. So Alabama will be the eight seed. All right, now we get into these teams that are going to be nine through 12. And let's face it, like they're going to be on the road, tough environments, and going to be tough to win these first round games. Number nine, Penn State. That's such a tough loss coming all the way back to Oregon. But you're at home. You've got all the experience and you lose to a much more inexperienced team

that's a crushing defeat. Now they still have to play Ohio State. They still have to play Indiana. In this scenario, I'm saying that they win one of those games. Let's say it's Indiana. That would be their best win by far. And you would look at this and you would say to yourself, like, you know, there's some better wins ahead of them.

In this scenario, A&M would be winning, you know, at Missouri, at LSU. There would just be more of those big wins. Alabama, they've got all of those key games. So I think they would have better marquee wins than Penn State would, but you never know. So this could float, but I've got Penn State at number nine, and in this scenario, they would have to go to Tuscaloosa. At number 10, I know they just lost. I get it. And yes, they've got to do some things better, namely play better football in the first quarter because they constantly are down multiple possessions, but Georgia, I think Georgia

is still going to go to the playoff. If they're 10 and 2, they're going to be in. And in this scenario, would be a 10 and 2 football team. Their toughest remaining games are at home, which is huge for them. Even though they just lost at home, that was the nation's longest home winning street. Ole Miss at home, Texas at home, they've got neutral site games against Florida and Georgia Tech. I don't see them going 9 and 3. I don't think 9 and 3 gets in. So I think that they they run through this gauntlet with only one more loss. They don't get into the SEC championship game, but as 10 and 2, I like them right there at the 10 seed. And then you get into like basically one more spot because we've already got what I would say is the 12 seed in South Florida.

So there's one more spot. They're 10 and 2. And based on the fact that I think that they're going to kill people the rest of the year with a really potent offense and maybe one of the best quarterbacks in the country, I'm going to go with Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame comes all the way back and they get into this thing. They are left for dead right now. But Notre Dame is going to come all the way back and beat 10 and 2. If they run the table, they would get in. The losses would be, remember, at Miami, which was a tie game in the final two minutes, and A&M, one play away from winning that game. And the committee has assured us, well, I guess they haven't assured the public.

They have talked about this somewhat publicly, but I know from conversations with the people that are really in the know, the committee are going to have more metrics and in particular not penalized teams for losses to really good opponents. Well, in this scenario that I'm painting, Notre Dame's losses would be the number two, Miami and number seven Texas A&M. So their losses are not going to be held against them as much. Do they have great wins? No, they're not going to have great wins, but they're going to be dominant, which they have in the last couple of weeks to get back to 500 at 2 and 2. C.J. Carr continues to rise up and be one of the best quarterbacks in the country. If you're talking about two guys, if there are two quarterbacks, maybe three, that I've been so supremely, like, impressed with.

Young guys, inexperienced guys, it's Dante Moore, Ty Simpson, and C.J. Carr. those might be the three best quarterbacks in the country so far this year. They've been outstanding, outstanding. And so I think that that's going to continue, and they're going to be in the playoff at 11, and then South Florida will get that 12 seed. So there's the seed. There's the bracket, folks.

There's my first week in October bracket. Teams that I considered right on the outside, Indiana was going to be right there. They didn't get in because they didn't have any marquee wins. If they lose to Oregon, if they lose to Penn State, what is their best win? It's going to be at Iowa, which they just had last weekend. I think that could hurt them, depending on what Iowa does the rest of the way.

Michigan, there would be right there. I think they could potentially be a 10-2. Can Michigan get to that Ohio State game with only one loss? Might be tough. They've got no ranked teams before that game, so they're not going to have anything marquee. They might be in a situation where 10-2 is only good enough for Michigan if one of those 10 wins is against,

the Ohio State Buckeyes. Their toughest are a three-week stretch coming up after this weekend. They got at USC, home to Washington, at Michigan State. So we'll see. Tennessee would be right there. I think Tennessee, I considered them having already one loss to that Georgia team.

They could be fighting for a spot with Georgia. They would have lost that head-to-head. They still have games at Alabama. Oklahoma, when Materia is back, at Florida, Vanderbilt. You know, it was just tough to find a spot. I like Tennessee a lot. And the one that everyone's screaming at me about, in particular in the YouTube comments from Monday show is Oklahoma. I did not have Oklahoma in my top 10. I do not have them in my playoff. And here's the thing. That mature injury is really bad now, but we don't know exactly how he's going to look once he gets healthy. We don't know if he's going to be able to play the rest of the season after that. And their November is brutal.

brutal. So no, I can't, I do not want green, green eggs and ham. Sorry, I used to read that book to my kids and that's all it popped into my head. Oh, you didn't make the cut. I know that everyone loves OU right now. They're undefeated. That's smoke and mirrors. I think that OU at this point for me is a team that that is on borrowed time, on borrowed time in particular with their quarterback beat up. So the matchups, can't wait for these matchups. South Florida going to Lubbock. They'll face number five, Texas Tech. Tortillas flying everywhere. You've got, this is the punishment for continuing to lose big top 10 games, Penn State.

Don't get a home game. You've got to go and you've got to face Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa. That would be brutal. Winner of that game goes on to play Ohio State. Notre Dame, they sneaks in and they head to Oxford to face Ole Miss. That could be a really good one. I wish that we could still have Notre Dame LSU, but we can't. And number 10, Georgia heads to Kyle Field to face Texas A&M in an SEC playoff matchup.

Now, I toyed around with the seeding a little bit, truth be told. I thought that Georgia could be the nine seed, but to avoid the regular season rematch with Alabama, I moved Georgia and Penn State, which is why Penn State was nine and Georgia was 10. Since Georgia and Texas A&M do not play in the regular season, I think that that would be, kind of my scenario. I tried to do it as much like the committee as I possibly could. So there you go. The October bracket prediction. Let's hope it's better than the original. My team wanted to put up the original and I'm not going to call for it. So how do you like them apples? We already know it was terrible. It was terrible. I had Clemson winning the National Championship.

And that's all you need to know. And it's garbage. Hey, Clachio fans, it's time to get out and do something fun, whether it's catching a game, seeing a concert, or attending another live event. So I want to give the sponsor of today. Today's episode, Seat Geek, a massive shoutout. With over 35 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. They've got more than 70,000 events listed, everything from sports and concerts to festivals and much more. We're in the thick of college football, the NFL season, MLB playoffs, all are going on. Our team at Joel Clashow, we use Seatgeek for all of it. It's quick, it's easy, and you know you're getting a good deal. Seatgeek has your back. Every ticket is

rated on a scale of one to ten. Green dots are great deals. Red means maybe keep looking. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. Now, here's the fun part. You can use code, clatt 10 for your 10% off, your next purchase at Seatgeek. That's 10% off any ticket with promo code, Clat 10. Just click in the link in the show description below,

and you can download the app. That code is going to be automatically added to your account for later. Big shout out and thanks to Seatgeek for sponsoring today's show. Hey, fans, who's got questions? I love questions. Let's open up the mailbag presented by graduate by Hilton, the smartest place to stay in your favorite college towns. I do it every single weekend. We got three questions that I think are going to be really good. Here we go. Judy S. writes in. Love it when I get the questions from the ladies. Dear Joel, that sounded weird. That sounded creepy. You guys know what I was saying, right? Right. I love it when women listen to the show and write in questions. That was a better way to say it. Dear Joel. Huge fan of the show. Normally, I'm a YouTube girl, but I'm traveling for work, and Spotify has been my go-to on long-driving routes. Love it. Yes, Spotify is a real huge friend of the show. We appreciate all the help that we get from Spotify. If you can't watch the show on YouTube or you're in your car, absolutely, go hit up Spotify and check us out there. Joel Klass Show on Spotify, and they will take care of you. Spotify is awesome. I constantly listen to Spotify. All right, here's the question from Judy. In the SEC, what would you consider a trap game in the next four weeks? Are there any matchups that fit

this description? Thanks always for your insightful responses. Oh, thank you, Judy. Okay. So first of all, we kind of have to define what a trap game is. Like, what am I always looking for? Well, there's really two ways in my estimation. And there are more. But the two most prevalent ones that I always look at for the way a trap game occurs is you either go on the road to what can seem like an inferior opponent the week before a massive game, or you have to go on the road to what seems like an inferior opponent a week after you have a crazy emotional win in a massive game. So those are how those, it's either a trap game before or it's the letdown game after. And you've got to be aware of those things.

There is one this week, Judy. Yes, that is correct. Next week we've got Red River. Those players at Texas and Oklahoma constantly circle Red River and they're like, that's the game. That's our rival. It's in the middle of the year and they want to win that game desperately. And in fact, their legacies are tied to that game in many ways.

Very similar to Michigan and Ohio State and other great rivalries around the country. It almost doesn't matter what happens the rest of the season because as they're, as they come back years and years from now and talk about their season, The game that they'll talk about is the Red River game. Did you guys beat Oklahoma? Did you guys beat Texas? That's what happens with these rivalry matchups. It's the same thing with Colorado and Nebraska, although we don't get that annually anymore.

So look at where Texas has to go this week. Texas is at Florida this week against a team that, as we know, is very good defensively and has top-end talent but has underperformed. So will they get Texas's full attention? Texas in the swamp a week ahead of Red River is an absolute trap game. There is no doubt about it. Arch turns it over one time, maybe two times, and bang. You're in a game, you're on the road.

Funky things happen right there. That spread is only six and a half, which is the identical spread that Florida State, Virginia was last week. And that was a trap game. Why was that a trap game? Well, because not only was it a weeknight road game, it was a week before Florida State had to play, Miami, their rival. Trap game. Bam, Vegas knew it, put the spread at six and a half, probably should have been higher.

This week, Texas has to go to Florida before they play in Red River. And guess what? Vegas knows it. Spread six and a half. Probably should be bigger, right? You would anticipate, but that's absolutely a trap game. An example of like a letdown game was last year. Remember Notre Dame, they beat Texas A&M in that really emotional week one win. Huge, right? And it's like, they're crying and it's amazing. and then the next week you play Northern Illinois and you got beat.

So there you go. That wasn't even on the road. So let down games can happen either direction. But watch out for that trap game. Also another one later in the year. Georgia has to play at Auburn the week prior to Ole Miss. Just saying, just saying, watch out. Watch out.

Okay. James writes in. James says, hey, I was perusing the Vegas lines for this week's football matchups. And it got me wondering why it seems like there's so much more scoring. in the college game than in the NFL. Google tells me, on average, Google tells, I love that. On average, an NFL team scores around 21 points per game, whereas college teams score on average around 30 points per game. What's a difference of three, that's a difference of three scores per game on total? Are there fundamental structural

differences between the two leagues that lead to more scoring in college? Are NFL defense is just that much better relative to the offenses they face? Does the average college team prioritize offense over defense? Thanks, looks forward to you, Gus Ginny, on the call, and Michigan this year. James, great question. Yes, is the short answer, and I'll give you a more lengthy answer right now. Your premise at the end of that question is accurate. The defenses in the NFL are much better comparatively to the offenses that they face than in college football. And the reason, I know that this is kind of obvious, but we just have too many college football teams. So remember, the margin between like a top college

football team and a very average college football team is very big, very big. Like between 40 and 8, there's a vast difference in the level of player that's on the field for that team versus the top 10 team in the country. So the skill for the top teams is going to take over and they're going to score a lot of points. Now, what you generally also see is that if you get these teams in what I would call a matchup game where the talent is equated, maybe it's two teams that are both in the mid-40s in the country or two teams that are in the top 10, you have lower scoring games. That doesn't mean they're always lower scoring. Sometimes you can get into a shootout, just like a shootout can occur

in the National Football League. But on average, in what I would call matchup games, there's not a ton of scoring like you would see in the other games. So your thought about defenses is accurate. Now, a couple of structural things about the college game versus the NFL. The hash marks make a huge difference in college football and are very beneficial to the offense. The hash marks in the NFL are much more narrow and in college they're much wider. Okay. And that width of hashmark presents the opportunity when the ball is all the way on one hash to have a ton of space to the wide side of the field. It's called the field. They call it the field and the boundary. And because of that, offenses and the structure of offense can exploit that space

a lot better than in the NFL. So the field and the boundary in the NFL is not as much of a difference. So the game is more balanced across the 53 and a half yards than it is in college football. Well, because of that in college, because of that discrepancy in space, the structures that you present on offense force the defense to really declare whether they're going to try to defend you into the boundary if you put the formation or the strength into the short side of the field or if they're going to continue to defend the space or the field.

a big technical answer to basically tell you like it's a huge advantage for the offenses. Plus, if you get into a game where you know your players are better than the opposition, you have more room for a player to be better as an athlete than the defense. So that's one. And then the other structural difference is the lineman downfield rule. In the NFL, the lineman can only go one yard downfield. So it negates a lot of the heavy RPO play action pass style passing game. You've got to be much more lateral with your offensive line,

and it doesn't present as much conflict on the defense because the safeties and the linebackers are generally keying on the linemen to decide whether it's a run or a pass. Well, in college, those linemen can come off three yards down the field. So their initial step or initial two steps can look much more similar to a run play than it can in the NFL, which presents a lot of conflict on the defender, which then makes it more difficult for him to defend and particular routes down the field or those RPO-style passing games.

So those all contribute to offenses scoring more points in the college game. Really great question. Really great question. All right. Last one. Let's talk a little Rider Cup. As you know, I love golf. In fact, I've got this YouTube series out there.

You can go check it out. It's called 3 and 2 golf. And myself and Shane Bacon, we go out and we play golf matches against club chance. from different clubs around the country. You just started it last summer. It's really fun, and I love doing it, and I love golf, okay? So I was very much into the Ryder Cup. I'm into match play, all that.

And the Americans just got drilled in the team section of the Ryder Cup. Just drilled. Now, they tried to come back on Sunday in the individual matches, but just got, I mean, crushed to the point. I think it was a record. The 11 and a half points that the European team won on Friday and Saturday of the Ryder Cup, in the team section games, those four sessions, I believe was a record. So there's been a lot of talk in Rider Cup golf circles about like, well, what do the

Americans need to do? Who do they need to hire? Is this just like, hey, get Tiger Woods to be the captain. And Kyle Porter, who's kind of a golf follow on Twitter, he threw out kind of that sentiment about like, hey, what we need is a coach or someone like Tiger Woods. And it's so fascinating because Phil Mickelson chimed in with a tweet. I think that we have the tweet that we can possibly put up. But Phil Mickelson tweeted this, and it just got me thinking about athletics in general and leadership in general and coaching in general.

And this is why I'm going to touch on it right here on a college football podcast. Phil Mickelson tweeted out, here is why looking outside of golf to a coach, K or Lou Holtz type, is worth exploring. Golf is an individual sport that doesn't have teamwork, support system, partnership, team analytics, personal traits, and more. The Europeans have a template that teaches and prepares. their captains for these skills. U.S. has a new template every two years with little continuity. If a coach K or a Lou Holtz or someone similar took over, would it be built upon or would it be scrapped and start over again afterwards? If that's the case, it would be a wasted time and effort not worth doing to begin with. So I think what he's saying is not Lou Holtz,

like in particular, I believe he clarified, because obviously Lou is getting up there in age. I think he's meaning like that type of person, some sort of famous coach, like a coach K or Lou Holtz or someone like that. My sentiment is that I totally agree. I totally agree. And by the way, this is innate in other sports. We know this. Just because you're an all-star in the NBA doesn't mean you're going to be a great NBA head coach. Just because you're a Hall of Famer in the National Football League doesn't mean that you're going to be a great NFL head coach. Just because you're a Heisman trophy winner doesn't mean that you're going to be a great head coach or an All-American be a head coach or just because you went to that school doesn't mean that you're going to be a great head coach. Now, there are there are guys that have gone on to have great careers like a Steve Spurrier as a coach after being a Heisman trophy winner. I understand that. So this is a generalization. But what Phil Mickelson is touching on is the fact that coaching and leadership matter and it needs to be in the form of an executive. And we should be talking about in college football all the time. Because guess what these guys are essentially C.E.

CEOs, essentially CEOs. And that's exactly what the Americans need in the Ryder Cup. Remember when USA basketball started to struggle on the world stage a little bit, and they lost a couple of like world championships. And what did they do? They changed and they put Jerry Colangelo over USA basketball so that he could build a system that then coaches could come along into, players could come along into, and they could become better.

So as the world caught up to the United States in basketball, ball. You couldn't just roll the ball out anymore. Well, guess what? In golf, just because you're a great golfer does not mean that you're going to be a great captain. And in so many ways, Keegan Bradley was set up to fail in this one. The PGA of America did not give him ample opportunity. So he was late to the party. He comes out there. He's trying to do the best that he can. He's a professional golfer. So this is not Keegan Bradley's issue or fault. In fact, I think he actually did an incredible job. But what you see with the Americans is you don't see with the Europeans, they can't play team golf. They can play great individual golf. That's why they're always great on Sunday. They're not great on Friday or

Saturday. That's it. So we need somebody in American golf to come across and be the GM of the Rider Cup team and have a philosophy of who's going to be on the team, who they're going to be paired with so that we can become better. Because guess what? I'm tired of losing America. Let's go. We got to win the Rider Cup. We need a GM. Maybe it could be me. I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. All right. Hey, so subscribe to show on YouTube. You can follow us there. You can follow us on social media at Joel Clachio. I'll be back with picks and previews tomorrow. Thank you again for listening, subscribing, doing all the things. We love college football because you love college football. And we hope you have a great night. See you everybody.