The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michigan to suspend Sherrone Moore, Rivalries that need to come back & Fixing Schedules for the Fans

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the news that Michigan is going to self-impose a 2-game suspension on Head Coach Sherrone Moore for deleting text messages with Connor Stallions. He discusses whether that penalty and whether the Wolverines should still expect further punishment from the NCAA. He also applauds the news of Notre Dame and Clemson announcing a long-term scheduling agreement while pointing out the motivations for the move. He also lists rivalry games that are no longer played on an annual basis that need to be brought back on the schedule every single season. Klatt also considers the pros and cons of individual schools controlling their own schedule every season before proposing a model that can ensure an equal playing field while also providing fans the best games possible. 0:00-1:42 Intro1:43-11:03  Sherrone Moore Suspension11:04-13:17  Michigan President Santa Ono’s move to Florida13:18- 17:22 Joel Klatt’s thoughts on Clemson & Notre Dame scheduling agreement17:23 - 20:48 Top 5 Non-Conference games that should be scheduled every year20:49 - 22:53 How can the Non-Conference schedule be better?22:54-24:04 Should the SEC move to a 9 Conference game schedule?24:05 - 28:14 Joel’s dream CFB schedule28:15-31:15 Presidential Commission w/ Co-Chair Nick Saban Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michigan is expected to self-impose a two-game suspension for Sharon Moore for the alleged the leading of text messages he had with Connor Stallions. Choosing which games that you're suspended is trying to get ahead of this infractions meeting that's going to take place in June. It is self-serving for Michigan. This benefits them. This is no way to govern the sport. It's so painfully obvious that we need a singular overarching governing body over just football.

College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. Welcome into the program, everybody. This is the Joel Clatt Show. I am Joel Clatt. This show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton, by Hilton. Thank them for their support, as always.

Hey, remember to subscribe to the show on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube, congratulations, leave a comment below, and then follow us wherever you're at on social media at Joel Clat Show. You can find us there. And then wherever you're listening, if you are, as just an audio pod, just go ahead, follow us, rate, review us. awesome. Lots to get into. I know it doesn't feel like there's been a ton going on in college football, but there really actually has been. So some newsy things that have gone on. And if you are here in

the offseason, then you are aware. So obviously the Michigan self-imposed two-game suspension from Sharon Moore will get into that, that scheduling agreement with Clemson, Notre Dame. And by the way, why is that just the tip of the iceberg? I'm going to get into a lot of different scheduling things as well. So the commission that Nick Saban's going to co-chair, all of that coming up straight ahead. All right. Let's jump into it right now. Michigan is expected to self-impose a two-game suspension for Sharon Moore for the alleged the leading of text messages he had with Connor Stallions. Okay, so just right off the bat, you might be thinking yourself, didn't we go through all of this,

suspensions and everything a couple of years ago? And yes, that is the case. But remember, now we're talking about really two different issues. So there were some suspensions that Michigan had with coaches, including Jim Harbaugh and some of the others, a couple of years ago in their national championship year at the beginning of the year. But that was stemming from some recruiting violations stemming back to COVID. Okay. So that's what that was. Then Harbaugh had the suspensions late in that championship year.

And that was primarily because the Big Ten was involved. What we have never gotten is really any insights from the NCAA. And so they always take forever. Remember, the NCAA cycle, it's part of what makes them such a terrible organization, is that they are so slow. And in a sport that moves from a cycle standpoint so quickly, they move so slow that we're like, are we still dealing with this?

And the answer is yes. So as it relates to the Michigan football program and the NCAA, Michigan is trying to get out ahead. of their meeting, which will take place sometime in June, on infractions stemming from the Connor Stallion's sign-stealing saga that we were all a part of back in 2023. So some interesting tidbits about this self-imposed suspension for Sharon Miller is that it'll be two games and it won't be the first two games of the season.

It'll be games three and four, the home game against Central Michigan, and then a road game in the Big Ten at Nebraska. which means Chiron will coach as the head coach against New Mexico, which is potentially, depending on how that quarterback battle all irons out, it could be Bryce Underwood's first start as a true freshman, so he would be out there for that game against New Mexico. And then he would then still be coaching when they go on the road to Norman, which, by the way, is Sharon's alma mater,

played college football for Stoops at Oklahoma, and he would be going back to face Oklahoma and still be the head coach. which would be potentially Bryce Underwoods, or by the way, any of their quarterbacks, first start on the road as a Michigan Wolverine. And then he would be serving that suspension against Central Michigan and then on the road against Nebraska. So choosing which games that you're suspended is, yes, two fronts, one, trying to get ahead of this infractions meeting that's going to take place in June.

But it's also, let's be incredibly honest about it, it is. self-serving for Michigan. This benefits them. To try to get out in front of it is one thing. To get out in front of it to benefit you the most is another, which obviously trying to get your feet wet, not only as, let's face it, a young head coach, but also with a new quarterback, you don't want to try to go through all of those gymnastics early in the year with this suspension. So get your feet wet as a team, in particular the starting quarterback for the first two weeks. and that big road test, Big Ten SEC, as Michigan goes on the road to Oklahoma, which, like I said, is Sharon's alma mater and then serve the suspension.

Is that beneficial for Michigan? Obviously, yes. Obviously, yes, which is why they're trying to do it this way. Do I think that the NCAA is going to look through that? Yeah, you know, obviously, because it is the most self-serving way to try to get out ahead of what could be looming as it relates to a suspension coming down from the NCAA. Now, does this hurt them? Yeah, obviously.

Folks, I keep saying this. The issue that we run into in this discussion is that without rehashing all of the actual issues with sign stealing and the video evidence, which, listen, I've drawn the ire on a lot of different sides on this issue. when it comes to what we're going through now, the problem is governance. And I've talked about this, you know, at length in different areas. But the governance of the NCAA is so archaic and so flawed that now, one, it's too late. And two, do we really know, like, what type of jurisdiction the NCAA is going to have moving forward? I think those are both called into question at this point.

You know, if we could have a more singular body that was governing college football, and college football specifically, I think that they could be a lot more nimble. And I know that that's obvious. They could be a lot more nimble. And we would have already been through all of this versus dealing with it two seasons removed from when all of this started to come out right in the middle of the 20. season. You got Harbaugh's suspension at the end of the 23 season. And yet here we are going into 2025. And we're talking about Michigan trying to get out ahead of what the NCAA is still impending

or whether they're impending meeting in the summertime. This is no way to govern the sport. This is no way to govern the sport. This is a case study. And it's, it happens time and time again where it's so painfully obvious that we need a singular, overarching governing body, over just football so that we can deal with things more in real time and less so like the Titanic looking way backwards and being like, we hit an iceberg way back there and now we're going to try to deal with it. And there's no way you can actually deal with it in any meaningful way. Because what you're going to end up doing is punishing people that had nothing to do with this. Now, I'm not saying Sharon had nothing to do with this. And again, these text messages were tampered

with and allegedly deleted. That's terrible. That's a terrible. terrible decision. I've heard reports that there was nothing incriminating in those text messages, but who cares? You can't tamper with evidence. That means the cover-up is always worse than the crime in that regard. My fear with all of this, and we're getting into this area where as I get further away from the entire saga of 2023, what I start to think about, and maybe this is just because I'm a father and I've got kids that are getting older. My oldest is in seventh grade. He's going to be in eighth grade next year. He's a teenager. And I think to myself about like precedent and models, you know, the kids see everything and young coaches see everything.

So in this industry, there are coaches that are trying to cut their teeth and they're trying to figure out how they're going to go about their business throughout their career in college football. And as again, as I reflect on everything that we've gone through, the precedent is just terrible because in a lot of regards, it's like, hey, do whatever for the outcome and then deal with it later. But that's really no way to go about raising coaches in this industry. Now, is this the only problem in the industry? Obviously not. And is this industry filled with folks that are holier than thou? Absolutely. There's no question about it. We see it all the time. We just had the podcast dealing with the Nico Iomaleava situation at Tennessee.

In a lot of ways, rightly so, lamenting the fact that they were having to go through this, like, free agency all the time with Nico Iamaleava and he's just about money and this or that. And then they turn around and tamper with school's quarterbacks. You know, are those guys coming to open? So nobody's without fault. Now, in this situation, this was a more specific situation. advanced video sign stealing is not right. And people should be punished. And then deleting evidence, that's wrong.

That's wrong. And so something's going to come down, which is why Michigan's trying to get out ahead of this. Now, they're trying to get out ahead of this in the most advantageous possible way, which is exactly how they're rolling this out with a self-imposed suspension for the third and fourth game. It benefits them the most for it to go through this way. Do I think that the NCAA is going to look through that and basically be like, no, you know, we're going to look for something more meaningful? Likely.

I think that that's absolutely likely. So the hearing with Michigan and the NCAA is slated for, I believe, early June. The final decision from the NCAA is expected to come within two months of that hearing. Again, your internet's not slow. That's just the NCAA moving around at a sloth space. it's infuriating how slow the NCAA is, how bureaucratic the NCAA is, because we're again, two years removed, and there are players on the Michigan team that had nothing to do with this, nothing, nothing whatsoever. Did some of these coaches? Obviously, should they be punished?

Probably. And will they likely? So, so that's that. Then there's this other piece of news that's stemming from the entire situation at Michigan. And this news dropping that the University of Michigan president, who's been the president throughout this entire issue, Santa Ono is leaving less than three years into his tenure at Ann Arbor for the University of Florida. That's interesting timing, I would say. And this is going to sound disparaging. It's not meant to be disparaging. I think it's probably just a compliment to the University of Michigan. But when we think of the University of Michigan, as an academic school, a research school, just the prestige of the University of Michigan, as they like to put it, the leaders of the West. And then you think of the University

of Florida. If you didn't know anything other than just like outward looking at those two institutions, what's the better job, more prestigious job? Again, not meant to be disparaging to Florida. That's a great school. Great school. It's not the University of Michigan. So here you have a president leaving, and you can only assume, again, this is a total assumption, that all of the issues that they've been having, in particular in the athletic department, are at least part of the decision making for their president leaving to go to Florida. So Santa, oh, no, is like, you know what, I'm good, peace out. Now, maybe he's just going down for sunshine and no taxes. I don't know. There's plenty of those. in our country, but I'm not sure if that's totally this case.

Again, the interesting timing of this is they know more than we do. So now you have Michigan trying to get out in front of a suspension for their head coach Sharon Moore and the president leaving for a job that we would all at least assume is not quite as prestigious. So something's coming. And it's likely very large and could be even financial. So the Michigan saga is going to be with us at least for a few more months, a couple months after June. Let's get to some more positive things in college football.

I loathe that subject that we just talked about. But you have to touch on it. You've got to talk about it. And now we get to something that was like, that's awesome. Clemson and Notre Dame announce a 12-year scheduling agreement starting in 2027. Now, listen, this is great for Notre Dame. this isn't obvious. This locks in a big-time opponent on their schedule for years to come.

And as an independent, they need to have those marquee games that drive television revenue that continue to keep that marketability for them as an independent afloat. That's great. So for Notre Dame, this is kind of a no-brainer. There's no doubt about this. Now, from Clemson's perspective, you might be thinking to yourself like, well, don't they already play in this Notre Dame ACC agreement? Yes, yes, they do.

And if they were to not do this agreement, Clemson would play Notre Dame five times in that 12 year stretch rather than all 12. Now, here's what's interesting about this is that Clemson is using their leverage as a huge program, a blockbuster program, national championship winning coach, going to the college football playoff last year. And they're looking at this and they're thinking to themselves, we need to get out ahead of what is now a new structure within the ACC as it relates to revenue distribution. This is very smart from Clemson's standpoint. They're going to lock in the biggest television draw they can possibly lock in, which is

Notre Dame. And now the ACC is going to begin distributing revenue partly based on television ratings. Now, not fully based on that, but partly. This was part of that whole, you know, Florida State was kind of suing them. And there was talk about whether they were going to remain in. And then a couple of the teams basically got concessions about unequal, revenue share, which, to be honest, I don't mind for the schools that are driving the bulk of the revenue in that conference. And clearly, Clemson, Florida State, and then even Notre Dame with

that scheduling agreement, do that. So now Clemson on an annual basis is going to be able to lock in Notre Dame, regardless of how their rotation would land in the ACC scheduling. Smart. Very smart. and a decision that was made not with anybody else in mind, but with themselves in mind. And by the way, this is what I always talk about in college football, which is everybody within college football is incentivized to look out for themselves. Again, not a knock. That's just the structure that we live in. So Clemson is looking out for themselves. We operate in this sport in silos. Conferences do it, schools do it.

When you think about it from an individual school's perspective, you can always look at it from a scheduling perspective. How do they schedule? Do they benefit themselves from a value standpoint? Do they benefit themselves from a competitive standpoint? And they get to make those decisions and they get to operate in a silo. Do those decisions necessarily make their conference or the sport overall stronger? Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So while this is a really cool thing and something that we can all get behind and say, yeah, of course we want to see that game, I would just pose this question. Is it better for the ACC and for the sport overall? all. I don't know. I don't know. Because the more that we allow teams to make these individual

decisions, the more that we're going to get away from a more universal scheduling, what would you call it, model. And I definitely want to touch on that. I think there's more games like this that need to be scheduled in college football. I think others should take Clemson and Notre Dame's lead and think about locking in games that we want to see that would drive value, in particular on a regional basis, that maybe we've lost because of all the movement in the last few years from a conference realignment standpoint. So let's talk about some of those games, right? Like if we were going to create a perfect scenario of it wasn't just Clemson and a Notre Dame, but it was others, what are like the best five?

Let's rank the five that I would love to see form some sort of scheduling alliance on an annual basis. so that we can see these games every year. And a lot of these are games that we've had and lost that we need in college football for the fabric of the sport. So let's go five to one. And we're going to start with Notre Dame USC. Did you know that Notre Dame USC is actually like not scheduled after 26? We've had this series since 1926. Okay. So that's a hundred years. And Lincoln Riley spoke last year about the uncertainty around the game. And this specific matchup for the future, it's like, hey, we should probably find a way to lock that in Notre Dame and USC. That's a game that we should have in college football.

At number four, how about one of the most historic? And before they actually ended their annual matchup because of conference realignment was the game that had been played more than any other game in the country, and that's Kansas, Missouri. Let's give me Kansas, Missouri. You might be thinking of yourself like, that's kind of weird. But again, you're talking about the fabric of the sport. This is one of the oldest, if not the oldest rivalry in college football.

I want to see Kansas, Missouri every single year. And number three, again, this is a no-brainer. I want to see Miami and Florida every single year. Nothing is scheduled after 2025. They used to be an annual opponent for them in the late 80s. And listen, this has been a series that we kind of get and then it goes away. We should have it. All the kids that go to Florida and Miami play against.

each other their entire lives. And then they go to these schools, which are, you know, right up the coast from one another. And we don't get that game every year. We should have that game every single year. This one, again, bias of proximity, heartstrings, Colorado, Nebraska. This is the game. This is the rivalry that I grew up on. This is the rivalry that made me personally fall in love with college football. We should have Colorado, Nebraska every single year. There were so many years. If you look from like the middle of the 80s until about 2005, this matchup likely either decided the Big 10, or excuse me, not the Big 8 champion or the Big 12 North Division champion. Now, Kansas State obviously had their say in that

for a couple of years, but that's a great rivalry with a ton of history. And we should have that every single year. They've tried to bring it back here and there. Again, that should be an annual scheduling agreement. And then this one, you talk about like no love lost. in particular after the conference realignment, I want bedlam, man. I want bedlam every year. Nothing is scheduled right now. In December, Joe Castiglione, the athletic director at Oklahoma, said it wouldn't be until well into the 30s that we're going to get this matchup.

We should be better than that in college football. Don't we want to see all of these games? These games are a part of the fabric of the sport. By the way, there are more. These are just my top five. There are more like Penn State Pit. We need that. We need the backyard brawl every year. Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State.

Oklahoma and Nebraska. I'd love to see that game. Texas, Texas. That's always been a great game. Like, there are matchups that we need to see more often. And I think that what it does is it calls into question like, well, shouldn't this be better? Shouldn't scheduling be better? Could it be better? Yes. Yes. So, let me go back to the original point of this kind of conversation. Clemson, Notre Dame scheduled this agreement. And folks, in my mind, it's like the Let Them Eat Cake announcement. It could be better. I don't want to throw cold water on this because I can't wait to see the game. And I want to see this more often.

But this needs to happen on a much larger scale. There are so many games, valuable, valuable games, that we're missing out on. There's so much valuable inventory just in terms of the way we make the schedule that we're missing out on. It could be better. I'm not going to blame Clemson and Notre Dame for looking out for themselves in the current model. That's what we do. That's what the structure has mandated on these programs and athletic departments. But it should be better. Let's go back to the original segment of the entire show. we need an overarching governing body that in part can handle scheduling. Because I've argued this for years.

And listen, if you've listened to this show with any consistency, you know that I'm a huge proponent that schools shouldn't make their own schedule, that I should take, if I'm the overarching governing body, if I'm the college football commissioner, I'm going to take your non-conference, and I'm going to make it more valuable for the sport overall and more specifically for the fan, for the fan, both sitting in the stands and around the country

watching on the team, I'm going to make the sport better for them. I think it would be better for the players as well. If any of these players are anything like me, you want the best competition all the time. You want to play in the best games all the time. I love that. When I played at Colorado, we always played monster non-league games.

We played at Miami in the non-conference. We played at Florida State. We did a home and home with Washington State. There was a ton of those games, and I loved those games. Those were awesome. and that was outside of the schedule that we played in the big, big 12. So then you start getting this little news dump about,

hey, by the way, the SEC is thinking about taking this, this, I don't want to call an offer, but ESPN has told them, yeah, you would make more money if you move to a nine conference game schedule. And the reason that that gets me more excited than the announcement about Clemson and Notre Dame is because if we get nine conference, games in the SEC, we're going to get one step closer to what I think could be an incredible scheduling model in college football. And it's going to be better for all of us. So again,

just take the Clemson and Notre Dame news and be encouraged about it, be excited about it, but put it off to the side for a moment because the more important news is the news that the SEC may take the more money from ESPN annually to play the ninth conference game. And once they do that, then they align with the big 10. And now we've got something going because the entire conferences can do scheduling agreements. Now we get into this model that I've been talking about for a long time. All right? So if each of these conferences play nine conference games,

then what we can do is do scheduling agreements or we can schedule for them in the non-conference where you will be put into a conference. a tranche of teams based on where you finished the previous year, and then we're going to have a draft and draft your non-league schedule for you. And there's going to be a competitive balance because it's going to be about where you finished the previous year. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Not only do we get like a World Cup style draw this time of year in like March, you know, April, May, and we can all watch and see like who's playing who next year in the non-league, but also we're going to have huge matchups, huge matchups. Think like,

you know, Georgia's going to Michigan and Ohio State is going to go to Alabama. Who says no to that? Nobody. Nobody says no to that. And that's just those two matchups. We would have several more across all the conferences based on where teams finished. Not just the, hey, this is great. Notre Dame and Clemson are looking out for themselves and scheduling an agreement to play 12 times in a row.

Good for them. I love that game. I don't want to throw cold water on that. that game. I want other games to be brought back on an annual basis, but I also do want teams to have their non-conference scheduling stripped from them so that we can schedule things that are better for the sport overall. If you're a fan at home and you're disagreeing with this, I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you. Now, are there problems with it? Yeah, sure. There's little wrinkles here and there. What do you do with group of five games? Well, maybe one group of five

game for every power four opponent. You play nine conference games. You have the game that we schedule four, you out of the draw, and then let's make one of these schedule agreement games so that we can get these regional rivalries back for the 11th Power 4 game. Boom. Who says no to that? Getting all wound up. I'm recording this early May. Truth be told, because I don't want to take away from my wife's lovely day on Mother's Day, but it's May 9th. I'm getting all worked up because the Clemson Notre Dame announcement is the let them eat cake announcement. There's something better for us as college football fans. There's something better for us all over the, from a broadcast standpoint, from a fan

standpoint, from a players standpoint, we want to see better games. And by the way, we're starting to see, because of the way the committee acted in the 12-team playoff initially, we're starting to see games go away. Nebraska, Tennessee come to mind. We don't want to see games go away. We want to see games added. So kudos to Clemson and Notre Dame for doing this. Is it self-serving?

Yes. Is it their job to do it that way? Yes. And so, kudos to them and more power to them. But it could be better. It could be a lot better. And like I said, this is a model if we did like a 9-1-1, 1,1, where you have nine conference games, you have a game out of the draw based on where you finished with your scheduling partner

from a conference perspective. Then you have one game from a regional perspective that you just have on an annual basis. like the backyard brawl or Bedlam or Colorado, Nebraska, and then you play one group of five game as your 12th game. So you can help with their budgets, and those players still get to play the Power 4 opponent. Yes, like this can happen. This can happen.

And the reason it could happen is if we all play nine conference games. If we all play nine conference games, then something like this can and hopefully will happen in the future. And this is why, this is why, I always talk about, this being kind of the dawn of the golden age of college football. Are there problems? Yes, do we need to solve those problems? Absolutely. But we can. And the more structure we get around NIL and player movement in terms of the transfer portal, the better, not only for the player, but for the fans and the programs. The more structure we get around scheduling, the better we're

going to be in college football, not only for the fans, but the players and the programs. All of it becomes better. And hopefully we can get to that point. By the way, something that may help in that direction is the last point. And that is that college football is, well, I should say intercollegiate athletics. If you have college athletics is now going to have a commission formed at the highest levels in our United States government. It's going to be formed by Nick Saban, who's expected to co-chair this commission along with Cody Campbell. He's the chairman of the board at Texas Tech University. He also played at Texas Tech. He founded their NIL collective, the Matador Club. He's been a huge donor for them and done a lot for them from a financial standpoint,

both from a facilities and NIL competitive standpoint for Joey McGuire and Texas Tech. Who knows what comes out of this commission? I'm excited for it. I'm very excited for it. I hope that the right voices are within that panel and on that commission so that we can drive towards something that is not only sustainable for the future, but also that's going to benefit not just the players and not just the programs. I don't want people looking out for themselves that are in positions of power in college football or college or intercollegiate athletics. What I want is for people there to be looking out for all the stakeholders. And I put you in that as a fan. And I think Nick Sabin understands that. He knows, he knows that we're not

going to stop paying players, but we need to limit their movement. If they're going to generate revenue and then receive revenue share, then their movement is going to be limited. He knows that scheduling is a problem, in particular when you're talking about the imbalance in scheduling between some of the haves and the have-nots in college football. All of that hopefully can get worked on. I do know, I think that we're going to need federal legislation at some point, and hopefully this commission can present something that lawmakers can get behind and we can get some fixes for our sport moving forward. Man, I love when we have like a May episode and there's some meaty things within our sport that can get us all excited and think about the future of the sport.

You guys know that I love doing that. So listen, I'll take a commissionership. You guys know that. I'm more than willing. And let's hope that this commission does good work. And by the way, if Sabin's on it, don't you just assume that the work is going to be quality? I certainly do. I certainly trust him and his opinion. Loved meeting with him when we did the Big Noon conversation last year.

So that'll do it for this week's Joel Clatio. I hope you had a great Mother's Day yesterday, all of you mothers out there. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything that you do. To my mom, Rita Clatt, I love you with all of my heart. Thank you so much for being an amazing mom. And to my beautiful and amazing wife, Sarah, you're an incredible mom to our three boys. I am so grateful to have you and I know they are as well. So thank you all moms out there.

Hope you guys have a great week. We'll be with you again next week here on the Joel Clashio.