The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Ohio State dominates Michigan, Lane Kiffin leaves Ole Miss for LSU & does Texas have a Playoff case?

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt breaks down ‘The Game’ as #1 Ohio State ended their 4-game losing streak vs Michigan with a convincing win. He considers whether it’s Ohio State vs the Field to win it all after how dominant the Buckeyes have looked this season. Klatt also discusses where Michigan goes from here following the loss to their biggest rival. He reveals his latest Top 15 and examines the College Football Playoff bubble. Klatt considers whether teams like Texas and Miami have a case to be in the 12-team field before offering an alternative Playoff model that would guarantee those teams an opportunity to settle it on the field. He then gives his thoughts on Lane Kiffin’s decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU right before the College Football Playoff and whether he should have been allowed to coach the Rebels in the CFP. 0:00-3:40 Intro3:41-16:19 Ohio State snaps Michigan’s winning streak16:21-31:58 Joel Klatt’s new top 1531:59-43:19 Who will make the Playoff bubble?43:20-53:57 Lane Kiffin leaves Ole Miss for LSU job Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He's got five of the messiest exits in the history of football. Everything was on the line. The hype was incredible. The energy in the building was incredible. Julian Sayan faced adversity after that early interception, and he came back and was sensational. They have turned into a juggernaut. They have turned into, that's the best team in America.

That's the best program in America. And there are no weaknesses. It's a great argument for Texas. And if I was Steve Sarkesian, I'd be making the same argument. like today is why we love college football. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clad show. I'm Joel Glad. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. Another big weekend, rivalry weekend in college football. We got a lot to get to.

We've got coaching carousel news. My full thoughts on Lane Kiffin officially now, going to LSU, leaving Ole Miss right in the middle of that playoff run. I'll get to that later in the show. My new top 15. Yes, I've got that, including conversation about the bubble because there's a lot of teams now. They're going to be waiting, politicking, arguing the entirety of this week toward the committee to try to get themselves into this college football playoff as the committee will give us their playoff after we get the conference championship games this weekend.

By the way, speaking of conference championship games, on Fox 8 p.m. Eastern, we've got the Big Ten championship. Number one versus number two, Ohio State and Indiana. Gus Jenny and I will be. on the call. I cannot wait for that game. So make sure. Coverage begins at 6.30 p.m. Game at 8 p.m. That's going to be incredible. It's the first conference championship game that's been a one versus two since the old Florida Alabama days with Tebow and Sabin and all the in urban. So I cannot wait for that game. It's going to be absolutely phenomenal. Again, that's on Saturday

night. We'll get to that later on in the week. Obviously, my thoughts on the game as Ohio State took it to Michigan, that's all coming up. But before we get into that, just Just remember, please, if you would, subscribe to the show on YouTube. That would help us out. Leave a comment down below. We'd appreciate that. Like the show as well. That always helps.

And then wherever you're listening to your podcast, if you would just rate and review us, that would really help. Invite a friend. I know all of you were with friends and family during the course of the weekend over Thanksgiving. And I hope you had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. But, you know, throw out a little suggestion. Hey, if you like college football, check out this show. And then on social media, all of our conference.

content is out there. You can enjoy it all week long, in shorter form. At Joel Clat Show is where you can find us. All right, here we go. Let's get into everything from rivalry weekend, everything going on in college football. I love that, like, this is an incredible show to get into because coming up the heels of the game, I got to tell you, that is just an absolute bucket list, pinch me style of game. Getting to broadcast that game is special. And in particular, this one, with everything that was on the line. Ohio State had their win streak on the line. Obviously, their number one in the country coming off a national championship, but trying to end the four-game skid to their rival, the Michigan Wolverines. Meanwhile, Michigan at 9 and 2 felt like a win over the number one

team of the country was going to propel them towards an argument for the playoff. And I don't think that they were wrong. So everything was on the line. The hype was incredible. The energy in the building was incredible in the big house on Saturday. And Ohio State absolutely dominated that game. When you looked at that game early, it felt like, holy cow, Michigan's going to do this again. In the first basically five and a half minutes, really like it was five minutes and 18 seconds of game time. We had Michigan hold the football for 503, get a pick and kick two field goals, and they were up six nothing. And Ohio State was sitting over there. They had only run, what, two, three offensive snaps.

They had held the ball for 16 seconds, something around there of game. time and they're down six nothing and you get the sense of like, is it going to happen again? Is this going to be five in a row? That's the feeling in the stadium at that point. And from that moment, the rest of the game, Ohio State dominated. Totally dominated the game in every single facet, every single facet. From that moment forward, here was the time of possession. This is wild.

3946 to 1456. Basically, 40 minutes of time of possession in the game after the first five minutes of the game. That is wild and it's totally dominant. They dominated on the line of scrimmage. They could throw the football. They were running the football. The defense adjusted after a couple of quality series

from Michigan early in that game and totally shut down that offense. And it was a completely dominant performance. I thought Michigan had a great, plan early. They were trying to run on the edges and they were able to do so. Jordan Marshall, when he was healthy before he left the game, kind of re-aggravating that shoulder injury, he was dynamic. He was getting the ball down there. They get a couple of red zone possessions, but then have to settle for field goals. And then after that, it was a wrap. It was a wrap.

Ohio State's defense adjusted. They played some different fronts, started getting after it with their defensive line. And Michigan had no shot offensively in that game. Ohio State, held Michigan to no touchdowns, 162 total yards, and a bunch of those yards were in, you know, that first quarter. That was impressive. And yet we knew that Ohio State was going to be really good on defense. We've known that the entire year. They've been putting up numbers that only some of the best defenses in the history of college football have put up. So we knew that the defense was going to be good. What we didn't know, maybe, maybe, maybe. What we didn't know about Ohio state is, what would the offense be like? One, with their wide receivers coming back, two,

if their quarterback faced any adversity, and three, could they really run the football and control the line of scrimmage against a team that has dominated them at the line of scrimmage the last four years? And they did all three of those things. The wide receivers were fine. Julian Sane faced adversity after that early interception, and he came back and was sensational. in that football game. I tell you, his total numbers, 19 of 26 for 233 and three touchdowns, but that interception, I thought it was the way that they happened. You're seeing the controversial touchdown from Jeremiah Smith on the screen if you're

watching YouTube right now. Listen, I will give you this, and I know Michigan fans, you're going to want me to say this, and I believe it to be true. That should have been a fumble, touchback, Michigan ball. I don't know if that changes the outcome of the game because Michigan was totally dominated after the first five minutes of the game. That's the problem now in hindsight. Now, who knows what happens? And can you get a good big play or something along those lines? Maybe. But again, Julian Sane was so efficient with the ball. He got to the checkdown. He was able

to throw it down the middle of the tied ends, gets the big play to Carnell Tate, gets the big play to Jeremiah Smith. He got the ball to Bo Jackson when he needed to on the checkdown. Like he was just so good and answering the bell after facing the adversity of throwing the pick. And on basically his second passing attempt of the game. He was outstanding. And so the two questions that remain for Ohio State coming into the day were answered. We're answered. I do have to get to Coach Day because that was another big piece of this,

is that Coach Day specifically has been under so much heat for losing this game over the last few years. We've all known that. You know, it's been well documented. And think about what this team and program has done since that last, last loss, which was to Michigan last year in the shoe. Well, they've rolled off 16 straight wins since that lost. They won a national championship. I believe that's now seven ranked wins that they have. They have turned into a juggernaut. They have turned into that's the best team in America. That's the best program in America. They're recruiting at a high level. They

have young stars. They have old stars. It's as deep a team as any out. out there and there are no weaknesses. This is what I find so fascinating about Ohio State in a year in which I think that we've been looking at all these teams across college football and finding weaknesses. There have now, I think, in my estimation, been none for Ohio State because even the ones that you could say early in the year, well, they don't run it great.

Well, now they're running it really well. they're one of the best rushing teams in the Big Ten in the month of November, getting better every single week. They had a 20 play, 11-minute drive running it 16 times against Michigan. They can run the Rock. And so for a day specifically, this man has turned them into a team that has answers everywhere, and they are resilient. And, you know, like, you think about what he's dealt with, and that's been a lot. And it's been a lot of pressure. And he's very candid in saying he's got one job at Ohio State and that job is to win every single game.

And that's a tremendous amount of pressure. And specifically that game. He needed to win that game. And he did. And they wanted it on their terms. And in that 20-play drive, they basically just said, hey, we're going to have a Michigan-style drive right down your throat. And they did it.

And that had to feel good for Ryan Day. And after everything that has transpired over the last four years, I will say this, even more specifically, the flag planting last year, everything that's going on previous to that, the day has been right in the center of. I think there was a lot of questions about what would happen at the end of the game. What would Ohio State's players do?

What would Ryan Day do? What would the interactions be like? What would he say? And Ryan Day is as classy as anybody in college football. I can just tell you that hands down. I know them well. And this is Ryan Day with Jenny Taft after the game. Congratulations. Six years. You've been waiting and working to celebrate this. How does it feel? I'm just happy for our players. You know, they worked really hard. I'm happy for our coaches. You know, they worked really, really hard. And we had a good energy this week. We had confidence coming in. And many guys played tough. They played physical. We won a line of scrimmage. And I'm just happy for our guys. so much emotion, we're still seeing it on display. What will it mean to you, to your family,

and to your fan base to celebrate in Ohio tonight? Well, we're going to win with humility. And I'm just happy for a lot of people right now. I can't name them all, but that means a lot. Man, there was a lot of things he could have said. And he chose to take the high road. I admire him for that. I really do. And it's time now to ask the question, is it the Buckeyes against the field? I know that Indiana is very good, and they're probably the other team

that you would argue is the most complete team in the country outside of Ohio State, which is why I'm so excited to see that game on Saturday. So I don't want to shortchange the Indiana Hoosiers. I think that they're fantastic. But at the same time, Ohio State has proven now that you can ask the question, is it time to take Ohio State or the field in the college football playoff?

And with what they've shown and the complete nature with which they play, you know, you might have to lean that direction, defending national champion, longest win streak in America. Like this is starting to become a team where you have to at least pose the question, what team can take them into deep water? Maybe it's Indiana. And actually, you know, I think it's probably Indiana. the only one on that list.

That's why I'm so pumped for this matchup and this Big Ten championship game because of all the college football teams that were arguing about and talking about on the bubble in college football, they all have weaknesses, major weaknesses. And we know that. We know that. You look at some of these teams

and you can just, you know, like, they can be beat. The weaknesses don't show up for Ohio State. They're really great in every single facet. They're great statistically. They're terrific. coached on film. They play with fantastic leverage, their sound, and I tell you, they have answers everywhere. Answers everywhere. That's what makes them so tough to beat. Michigan, on that side, I think that was a pretty demoralizing game for that program because of the way that

had happened. They have been built on physicality and toughness. They have been built on the line of scrimmage. They have won that game because they have been the tougher team at the line of scrimmage, and that was not the case on Saturday. So some sole searching to do for the Michigan Wolverines. There's no doubt. And now they have to taste defeat after going six years without tasting defeat in that rivalry. That being said, I do want to say that it's an opportunity for that program. Because of their youth, it's an opportunity to say like, that's the measuring stick. That's the bar. That's the standard. Just like Ohio State had to do when they got beat by the 23 version of Michigan, and they had to say to themselves, all right, if that's the standard, then where do we need

to go? And you can make a strong argument that the 23 Michigan team propelled the 24 Ohio State team into a championship because they saw what it took. They needed to get to that level in order to win a national championship and they were able to do so, even though they didn't beat the Wolverines. Well, now Michigan has a chance to say, all right, now we know what the standard is and we can set that standard and we can move through the offseason. Now they're in the off season. You know, obviously not with a bowl game, but as you know, like not getting into the playoff feels like offseason. We'll have an exhibition game. It is time for Michigan to continue to develop their young talent and retain the roster. It is vital that they invest in that program to the

level that retains the young talent, continues to build talent around those players, because this could be and should be as good a team as any in the Big Ten next year. Look at all the freshmen that they have out there. They had six freshmen starting on offense, three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line, true freshman at quarterback, true freshman at wide receiver. You've got young players contributing throughout the secondary. They've had to deal with depth issues at linebacker. those guys will be back. So, you know, like, this could be a springboard for Michigan and a trajectory game, even though I know it stings.

And if you're Michigan, you're thinking to themselves like, yeah, like, we weren't 100%. We didn't have Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall. And so, again, there is reason for optimism, even though it hurts. You use this as a springboard. You use it to propel you forward. And the young players in particular, you've got to look in the mirror and you've got to, you've got to really uniquely and specifically understand, all right, where do I need to go to put our team on that level?

Because now you've seen it. You've seen what is the best team in the country here in 2025. So I'm still optimistic about that program right now, the trajectory of where they can go, and what they can be next year with all that youth, if they can retain it on that roster. Man, that was a great game. Absolutely love that game.

Now we get into, let's get into the kind of playoffs. talk, the bubble talk, and we're going to do it with my top 15. So as you know, I've expanded from going top 10, which I did for a long time this year. Now I'll go into the top 15 as I see them. Most of these teams, until I get to about eight, so from 15 to 8, let's call those the bubble teams. So here are all the bubble teams. Are we ready? Number 15 is, you, Utah. They beat Kansas. Now Utah has 10 wins. They have gone 10 and two and what we all think is going to be Kyle Whittingham's last year. And we know it's going to be Kyle Whittingham's last year. Great bounce back for him. I thought he might walk away last year, but he just couldn't walk away with the disappointment and the injuries that they had a year ago.

And he has bounced back and that team did what a lot of us thought they could do this year, which was be a 10 or 11 win team. They won 10. So now they're 10 and 2 losses to BYU on the road and Texas Tech at home. It's a really good Texas Tech team. That's a really good BYU team. Those two teams have only one loss between them. So, or excuse me, two losses between them with Arizona State to Texas Tech. Tech lost Arizona State and then BYU obviously to Tech. So Utah is putting themselves in this conversation. Now, more on the outside of that conversation, but at 15.

At 14, I've got Vanderbilt. impressive win at Tennessee. I thought that was a game that would be a stumbling block, excuse me, Diego Pavia was huge in that game. And there is some outside push for Diego Pavia for the Heisman Trophy. I think it's one of those pushes that it's like, hey, that'd be great for him to get to New York. I don't think that he is a Heisman,

but he's had a great year. I've loved watching him play. And he certainly deserves to go to New York. So hopefully that can happen. Huge game in the 45-24 win. There's Vandy at 10 and 2 in the SEC. What a marvelous season. Clark Lee, Pavia, everybody there at Vanderbilt.

So they're number 14 in my rankings right here. At 13 is Miami. Miami is at 13. They handled Pitt very easily after Pitt went down and beat Georgia Tech the week before. I was very impressed with how Miami played. Cold game in November, that's not necessarily. I don't think Miami's strength. I think we all agree with that.

Mario Cristobal at Miami in November was three and six before that game. So it was a bad trend, and it's one of the reasons I picked Pitt outright, and Miami handled them, handled them. Seems like they're a team that certainly should get consideration and strong consideration in the playoff. More thoughts on that in a bit. At number 12, I've got Texas. Biggest win of the weekend was Texas over Texas A&M, Monster win they,

And now you can make the argument as Texas A&M was undefeated. They were sitting inside of the top five in the college football playoff rankings, that that was one of the better wins of the season. And you wouldn't be wrong. And now Texas is sitting there and they're going to make strong arguments and they're going to be politicking and rightly so because of the position they've put themselves in. Now, they're a nine and three. And there is some hair on that resume, namely the loss of Florida,

the close wins to Kentucky and Mississippi State. That's a Kentucky team that just got slammed by Louisville. And now just on Saturday night, or excuse me, Sunday night, fired Mark Stoops. So those don't look great. So again, it's not a perfect resume, but they certainly have some things that they can point to, and they will. And rightly so.

This was Sark after the game talking about his resume and his team's chances to the playoff. I think we're an absolutely a playoff team. I'm glad you asked, as I didn't want it to have to be part of my opening statement. There's a couple things in here that to me are really telling stats. Okay, we're the first team since the 2019 national champion LSU team to beat three top 10 ranked teams in the same season during the regular season. So let's just chew on that for a second. There's been a lot of great football teams that have played over the last six years.

but we're the first team since LSU to be three top 10 ranked teams in the same season during the regular season. Yeah. It's a hell of an argument. It's a great argument for Texas. And if I was Steve Sarkesian, I'd be making the same argument. You know, they've sent out, and rightly so, a bunch of stats to a lot of us. I got a whole packet. It's just Texas stuff.

And I'm like, hey, this is really good. This is really good. Texas has a great argument. And if I was Steve Sarkisian, I'd be doing it. the same thing. They're doing exactly what they should do. I'm not mad at them for politicking. So I have them at 12 right now. Texas is sitting there. At 11, I've got BYU. BYU is just on the outside. And listen, I really do like BYU. And they do have a strong argument. Their only loss is on the road to Texas Tech. And, you know, Like, Texas is trying to argue this 9 and 3 resume.

BYU is 11 and 1. 11 and 1. Now, I think why they get overlooked, and I'll be the first to admit that I do this. So I'm guilty of this, and I should probably apologize to the BYU Cougars for this and their fans. I overlook BYU, not because of the conference that they play in, but because of the control that they have. You see, in my estimation, BYU controls their own fate. they have an opportunity to go play this Saturday in the Big 12 championship game against Texas Tech and avenge their loss. If they win that game, they're automatically in.

So I don't sit here and make a ton of arguments for BYU because they have the control in their own hands. Is that the right sentiment? I don't know. Probably not. Probably not. because even with a loss, they would be sitting there at 11 and 2, only losses twice to Tech. You know, does it make it a harder argument?

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But BYU is certainly a team that has at least a case. Slow start, then blew out UCF. They get the rematch with Tech this Saturday. Then we get into the top 10. And by the way, not a lot to change in the top 10 because A&M wasn't going to fall all the way out of the top 10.

the only real development in the top 10 is that maybe Ohio State separated themselves out a little bit because of that complete nature with the way that they played and the answers that they provided in their win. Running the football, saying, answering adversity. You know, that might be the biggest development of the whole weekend. Because as much as A&M had a great resume, are we really shocked that they, like, lost? No. I mean, we saw them, what was it, 31-3 against South Carolina at home. So we knew they were flawed to some extent, and it caught up with them a little bit.

So did we really learn about A&M? I don't know. Not really. So here we go. Here we go into the top 10. At number 10, I've got Alabama still. Alabama is still sitting there, and partly because they've got a head-to-head against the number 9 team, which is going to be Oklahoma.

Alabama almost blew that 17-0 lead to Auburn. Auburn had a chance. And those that are around the Iron Bowl will tell you those games, at Auburn are close, and they're always tight. And this one certainly was on Saturday night. But Alabama's defense has been playing much better. They have gotten to a point where you can rely on that defense a lot. I think the scary part is that the passing game has gone stretches and games now

where it's just like not the elite passing game that we saw early in the season. And that's a concern. They still don't run it great. they've run it a little bit better at times, but it's certainly not something that they can rely on. And I think that would be, like to the point about Ohio State, that's what's so impressive about the way that they ran the football and the 20 play drives, drive, 16 of them runs for 11.5 minutes

against Michigan with the lead in the snow. You knew they were going to pack the box and they still ran the football. We haven't seen a drive like that from Alabama, where they could really rely on the run game. So if the passing game is not elite, you know, what does Alabama actually lean on? I think that's a question. That's a question. But the defense has gotten much better, much better.

Got to give them credit for that. And number nine, I've got Oklahoma. Fortunate to beat LSU. Really fortunate. And this was the same type of game that we've been seeing out of Oklahoma. Ever since Matured got injured with that hand injury, which is basically the defense has to keep them in the game. They rely on their defense.

And their offense, for large stretches of the game, goes silent, inept in some regard. They can't do anything. They still cannot run the football with running backs. They just really struggle in that regard. And that's a problem. So is that a team that I think just like eye test really impresses me? Not really. They got another explosive play.

If they don't create an explosive play, they have a really tough time scoring, a really tough time scoring. Now, here's the difference. They're elite on defense. Elite. That defense is fantastic. and it keeps them in games. But if they run up against the wrong team on the wrong day,

they will be beat because the offense just can't do it. Just can't do it. And if they get up against some of these really good defenses, if they went up against a Texas Tech or maybe Notre Dame's not like a great defense, but even a Notre Dame or an Indiana or an Ohio State or an Oregon, like these teams that play great defense or a Georgia if they had to play Georgia, I don't love that matchup for them. I don't love that matchup for them.

So that's OU, still in there. 10 and 2 with that schedule, that's really impressive. At number eight, I've got Notre Dame. They blew out Stanford late Saturday night. Now, I like the committee and a lot more I test than I am resume. I fully understand Miami fans that Miami beat Notre Dame. I get it. I am more a believer in this idea of who do I think would win this weekend.

and Notre Dame is one of those teams. And by the way, the committee is thinking more along the lines that I generally do in terms of eye test and film than resume. I think that's going to be difficult for some of these teams. Now, I think a team that could have some problems in the committee's eyes is Oklahoma. Just because from an eye test perspective, they don't look great. They don't look great. They've got to have these blown coverages from LSU. I mean, literally just a completely blown coverage.

we've got wide receivers running down the field. Nobody around them. And they're able to score on a big play and then they hold up on the defensive side. Is the committee going to be as impressed with that? I think Oklahoma is going to have a harder time retaining that spot because of Texas's win because of the way Miami has looked

because Notre Dame in the committee's eyes has been very solid. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Notre Dame were to jump Oklahoma in this week's rankings. I have them above Oklahoma. So we'll see kind of they land in that regard.

So that's my 15 to 8, and those are all the bubble teams. Let me go through the top seven, and then I'll go back to the bubble and have a little discussion. A&M went down to seven after that loss. They've been a little bit vulnerable. They ended up getting beat. Do I think that that's a true national title contender? Maybe, maybe.

They were so good scoring the football on the road all year, and then that did not happen at Texas on Friday. So that was a bit of a disappointment for A&M fans. Marcel Reed had trouble against that pass rush, couldn't quite get going. They didn't run the football like they normally have. So A&M has got to do a bit of soul searching here at the end of the season moving into the playoff. Ole Miss is at six. Not going to punish the players for a coach's decision,

much more on Ole Miss coming up later in the show with Lane Kiffin. At five, I've got Texas Tech hammering everyone right now. All 11 wins. by 20 or more points. That's impressive. Georgia's at four. Ugly win against Georgia Tech. Tech has been really struggling,

and then all of a sudden, Georgia has only 70 passing yards, 260 total yards, against the team that has given up at least 34 and 3 straight. Like, just when I had come around the corner on Georgia, and I started thinking to myself, like, you know, and you've heard it on this show,

that's the best team in the SEC. George is the team. watch out for Georgia, they're hard to kill, and they play like that. And you're like, gosh, come on. Really? Really? Again, vulnerabilities. Sometimes these teams provide more questions than they do answer questions. And I keep going back to that from an Ohio State perspective. They provided a lot of answers on Saturday and throughout November, whereas a lot of teams throughout the country have provided us with more questions. And a performance like that from Georgia, unfortunately, is going to lead to more questions.

You know, like, Pitt just dropped, what was it, 42 on that Georgia Tech team. And now all of a sudden, like, Georgia is scoring, what was it, 16? That was a bit of an ugly performance on the offensive side. I still have them at four, though. At number three is Oregon.

Oregon is continuing to get better and better and more complete. They beat Washington, tough road environment. They're banged up at wide receiver. Really impressive in November, by the way. They went through this gauntlet at Iowa, USC, at Washington, and they were able to handle it. They were able to handle it.

And they're going to be a better team for it. Number two, Indiana, they crushed Purdue as expected, and then Ohio State number one. I think that those teams at the top, those three are the most complete teams. They're the teams that have the least questions as opposed to the others. Maybe Texas Tech would disagree with that because obviously I think that's a pretty complete team. What's up, Clats Show fans? If you're looking for something fun to do or a great holiday gift idea for your friends and family, look no further than Seekek. With over 35 million downloads, Seekek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70,000 events listed, including concerts, sports, festivals, and more I personally love using Seatkeek for tickets to games with my boys, because I know that Seatkeek has my back. Each ticket has a rating, a scale of one to 10, so you know if you're getting a good deal. Green Dot, mean great deal. Red dots maybe keep looking. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee.

And of course, I have a code for you. Guys, here's what you do. You use code Clat 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at Seat Geek. That's 10% off any tickets with promo code Clat 10. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and you can have that code automatically added to your account. So you can use it later on in that app, Seatgeek. And thank you to Seat Geek for sponsoring today. But let me go back to the bubble here and just give like a couple of points. Let me, let me start with this. This bubble is large. And every one of these teams is going to feel like they've got a really strong argument. And they're not wrong.

Okay. They're not wrong. Should Miami feel like they deserve to be in the playoff? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that win over Notre Dame, should mean something. There is no doubt. Should Texas feel like they deserve to be in the playoff? Absolutely. And should the win over Oklahoma mean something? Yeah. Yeah, of course.

Should Alabama believe that they should be in the playoff? Absolutely. And guess what? They're in the SEC championship game. And so, you know, maybe it's a moot point for them. Should BYU feel like they deserve a spot, regardless of what happens this week? Yeah, probably. You know, I believe that they have a real strong case. Does Oklahoma believe that they should be, well, yeah, of course. Look at their schedule. They went 10 and 2. What are you talking about?

What are you talking about? They beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Of course, they feel like they should be in the playoff. Does Notre Dame feel like they should be in the playoffs? Absolutely, they should. Look at their two losses. You could make a strong argument that they're a ridiculous and terrible mistholding call away from being 11 and 1.

And then in the other one, you know, kind of an incredible catch. It was like two snaps. Excuse me. The catch that Miami made at the goal line really should have been an interception. So it's like, well, we should be 12 and 0. Look at the way we're beating teams. Look at the way we're running the football. All of these teams have an argument.

And guess what that means? I hate this time of year. Why? Because all we're doing is politicking. And we see it with Steve Sarkeesian. And this is not, I'm not saying anything against Steve Sarkisian, Marcus Freeman did the same thing. All these coaches are having to come out and make a case for their team.

Why are they having to do that? Because we put the power of our sport in a boardroom. Like, come on. Come on. They have to politic because they don't have a path on the field. Now, every one of those teams also has a real weakness. so you can make arguments against each one of those teams. Hey, Miami, don't lose to Louisville and SMU.

I don't know. Shouldn't be that hard. Both, you know, Louisville unranked. Hey, Texas, don't lose to Florida. Don't go to overtime with Mississippi State and Kentucky. Like, I don't know. Doesn't seem that hard, right? BYU, that might be a tougher argument

because you're like, hey, go beat. Texas Tech. I think BYU is getting hurt from conference perception in the Big 12, which I disagree with a lot of people's perception. I think it's a really good and deep conference. BYU deserves a chance, and they will get that in the Big 12 championship game. Oklahoma, like, show a level of dominance and completeness more so than you have in November. Hey, Notre Dame, don't lose those games, you know, and it's been a weak schedule since. And so it's It's hard to evaluate. So again, there's strengths, there's weaknesses to every one of these arguments.

And is one definitely better than another? I don't know, everybody. I don't know. Here's what I do know. Here's what I do know. This is messy. And it is an outgrowth of moving and expanding the playoff. Now, I want to be very clear.

I am in favor of the 12-team playoff, maybe even a 14-year. team playoff, more than that in a second. But I just want to point out to you that think of the arguments that we were having in a four-team model previous to last year. It was usually, you know, two or three teams max, and every one of those teams was really good.

And they were bringing strong arguments to the table, really strong arguments to the table. You know, it's an undefeated FSU with a back-to-back national champion, 12-1 Georgia, and 11-1 Ohio State only lost at Michigan. And it's like, well, those are your three that you're debating and they have to leave those three out. It's like that's a really good and narrow argument

because there's only four teams included. So the answer was to expand. And listen, I think the expansion has been really good for the sport. Now, that only works to a point. The more that you expand, I think that it would work to the detriment of the sport. Let me explain. Because now what we have is we have, what do we have, like seven teams sitting here that we're talking about, arguing between five teams. And so we've expanded the scope of the argument and the quality of the arguments has diminished because there's a lot more vulnerabilities in these arguments than there were.

prior. So now we're arguing between teams that have losses to Louisville and Florida. So there's not a great argument. There is not a concrete decision to be made that is absolutely correct. This is not a position to be in or an enviable position to be in if you're the committee. Because I don't know if there's a correct argument. Okay. Now, if you just expand out, guess what we're going to have? Well, it went from three to now we're arguing between like six teams with flawed arguments. And now if you expand it out to like, let's say past 20, you would be arguing between 10 teams with like 8 and 4 records. I don't want to be a part of that either. Okay. So what do we need to do? We need to take the sport out of the boardroom. We need to get a sport out of the boardroom.

we need to give the power back to Steve Sarkesian, but not at the podium, under the headset. We need to give the power back to Mario Cristobal, not at the podium, but under the headset. Same with Marcus Freeman and everybody else. I just want to take you back to a model that I talked about earlier this year in the summer that was based around access and a defined path. Because what you have right now is a totally subjective selection criteria. That's all we have. It's just a committee room and our sport lives in it.

And I would make the argument that we just have to define the path for teams so that they can earn it on the field. All right, let me just take you through this. We've got this politicking exercise going on. I think it would be better if we were preparing for this weekend, a play-in weekend. a play-in weekend where all these teams that we're talking about that are bubble teams are actually playing football games for the right to go to the college football playoff. So this was a 14-team model that would give us a defined path and make championship weekend look even better. Here are the matchups that we could get this weekend in my model.

This is in order to get to a 14-team model. Remember, it would be four automatic spots from the Big Ten. it would be four automatic spots from the SEC, two each in the Big Ten of the SEC, and then two more spots for the group of five and then potentially Notre Dame. This is what it would look like this week. In the Big Ten, here's what you would have. You would have the traditional one-two matchup for the Big Ten championship. Both of those teams, Indiana and Ohio State would go to the playoff.

They would be in the 14-team model, and the winner of that game would get one of the two-bys that are up there at the top, the one-seed or the two-seed. Then you would have matchups like this. Iowa at Oregon, Michigan at USC. Winner of those games goes to the playoff. Yes, please. Yes, please. Hey, Iowa, would you like that?

Absolutely. Michigan, would you like that? Absolutely. And the SEC, this is what it would look like. Bama and Georgia in the SEC championship game is the one and two seeds. Both of those teams automatically into the playoff. But the winner gets one of the top two seeds and a buy in the first round of the college football playoff. Then you would have Oklahoma at Ole Miss, Texas at Texas A&M. Hey, Texas, do you want to put your

fate in the committee room or back on the field against A&M and Kyle Field? I think you would rather put it on the field. Personally, why would you just want this to be a big political debate? All right, so that's the SEC. Now we take a look at the Big 12. And the Big 12, they probably wouldn't play a one-two matchup, you know, maybe something like one-four, two, three. Houston at Texas Tech, Utah, BYU, hey, BYU and Utah, wouldn't you guys love the opportunity

to have your fate in your hands? Now, I know BYU kind of does with this championship game, but listen, I think this would be a great matchup. Utah fans, wouldn't you like that? Absolutely, absolutely you would. ACC would look similar to that. 1-4 would be Georgia Tech, Virginia, Miami at Duke.

Hey, Miami fans, rather than, rather than having to sit around on Saturday night and having your fate determined by a bunch of people in a committee room, wouldn't you rather play Duke and just do it on the field? Yeah, of course. And then you would have two remaining spots, highest rated group of five champion. And then this one at-large spot that would be like Notre Dame

and the next highest-ranked team. So why doesn't Vandy and Notre Dame just play for that spot? And then everybody is at least playing for it on the field. You're rewarding the top into college football by having two buys and the top two Cs attached to a few of the best games that we could have this weekend. Now, listen, can you pull holes in this model? Yeah, absolutely. You could probably pull holes in it. But I'm just telling you right now, defining the path towards the playoff is the way to go.

And expansion is not the way to go. You can't just expand with at-large selection-based model or else we'll just continue to grow the pool of teams that we're arguing between. and then everyone's going to continue to politic and it's going to get worse and worse and worse in terms of the arguments that they make because the teams will be worse and worse and worse. So I don't think that's the direction that we should go in college football.

Again, let's define the path. And I think a weekend like I just laid out right there, who wouldn't want to see that? College football fans, leave a comment down below. Would you want to see a weekend like I just laid out for you this weekend on what I would deem as play-in weekend? Of course you would.

Of course you would. It would be phenomenal. All right. Now it's time for our weekend check-in, presented by graduate by Hilton, hotels made for fans in all your favorite college towns. Let's check in on a very busy coaching carousel. Okay, here's what we've got.

Florida hires John Summerall from Tulane. I think it's a good hire from Florida, and he'll obviously still have some work ahead of him at Tulane. Auburn hires Alex Golish, who's done such a good job at South Florida. It's a good hire. Arkansas hires Ryan Silverfield from Memphis, and it's reported right now after Jonathan Smith was fired from Michigan State that Pat Fitzgerald would be filling that vacancies.

We'll see if that comes to fruition. And then at the time of this recording, just before we came on to do this show, Mark Stoops was fired at Kentucky. But the big one that everyone is talking about is Lane Kiffin. I've been talking about it. Everyone's been talking about it, partly because Lane's been at the center of the coaching world for the last couple of weeks. And he's been the center of the coaching world, not because he's the best candidate, but because he's the best candidate available. I think that's a distinction that I just wanted to make before we kind of went through this, because Lane has held his hand

up and said, like, I'm available while everybody else was taking their hand down and saying, I'm not available. The calendar was the same for everybody, as flawed as it is. And the calendar is absolutely flawed and it's broken. And I've said this numerous times on all sorts of different platforms. You know how I feel. And Lane absolutely has the right to go and make this decision for his family.

That doesn't make this decision any less selfish. And it is. And listen, that sounds like some sort of personal knock. It's not a personal knock. It just is in its nature because he's leaving a team in the middle of a playoff run.

That's a tough look. It's a really tough look. I know a lot of coaches are going to lament, like, our players can leave too. Yeah, you know, your starting quarterback doesn't leave right before the playoff, though. He doesn't just say, like, hey, peace out. It's a different deal. This is a tough situation and in some ways kind of a car wreck in college football. We've created this broken calendar, mainly by the coaches, by the way.

They've kind of built this calendar and they wanted an early signing day period. and then now they wanted to move the transfer portal. They have a lot of say in this, and then they'll be the first ones to lament that the calendar is broken, which it is. And hopefully we can fix it. But he has the right to move.

That movement and that decision has consequences. I've said it, you know, I said it on Saturday. I think he's going to struggle with credibility at LSU in front of players. How do you get players to buy in if you're going to leave a team in the lurch like he's doing to Ole Miss. I do not believe he has to go to LSU to win a national championship. I do believe that's a fallacy.

That is a fallacy because of the reality of what's going on in college football currently, which is that you can build a powerhouse pretty much anywhere with the right resources. Joy McGuire is doing it at Texas Tech. Kurt Signetti is doing it at Indiana. and then to some degree, Lane Kiffin's doing it at Ole Miss. And his best chance to win a national championship is right in front of him.

I'll go back to kind of this idea that he's the best candidate available, not just the best overall candidate. You know, if you were just hiring the best coach in America, you would hire Ryan Day or Kirby Smart. If you were hiring just a tier below that, you'd probably go after Dan Lanning. You know, there are guys, you know,

right there would be Kurt Signetti. There are names that you would go after. Steve Sarkesian would be right there. All of those guys are staying put, and rightly so. Mike Elko would be right there. He takes his hand down. He signs an extension. We saw Ret Lashley, what he's doing at SMU. He signed an extension. Dan Lanning says absolutely not. I'm not going anywhere at Oregon. All these guys took their hand down, which made Lane the big fish in a small pond. As the pool decreased, you know, his name became bigger and bigger and bigger. He's still a coach that has not won a conference championship in the power conferences,

and he has not been to a playoff, you know, as a head coach. So, and now he's got five of the messiest exits in the history of football. The Raiders, Tennessee, the tarmac, aka USC, Sabin telling him to leave before the national championship game at Alabama when he was just an offensive coordinator and now Ole Miss. So the credibility issue thing is real. I do think it's real. And if I was an opposing coach or I know the opposing coaches will use this in recruiting, they will sit there in front of players and those players' families in a living room and they'll talk the business of recruiting, I'm sure, but they'll also talk about the relationship side of the recruiting and and you will get a line like this to oppose Lane. Why would you commit to him

if he's not going to be committed to you? And is that a fair line? Probably, probably with this move. And yet, listen, if he wants to do this, more power to him. If this is the decision he wants to make for he and his family, more power to him doesn't mean there's not consequences and it doesn't make it any less selfish because it is. He's the play caller and he's leaving those players in the wind. And the hard part here is that, you know, they're going to try to paint Ole Miss as the bad guy by saying that, well, I wanted to coach the playoff, but Ole Miss wouldn't let me coach the playoff. Well, of course, Ole Miss is not going to let you coach the playoff. That's ridiculous. You can't, you can't be coaching Ole Miss while no one is looking out

for the program of Ole Miss. You might be trying to win games right in front of you, but no one's looking out for the program as they're trying to build for the future. So, Ole Miss is absolutely right. And Lane addressed that. And I don't want to make this. Like he said, he's saying the right things. His interview with Marty Smith was good. And I will be the first to say, I like Lane. I've loved my dealings with Lane as I've covered him throughout his career in college football. I think he is good for the sport. He's good for the interest of the sport. That doesn't, you know, mean that I can't criticize what's going on right now in a lot of different respects. And he acknowledged that like, yeah, listen, that's their prerogative.

and they didn't want to let me coach the playoff. Right, obviously. Because Ole Miss has got to look out for the future of Ole Miss. Lane's trying to look out for the future of Lane. That's all well and good. Here's the problem. Each of those focuses are large, okay? And they've got some bit of perspective to them.

The Ole Miss perspective, the Lane Kiffin perspective. If I'm Trinidad Chambley or the Ole Miss player, my focus is basically the size of a straw. It's that narrow. All I care about is these playoff games. And nobody is looking out for the players in that regard. Maybe Pete Golding is that guy, you know, as now the head coach of Ole Miss.

And that's my biggest complaint in all of this is that, man, I feel bad for those players. I really do. And I feel bad for players when their teammates leave, you know, but generally speaking, those teammates, in particular the significant ones, don't leave right before the playoff. And that's where I think this is a little bit different. Now, they did promote defensive coordinator Pete Golding to head coach, reportedly O.C. Charlie Weiss, their strength coach, their GM, their director of football ops, and a few other positions

are going to go with Lane to LSU. The only defensive coach that's going is his brother Chris, who's the linebacker coach. So basically the entire defensive staff staying and the entire offensive staff leaving. That is, hey, man, that's a disaster. That's a car wreck. And in college football, you know what happens? We wait for car wrecks to fix things and to fix rules, to fix structures. Maybe this is a car wreck that ends up helping us fix the calendar.

And again, I'll just go back to what I think is a simple fix. let's play the season, crown a champion, and then build a roster. And I think that we build a roster in two different time frames. We sign high school players, and we have transfer portal, and those shouldn't overlap. That would be better for the players in every respect. It would be better for the coaches in every respect. And hopefully, this can be a catalyst towards getting to that end. I don't think that we should try to protect bowl games and extend the seasoning until

January 20th. I don't care. I want quarterfinal games up to the semifinals all the way on campus because I believe that's better for college football. So we don't need to protect bowl games. All these different things that end up making us make a schedule that doesn't make sense. Let's rethink that. Let's end the season near January 1st. Let's get transfer portal players in in the month of January or May and sign players traditionally like we always have in February. Like I don't think it's that difficult. I don't think it's that difficult. I know people want to make it difficult. I don't think it needs to be that way.

We should play the season. We should end the season. Then we should build the roster. And those two things should be separate and they should be apart and we should move forward. And hopefully we can get to that end here soon. It's going to be a great week. We've got playoff rankings coming out on Tuesday night. Those are going to tell us a lot about the back end of the playoff

because a lot of those teams won't be playing this Saturday on Conference Championship game weekend. We've got the Heisman trophy. I think it's on the line. on Saturday night between Julian San and Fernando Mendoza. The winner of that game likely wins the trophy. That voting doesn't take place until later on Saturday. And, of course, we've got picks and previews for the conference championship games. That's coming up on Wednesday and on Thursday.

Thank you for watching, as always. I appreciate your passion for this sport. I love when you guys come up to me when I'm on site and give me a fist bump and say that you love the show. That means a lot. Get down to the comments. Make sure to subscribe. Follow us on social media, all the things.

We will be back with you on Wednesday with another edition of the show.