Joel Klatt: 5+11 College Football Playoff format 'makes me want to throw up'

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt does not want to see the College Football Playoff adopt a 5+11 format since it’ll induce vomiting. You think there’s controversy of opinion when it comes to the selection committee right now?

Well, “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” if this model comes to pass for a 16-team bracket. Klatt favors the play-in games theorized for certain conferences, like the big Ten and SEC, where you get multiple auto bids. The 5+11 model features the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC all getting a bid, as well as the highest ranked Group of Five team. Then, you throw in 11 at-larges, which includes Notre Dame should the Irish qualify.

But don’t get in Klatt’s way if this comes to pass. He’ll need a release.

“Now, truth be told, when I see this and when I hear this, it makes me want to throw up,” Klatt said on his podcast. “I think that this is awful for college football on so many different levels … Make it makes sense. How can you earn it on the field when you’re trying to put basically the entire playoff in the boardroom of the college football playoff committee? Because actually, what the five and 11 model does is hurt the sport. It does not make the sport better.

“It certainly hurts the Big 12, there’s no doubt about it. But because it hurts the Big 12, it also hurts the sport. Because what would be good for college football is if we continue to have more conferences that were relevant, and if we don’t, then we’ll get basically three things.” 

Klatt explained how the politics of the College Football Playoff would get worse under this proposed model. Do fans actually want that?

“One, the entire sport is going to be in the boardroom, and it’s going to be committee driven,” Klatt said. “What fan is desperate to have the college football playoff committee run the sport? What? What … The committee has been terrible for the sport. As well meaning as these folks that have been on the committee have been the subjectivity of that room and the inconsistency of that room has been awful for the sport. 

“We’re going to lose non conference games like we’ve continued to lose during the course of the year. Why? Because it’s better just to have an easier schedule and have a better win loss record because of the boardroom, right? So in no way is this earning it on the field. In fact, it shocks me that that would be the argument to have an 11 at large model with the 11 basically picks from the committee. I don’t understand that at all. You lose out on the play-in weekend, like you would have in the model that I talked about last week, and you would have a massive amount … even more so than what we already experienced, a massive amount of polling, politicking and propaganda.”