Joel Klatt calls for new College Football Playoff model to take power out of committee's hands

The format to determine this season’s 12-team College Football Playoff field remains one of the most controversial topics in sports. It’s even turned political as state governors and other politians have taken to social media in an effort to sway the CFP’s 12-member selection committee’s decision-making process.

In an effort to resolve the annual Playoff controversy, FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt proposed that the College Football Playoff governing board adopt a new model that effectively takes the final decision regarding which teams make the final field out of the committee’s hands and lets teams win their way in.

“I would make the argument that we just have to define the path for teams so they can earn it on the field,” Klatt began on Monday’s The Joel Klatt Show podcast. “I think it’d be better if we were preparing for — this weekend — a play-in weekend where all these teams that we’re talking about that are bubble teams are 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.”

Klatt’s proposed Playoff play-in format would mirror the Big Ten’s original “4+4+2+2+1+1” 16-team model proposed this summer, which leaned heavily into automatic qualifiers with the Big Ten and SEC each receiving four bids while the ACC and Big 12 would get two bids apiece.

Of course, that Big Ten model was widely rejected by the other three Power Four conferences, including the SEC, which favored more at-large opportunities. But Klatt believes the “4+4+2+2+1+1” model would create a more fair play-in scenario for all teams involved, effectively providing the opportunity for 18 Power Four “bubble” teams to battle it out for nine spots in the 16-team field.

How Joel Klatt’s 4+4+2+2+1+1 play-in model would look in 2025

Based on Klatt’s — and the Big Ten’s original 4+4+2+2+1+1 model — this weekend’s slate of games would look like this (rankings based on latest AP Poll, seeds based on conference standing):

Big Ten
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2. Indiana in Indianapolis (winner gets first-round bye, both in Playoffs)
Iowa at No. 4 Oregon (winner advances)
No. 18 Michigan at No. 17 USC (winner advances)

SEC
No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 10 Alabama in Atlanta (winner gets first-round bye, both in Playoffs)
No. 8 Oklahoma at No. 6 Ole Miss (winner advances)
No. 14 Texas at No. 7 Texas A&M (winner advances)

ACC
No. 24 Georgia Tech at No. 16 Virginia (winner advances)
No. 12 Miami at Duke (winner advances)

Big 12
Houston at No. 5 Texas Tech (winner advances)
No. 15 Utah at No. 11 BYU (winner advances)

Joel Klatt makes case for ‘defining the path toward the Playoff’

Of course, there’s still one spot reserved for the highest-ranked Group of Five champion and a final at-large bid, which Klatt suggested could come as a result of another play-in game between a pair of bubble teams: No. 13 Vanderbilt at No. 9 Notre Dame.

“Hey Miami fans, 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,” Klatt explained. “… Then everybody is at least playing for it on the field. You’re rewarding the top-end of college football by having two byes for the top two seeds attached to the best two games we’ll have this weekend. Now listen, could you poke holes in this model? Yes, absolutely.

“But I’m just telling you right now, defining the path toward the Playoff is the way to go. And expansion is not the way to go,” Klatt concluded. “You can’t just expand an at-large selection-based model or we’ll just continue to grow the pool of teams we’re arguing between, and 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.”

And given all the politicking that’s taken place ahead of Tuesday night’s penultimate Playoff ranking reveal, many college football fans might favor Klatt’s proposed Week 15 slate to the current system.