Joel Klatt calls for two major changes to College Football Playoff process

Joel Klatt has become one of the more vocal critics of the College Football Playoff system throughout the 2025 season. After the regular season came to a conclusion this past weekend, the FOX analyst took his frustrations a step further. 

On the latest episode of The Joel Klatt Show, he outlined two major structural changes he believes the sport desperately needs, both aimed at fixing what he views as a fundamentally flawed process. Klatt’s first target was the weekly CFP ranking show on ESPN, which he argued does far more harm than good. 

“Enough of the weekly ranking show,” Klatt stated. “This is just putting the committee in a corner, in a bind, and for nothing. It’s purely entertainment, and it’s not helpful at all.” 

He emphasized that the committee’s early releases box them into narratives and force them to justify positions they may later feel differently about. So, what’s his solution? Keep the committee meeting weekly, but lock the rankings away until Selection Sunday. 

“At least then you have some freedom of movement,” Klatt added. “You don’t have to go out to the masses and basically say, ‘We’re just kidding with you.’”

‘We need more statistical variants. Those are changes that would make this better.’

Continuing, the second change Klatt called for is the introduction of more evaluative components, not fewer. He said that if college football isn’t going to overhaul the CFP structure entirely, it should at least diversify who and what goes into determining the field. 

“We need not just a committee, but maybe two, and then also incorporate some computers,” Klatt explained, pushing for a statistical layer similar to what powered the BCS system. “We need more statistical variants. Those are changes that would make this better.”

Ultimately, Klatt believes the sport has backed itself into a corner by trying to balance transparency with entertainment, only to satisfy neither side. Fans are left confused, teams feel misled, and the committee is unable to pivot without backlash. 

His message was simply believing that if the weekly drama is going to continue, it should end.

“If you’re going to keep the same format,” Klatt concluded, “just give us a ranking at the end and tell us what the playoff is.”

Time will tell what the committee decides, but they’re certainly in an unenviable position at the moment, with many teams having similar résumés at the moment. Who gets in, and who gets left out? We’ll get our answers this weekend, but it’ll be impossible to satisfy everyone, it seems.