Joel Klatt explains how SEC adopting 9-game schedule could spark dream scenario for college football

FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt has been pounding his fists on the table when it comes to college football scheduling reform for years now. He might finally be starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Following the announcement that Clemson has scheduled Notre Dame for 12 years and some subsequent news that the SEC is considering a move to nine conference games, momentum is back on the side of beefier schedules. And that’s great news for the fans.

“The SEC is thinking about taking this, I don’t want to call it an offer, but ESPN has told them, ‘Yeah, you would make more money if you moved to a nine conference game schedule,'” Klatt explained on The Joel Klatt Show. “And the reason that gets me more excited than the announcement about Clemson and Notre Dame is because if we get nine 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.”

Klatt opened up on why he’s more encouraged by the SEC news than the Clemson-Notre Dame agreement. It’s non-trivial.

“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 the 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,” Joel Klatt said. “And once they do that, then they align with the Big Ten. 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?”

With schedules uneven by nature right now, it’s hard to get programs on the same page about what they should do from a scheduling standpoint. Does an easier path provide a more likely route to the College Football Playoff? Or does strength of schedule win out?

With no clear view on which end has more sway, there have been very disparate approaches. Indiana, for example, played a far different schedule last year than Georgia.

But with a standardized conference schedule across the board, suddenly the possibilities begin to open up. At least, they could.

“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 in non-conference where you will be put into a tranche of teams based on where you finished the previous year and we’re going to have a draft and draft your non-league schedule for you,” Joel Klatt said. “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, 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 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.”

The idea itself had Joel Klatt worked into a frenzy on his show. He was giddy with the prospect of it all.

To the point that it’s hard for him to see another logical way forward at this point. He put it bluntly.

“If you’re a fan at home and you’re disagreeing with this, I don’t know what to do with you,” Joel Klatt said. “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 for you out of the draw, and then let’s make one of these schedule agreement games so we can get these regional rivalries back for the 11th Power Four game. Boom. Who says no to that?”