Joel Klatt Reacts to College Football Playoff's 'Painfully Stupid' Decision

Fox Sports broadcaster Joel Klatt took the NCAA to task for failing to fix a major College Football Playoff problem.

Fox Sports broadcaster Joel Klatt took shots at the CFP over an oddly timed CFP set-up. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In the case of the College Football Playoff, there's a seeming disconnect between the powers behind college football and a viable product that supports student-athletes and considers fan preferences. While the expanded 12-team CFP has been a big hit, the calendar remains a major problem.

The CFP creeps well into the spring semester, which impacts the transfer portal and the ability of players to actually start at a new school anywhere near on the academic calendar. The massive time gap between the College Football Playoff semifinals and title game (Jan. 8/9 and Jan. 19) also didn't go over very well.

Klatt Takes on the Calendar

So when Fox Sports broadcaster Joel Klatt takes the CFP/NCAA to task over a horrible schedule, he's coming from a place of some knowledge. Given another chance with a 12-team field to get things right, the 2026 calendar is even worse, notes Klatt.

"It's awful," said Klatt of the new schedule. "The title game is going to be even later next year-- that's right, six days later than what we had this year.... Because that's what all of us were clamoring for. Because that's what fans want is more breaks in the College Football Playoff."

Klatt noted that the first round, on December 18th and 19th, won't immediately follow the championship games. He also noted that the second round games are oddly scheduled to avoid a conflict with dates of "the big, bad NFL." The other rounds are also spaced out, which drew Klatt's ire.

"Painfully stupid is what it is," he said. "This format is awful. It does not help the fans, does not help college football. It does not help the coaches. It does not help the transfer portal."

Pondering the untimely math, Klatt pointed out that it's 50 days from Selection Sunday to the CFP title game. "Seven weeks to play four rounds," he noted. "What are we doing?"

Possible Solutions and Bigger Problems

It's not as if the issues facing the CFP and timing are insurmountable. ESPN broadcaster Josh Pate, for instance, suggested a genuinely workable approach that would fix the issues, tighten up the timetable, and leave a schedule that would help all of the participants be able to better turn the page from the end of one season into the following season.

Moving ahead to 2027, the conversation figures to be toward establishing a bigger, broader CFP, which might actually help by forcing the powers that be to tighten up the schedule. But for now, at least for Joel Klatt, it's a bad calendar and the near future has it getting worse.

A brutal CFP schedule puts coaches like Lane Kiffin between a rock and a hard place in moving jobs. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images