"Unneeded, unwarranted, greedy" - Joel Klatt skewers 16-team CFP format amid shakeup in $1,300,000,000 postseason enterprise
Joel Klatt believes a 16-team College Football Playoff isn't necessary and calls it greedy. The league is considering expanding the tournament to 14 or 16 teams. College football insiders and fans speculate that a decision for the 2026 season will be made, as ESPN agreed to a $1.3 billion deal to host the College Football Playoff last year.
On Monday's "The Joel Klatt Show," the analyst discussed why he favors a 14-team College Football Playoff instead of 16.
"It's unneeded, it's unwarranted and it's greedy," Klatt said (Timestamp: 23:10). "I do not like the 16-team model for this reason. It is not needed. We do not need to be redundant.
"If we go to an expanded playoff, 14 is all we need. All we need is four automatic berths from the SEC and the Big Ten, two from the ACC and the Big 12, one from the group of five and one from Notre Dame or at large. That's all we need."
He believes the league is considering a 16-team tournament to provide a safety net for teams like the Ohio State Buckeyes and Tennessee Volunteers, as they can lose the conference championship and still make the College Football Playoff.
"What they are trying to do is create a safety net here, under Indiana, under Ohio State, under Tennessee, under Alabama," Klatt added (Timestamp: 23:58). "These home teams that would be playing a single-game winner goes matchup on play-in weekend, championship game weekend, but let's just think about this for a second."
Joel Klatt warns of what could happen if College Football Playoff moves to a 16-team format
Joel Klatt warned that the selection committee could become more involved in ensuring that specific teams can qualify for the 16-team College Football Playoff. He isn't fond of the selection committee having a role in deciding who will be the top four-seeded teams that will get first-round byes in the new straight seeding format.
"College football fans hate the committee," Klatt said (Timestamp: 25:22). "We want them as far away from our playoff system as we can possibly get them. We're still going to have them to seed this thing, which you know what? It's hard to swallow in the first place."
Klatt added that the 16-team tournament could lead to fewer non-conference games in the regular season.
"If you're telling me that we're going to get back to a mode where we're going to let teams into the back door of the playoffs based on the committee, well, guess what?" Klatt said (Timestamp 25:36). "We're going to increase the probability that teams are not going to play anybody in the non-conference.
"We're already seeing that. Tennessee and Nebraska got rid of that matchup. USC and Notre Dame are not playing."
The retired quarterback hopes the potential change won't make the regular season unimportant. As of now, the conference leaders haven't reached a consensus on a playoff extension because they disagree on how many automatic bids each conference would receive.
However, the straight seeding model seems to be a step in the right direction for more teams competing for the national championship next year.