Klatt Blasts CFP Committee's Ranking Process As "Broken"
The College Football Playoff committee released its first top 25 of the season Tuesday night, placing Miami at No. 1, followed by Georgia, Utah and Indiana, with Ohio State sitting at No. 12 as the first team outside the 12-team field. Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt used his show to argue that the rankings themselves aren't the real issue - the process behind them is.
On "The Joel Klatt Show," Klatt said the committee operates without a consistent standard, weighing factors like record, strength of schedule, head-to-head results and personnel on a shifting, case-by-case basis. He said this inconsistency has persisted since the playoff era began in 2014, calling it a structural flaw rather than a failure of the committee members themselves, whom he described as capable and trustworthy. His central criticism centered on the small size of the group: just 13 people hold outsized influence over what he called the most consequential decision in the sport, working, in his words, "with no blueprints." live water polo odds
Klatt also argued the first rankings represent a statistical outlier rather than a reliable baseline, and warned that the committee's approach discourages difficult non-conference scheduling. He pointed to marquee matchups such as Texas-Ohio State and Michigan-Oklahoma as the kind of games that benefit the sport but are disappearing because the committee doesn't reward teams for playing them.
Klatt pushed back directly on the notion that the preseason-adjacent rankings don't matter, comparing the sport to a race in which early positioning shapes the path forward. He said only the final rankings carry more weight than the first, and that every remaining game now carries value tied directly to Tuesday's release. The committee will continue updating its rankings weekly as the season progresses toward the selection of the 12-team playoff field.
