Picking CFP Contenders & Setting Expectations: Joel Klatt Previews 2024 Big Ten Football | B1G Today

now Fox Sports Joel clatt offered up his preseason look at the teams he thinks will be part of the first ever 12 team playoff four among that group come from the Big 10 including his pick for the overall number one seed in Ohio State clatt sat down with Mike Hall for much more including story time in this edition of the big interview always good to bring in Joel clatt a man who's such a giver he once left a cutless cruiser on the side of the road with keys in it also that's true that's true I can't believe you remember that story I remember it was a good one it was a good one he's the lead analyst for Fox college football and he's good enough to join us now and we could talk about your Minor League Baseball days if we want but instead I'd rather focus on the upcoming season in the Big 10 give me some some idea of like what's going to make a successful season for some teams so let me start with Ohio State it feels Joel like the narrative is they have to win the national championship or it's a failure what do you think is reason able I think that um to to claim that you have to win it all is is is too much so you know that's that's over the pale for me but to claim that you have to give yourself a chance to win it all I think is is absolutely on the table for Ohio State I hearken it back to like what Tom Brady and and the New England Patriots did what did they do year in and year out give themselves a chance that's why they played for so many AFC championship games now having said that I do believe that this version of the playoff the 12 team version of the playoff it's going to be more difficult once you get into the semi-finals than what we've had in the past therefore my expectation my highest expectation on any team in the country is to get yourself in that final four because at that point it's a call it's a turnover it's a play you just got to get yourself and give yourself a chance and I think that's my expectation for Ohio State the Buckeyes and everyone trying to take the national title from Michigan but it's obviously a clearly different Michigan team the program's going in the right direction each of the last three years they've either tied or then broken record for most wins in the history of the program in a single season but the head coach is gone the star QB is gone the star running back is gone on and on and on Down the Line what's realistic for them well it's and it and by the way that list continues by the way new offensive coordinator new defensive coordinator new strength coach the way that I've categorized it is is for Michigan everyone is different and yet the sentiment in particular amongst the ranks in an arbor is that nothing's changed so like how does how does that you know work well it works because they really believe in their culture they believe in their ability to develop players which you can't argue with after the last three seasons you just can't in particular last season going undef feed and winning the national championship I think realistic expectations for Michigan are that they've got to understand that self-admittedly they're a development program more so than let's say an Ohio state of Georgia or an Alabama or a Texas who just wants to come readymade top tier talent year in and year out well when you're a self- admitted development program you're going to have little dips before the Peaks and we've seen that ramp up for the last three years for Michigan so for me even a little dip still puts them right in the CL uh playoff conversation in particular in a 12 team format I believe if you look at their four toughest games they've got Texas USC Oregon and Ohio State I believe that they're going to win two of those games if they win two of those games they're going to go to the playoff and I think that they're going to be a a nine win team as their floor 10- win team as maybe their ceiling yeah that makes sense a 10-2 Michigan team feels like they're in the top 12 for sure you brought up the schedule and how it can be hard I want to turn our attention to one of the new teams to the Big 10 USC generally when you welcome a team or a person to your house you're you're kind and and you you know you welcome them man USC schedule it's not the big 10 fault they open with LSU but then their third game of the year is at Michigan their fourth game is home against Wisconsin they're going to have to earn it right off the bat yeah they are although I I'm going to take the other side of that coin I actually think USC's schedule is favorable to them and and let me let me tell you why you can't just say that without saying why well number one is you get to face LSU which was a top three offense a year ago um coming off of a Heisman Trophy winner when you you lose the Heisman Trophy winner and you lose both of those wide receivers neighbors and Thomas they also lost their offensive coordinator when do you want to see LSU early as early as you possibly can that's the exact same equation that I would say for Michigan when would you want to go to Michigan if you're a team that feels like you want to beat them early in the season in September when they still might be wondering about who their quarterback is when they're still trying to get their feet wet in this jua position of everyone is different and yet everything is the same so that's when I would want to play those two games then they get Penn State at home and they get Notre Dame at home so to me when I looked at that schedule they don't go back East to play a cold weather game after the middle of October and they've got Penn State at home and Notre Dame at home after facing the teams that they need to early to me it's actually a very favorable schedule and if USC is able to beat LSU then watch out then then you can see a clear path to a nine- win team facing Notre Dame for the right to go to the playoff that's that's where I think USC sits yeah think of think of the narrative shift around that program if they win on Sunday against LSU I mean that's that's a massive change and and by the way those two I don't think that there's a bigger game week one in terms of the narrative surrounding college football and in particular these two conferences The Narrative all year and we have to just be prepared for this this is going to be the new style of college football is like how many teams does each of these power conferences get I believe that we have power two conferences Big 10 and SEC and they're going to be vying for the most amount of participants that they possibly can get into the college football playoff so think about it these two teams are sitting basically in the same spot in their conference in terms of preseason narrative right around anywhere from four to five where they're picked and so they're on equal footing within those conferences so a head-to-head Victory is going to mean a whole lot moving down to the stretch that's why this is such a big game on Sunday night you know I'm I'm curious Joel since you brought that up like kind of like a very macro point about college football one of the things that bummed me out when we went to the four te playoff was I felt like too much of the focus too early in the year was just on those four teams I'm curious how much you think the shift to 12 is going to affect the way we as media members and we as fans look at the regular season in college football yeah so to to answer that I would have to go back further than the four team playoff because prior to the four team playoff there were a lot of ways mechanisms results levers that you could use to define yourself as successful whether you were a program or a fan base I think you would agree with that right a New Year's Bowl was defined as successful you know you would get to the largely this is the way that Wisconsin built their entire program they never played for a national championship and yet they built their program into one of the most successful programs in the country because they had Avenues to Define themselves as successful until the four team college football playoff which then sucked all the oxygen out of the a in terms of that definition of success and now all you could do was go to the playoff or else it was going to be a failure and that's not what the fans wanted and the players were going to opt out of the bowl games now is it so once the toothpaste was out of the tube you can't put it back in and go all the way back so what do you need to do expand within reason the definition of success I like 12 maybe 14 because it retains the level of importance of the regular season for the top tier teams to get the buy into the into the playoff but it also expands that definition of success for instance an example I think that we are on the precipice of having a November where 25 maybe 30 teams and fan bases feel like they have a legitimate path to the college football playoff that's going to be incredible for the sport yeah that that's a great way of thinking of it instead of five to eight teams in November that have fan bases that are in it you could triple that amount because the size of the playoff has tripled instead and and to put a bow on this you don't think that the September Games will feel far less important because there will be two and probably some three lost teams that end up making it in the playoff I I think when you when you actually go about an exercise of of filling in and predicting a bracket you realize that this notion of a three loss team getting in is iffy that's why I think Michigan might need to go 10 and two this is why Oklahoma even with their tough schedule probably needs to go 10 and two even if that's going to be incredibly difficult um which means that the regular season's actually still going to mean a lot that loss that Florida state had on Saturday to Georgia Tech puts them behind the eightball they now basically have to win the ACC in my estimation or else they're not going to get into the playoff so it's a balancing act you want to try to retain the level of importance and the meaningful nature of the regular season as well as expand the definition of success and I think that we're in the right model maybe it grows to 14 uh then you would retain two buys and not four buys all of those things I think will will will play itself out but if I know college football fans like I like I think I know them games are not going to lose their importance right they just aren't yeah and we look at the NFL people still flock to games on TV and in the stadium September for sure uh final 30 seconds I know you got to run you have Penn State in West Virginia this week I think Drew Aller is a fascinating college football figure he had great numbers last year but just that that next level was missing from him especially against the big teams he's got a new offensive coordinator what do you expect to see from him week one I I've always thought that he is a supremely talented player um I didn't feel like what was going on schematically was a great f fit for his skill set last year um he is a strong armed quarterback that needs to push the the the ball and and threaten the defense down the field that's not what they did in fact when you look at their average average air yards per attempt it was it was near the bottom of both the Big 10 and in a lot of cases the country that needs to that needs to change and I think it'll change with Andy Cal Nikki their new offensive coordinator um I think that this is a team I'm very high on there was no team hurt more by the four team format than Penn State in the last eight seasons if we would have had a 12 team playoff they would have made six playoffs in the last eight years six and our our whole definition of James Franklin and that program would be very different if that was the case I firmly expect that they'll be in the playoff they've got a schedule that's advantageous they don't have to play Oregon they don't have to play Michigan so so for me I'm expecting a lot out of Drew Aller himself and also that program nobody makes better points in college football Joel clatt Joel always great talking to you man have a great time in Morgantown I'm going to go try to find that uh it was a capric that we left on the side of the road that's right uh and Idaho Falls Idaho old minor Leake baseball stories they're great we can come on and just do a whole segment of minor league baseball stories next week book it let's go let's go