Joel Klatt stirred the pot this week, and not just in the college football world. The longtime Fox analyst made waves with a scorching take on the NCAA basketball tournament-calling it “a joke” and “the dumbest tournament in all of sports”-before walking some of it back on his own podcast. But while he softened his tone on hoops, he doubled down on his stance about college football’s playoff structure, particularly when it comes to smaller programs and the automatic bid system.
Let’s unpack what Klatt’s really saying-and why it’s touching a nerve across both sports.
Klatt’s Take: No Room for Cinderellas in Football
On The Next Round, Klatt didn’t mince words. He argued that the College Football Playoff (CFP) shouldn’t be in the business of inviting underdog programs, specifically calling out James Madison as an example of a team that doesn’t belong in the national championship conversation.
His claim? The automatic bid for the fifth-highest ranked conference champion-a spot designed to ensure Group of 5 representation-isn’t about fairness or merit.
It’s about avoiding antitrust lawsuits.
That’s a bold assertion, and Klatt took it a step further by comparing the CFP to the NCAA basketball tournament. But instead of praising the chaos of March Madness, he torched it.
“We’re not looking for a Cinderella,” Klatt said. “No one in football cares about James Madison...
The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports.”
That’s a scorcher, even by hot take standards.
Walking It Back-Sort Of
The backlash was immediate, and Klatt knew he had gone too far. On his podcast Thursday, he clarified his comments-at least when it came to basketball.
“I had an interesting take. It was a bad take, it was a terrible take,” Klatt admitted. “What I said... was sloppy, and worded wrong.”
He went on to explain that his issue with the NCAA tournament isn’t the excitement or entertainment-it’s the format. The single-elimination setup, played at neutral sites with unpredictable matchups, doesn’t always crown the best team.
And he’s not wrong there. March Madness is chaos by design.
It’s built for drama, not necessarily for identifying the most consistent, dominant team over the course of a full season.
Klatt acknowledged that the tournament is wildly entertaining and said he does love it. But he stood firm on this: if the goal is to reward the best team in college basketball, the current format isn’t built for that.
“You love the Cinderellas early,” he said. “But late, you want to see the best teams playing against each other. Because that’s greatness.”
The Football Stance? Unchanged.
While Klatt softened his basketball take, he’s not backing down when it comes to college football. He remains adamant that the CFP shouldn’t prioritize inclusion for the sake of it-especially if it means letting in teams from smaller conferences who haven’t proven themselves against top-tier competition.
But here’s the thing: the current 12-team format is already flipping expectations on their head.
In 2024, the Mountain West’s Boise State leapfrogged both the ACC and Big 12 to earn a top-four seed and a first-round bye. That’s not something anyone predicted when the format was announced.
And this year? Things got even wilder.
2025: The Year of the Unexpected
The 2025 College Football Playoff field is a testament to just how unpredictable this new system can be.
- Indiana (Big Ten), Georgia (SEC), and Texas Tech (Big 12) claimed three of the automatic bids as top-ranked conference champs.
- Tulane, the American Athletic Conference champion, earned the Group of 5 spot.
- And then there’s James Madison-the team Klatt dismissed outright.
Thanks to a bizarre ACC title game outcome, where five-loss Duke upset 10-2 Virginia, James Madison, sitting at 12-1, earned the automatic bid by ranking higher than the Blue Devils. That’s how the system works. It’s not about brand names-it’s about results.
The ACC still managed to sneak in Miami as an at-large, but the idea that a Group of 5 team like James Madison could crash the party is exactly the kind of storyline that makes this new era of the CFP so compelling.
And if James Madison were to go into Eugene and knock off the heavily favored Ducks? That’s not just a Cinderella moment-that’s a headline-grabbing, sport-shifting upset. The kind of moment that would dominate talk shows, light up social media, and, yes, spike TV ratings.
The Big Ten’s Bigger Play
It’s also worth noting the irony here: while Klatt argues against expanding access for smaller programs, his own network’s primary partner-the Big Ten-is pushing for a 24-team playoff. That format would be even more inclusive than the current 12-team setup, with automatic bids for multiple teams from power conferences, regardless of whether they’re true title contenders.
"It was a bad take. It was a terrible take."@joelklatt revisits one of the "worst takes of the year" on the structure of March Madness. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/FzwDTsiBVA
— The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football on FOX Pod (@JoelKlattShow) December 18, 2025
Just two weeks ago, Klatt floated a similar idea on his podcast, proposing a format with play-in games that mirrors what the Big Ten is reportedly advocating for. That would mean even more teams like this year’s 9-3 USC squad-clearly not in the title hunt-getting a shot at the trophy.
So while Klatt’s critique of the basketball tournament may have been a misfire, his football take is part of a much bigger conversation: What’s the real goal of the College Football Playoff? Is it to crown the best team? Or to create a postseason that’s exciting, inclusive, and unpredictable?
Right now, the 12-team format is doing a little bit of both. And for all the talk about fairness and structure, the fact remains: if a team like James Madison can walk into a powerhouse’s backyard and win, they’ve earned their seat at the table-no matter what conference they come from.