Joel Klatt’s College Football Rankings: OSU Hits Next Level, Analyzing the Bubble

We’re heading into conference championships weekend, and everyone is thinking about who will make the College Football Playoff. So, what better time for FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt to drop his latest top-15 than now?  

CFP bubble teams were a huge part of Klatt’s focus this week. In fact, Klatt said that teams ranked between No. 8-15 are the ones he thinks are firmly on the bubble to make the playoff. Who has a good chance of making the CFP, and who has work to do?

Here’s a full look at Klatt’s top 15 teams in the nation following Week 14’s rivalry games, to help answer those questions.

15. Utah

Klatt’s take: They beat Kansas, and now Utah has 10 wins. They have gone 10-2 in what we all think is going to be head coach Kyle Whittingham’s last year. Great bounce back for him. I thought he might walk away last year, but he just couldn’t walk away with the disappointment and the injuries that they had a year ago. And he has bounced back, and that team did what a lot of us thought they could do this year, which was to be a 10- or 11-win team. Now they’re 10-2, their only two losses are to BYU on the road and Texas Tech at home. That’s a really good Texas Tech team. That’s a really good BYU team. Those two teams have just two losses between them. So Utah is putting themselves in this conversation. Now, more on the outside of that conversation, but at No. 15 

14. Vanderbilt

Klatt’s take: Impressive win at Tennessee for Vanderbilt. I thought that was a game that would be a stumbling block. Quarterback Diego Pavia was huge in that game, and there is some outside push for Pavia for the Heisman Trophy. I think it’s one of those pushes where it’s like, “Hey, that’d be great for him to get to New York. I don’t think that he is a Heisman, but he’s had a great year. I’ve loved watching him play and he certainly deserves to go to New York, so hopefully that can happen. Huge game in the 45-24 win, there’s Vandy at 10-2 in the SEC. What a marvelous season: head coach Clark Lea, Pavia, everybody there at Vanderbilt.

13. Miami (Fla.)

Klatt’s take: Miami handled Pitt very easily after Pitt went down and beat Georgia Tech the week before. I was very impressed with how Miami played: a cold game in November, that’s not necessarily, I think, Miami’s strength. I think we all agree with that. Coach Mario Cristobal at Miami, in November, was 3-6 before that game. So it was a bad trend, and it is one of the reasons I picked Pitt outright. And Miami handled them. Handled them! Seems like they’re a team that certainly should get consideration and strong consideration for the College Football Playoff.

12. Texas

Klatt’s take: Biggest win of the weekend was Texas over Texas A&M. Monster win there. You can make the argument, as Texas A&M was undefeated and they were sitting inside the top-five of the College Football Playoff rankings, that that was one of the better wins of the season, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Now, Texas is sitting there, and they’re going to make strong arguments and they’re going to be politicking — and rightly so — because of the position they’ve put themselves in. Now, they’re a 9-3, and there is some hair on that résumé. Namely, the loss to Florida, the close wins against Kentucky and Mississippi State — that’s a Kentucky team that just got slammed by Louisville — so those don’t look great. So again, it’s not a perfect résumé, but they certainly have some things that they can point to, and they will. They’re doing exactly what they should do. 

11. BYU

Klatt’s take: BYU is just on the outside, and listen, I really do like BYU, and they do have a strong argument. Their only loss is on the road to Texas Tech. And you know, Texas is trying to argue their 9-3 résumé, and BYU is 11-1. Eleven and one! Now, I think why they get overlooked — and I’ll be the first to admit that I do this, I’m guilty of this and I should probably apologize to the BYU Cougars for this. I overlook BYU not because of the conference they play in, but because of the control that they have. You see, in my estimation, BYU controls their own fate. They have an opportunity to go play this Saturday in the Big 12 Championship game against Texas Tech and avenge their loss. If they win that game, they’re automatically in the CFP. So, I don’t sit here and make a ton of arguments for BYU because they have the control. Is that the right sentiment? Probably not. Because even with a loss, they would be sitting there at 11-2, the only losses twice to Texas Tech. 

10. Alabama

Klatt’s take: Alabama is still sitting there, and partly because they’ve got a head-to-head against the No. 9 team. Alabama almost blew that 17-0 lead to Auburn. Auburn had a chance, and those that are around the Iron Bowl will tell you that those games at Auburn are close, and they’re always tight, and this one certainly was on Saturday night. But Alabama’s defense has been playing much better. They have gotten to a point where you can rely on that defense a lot. I think the scary part is that the passing game has gone through stretches and games now where it’s just not the elite passing game that we saw early in the season, and that’s a concern. They still don’t run it great. They’ve run it a little bit better at times, but it’s certainly not something that they can rely on. So if the passing game is not elite, what does Alabama actually lean on? I think that’s a question. But the defense has gotten much better, got to give them credit for that.

9. Oklahoma

Klatt’s take: Fortunate to beat LSU, really fortunate. And this was the same type of game that we’ve been seeing out of Oklahoma ever since QB John Mateer suffered that hand injury. Basically, the defense has to keep them in the game. They rely on their defense. Their offense, for large stretches of the game, goes silent — inept in some regard. They can’t do anything. They still cannot run the football with running backs. They just really struggle in that regard, and that’s a problem. Is that a team that, eye test, really impresses me? Not really. They got another explosive play. If they don’t create an explosive play, they have a really tough time scoring. Now, here’s the difference. They’re elite on defense. That defense is fantastic and it keeps them in games. But if they run up against the wrong team on the wrong day, they will be beaten because the offense just can’t do it. If they get up against some of these really good defenses — if they went up against a Texas Tech, or even a Notre Dame, or an Indiana or an Ohio State or an Oregon, or a Georgia, I don’t love that matchup for Oklahoma. Still in there, at 10-2 with that schedule, that’s really impressive.

8. Notre Dame

Klatt’s take: Notre Dame blew out Stanford late Saturday night. Now I, like the committee, am a lot more eye test than I am résumé. I fully understand, Miami fans, that Miami beat Notre Dame. I get it. I am more of a believer in this idea of who do I think would win this weekend? And Notre Dame is one of those teams. And by the way the committee is thinking more along the lines that I generally do in terms of eye test and film than résumé. I think that’s going to be difficult for some of these teams. Notre Dame, in the committee’s eyes, has been very solid. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were to jump Oklahoma in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. 

7. Texas A&M

Klatt’s take: They have been a little bit vulnerable, and ended up getting beaten by Texas. Do I think that’s a true national title contender? Maybe. Maybe. They were so good scoring the football on the road all year, and then that did not happen at Texas. QB Marcel Reed had trouble against that pass rush and couldn’t quite get going. They couldn’t run the football like they normally have. So, A&M has got to do a bit of soul-searching here at the end of the season and moving into the playoff. 

6. Ole Miss

Klatt’s take: I’m not going to punish the players for a coach’s decision. Much more on Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin in the rest of this week’s show. 

5. Texas Tech

Klatt’s take: Texas Tech is hammering everyone right now – all 11 wins by 20 or more points. That’s impressive.

4. Georgia

Klatt’s take: Ugly win against Georgia Tech. Tech has really been struggling, and then all of a sudden, Georgia has only 70 passing yards, 260 total yards against a team that has given up at least 34 points in three straight games. Just when I had come around the corner on Georgia, and I had started thinking to myself, that’s the best team in the SEC, Georgia is the team, they’re hard to kill. And then they play like that. Again, vulnerabilities. Sometimes these teams provide more questions than they do answers. And I keep going back to that from an Ohio State perspective: they provided a lot of answers against Michigan and throughout November, whereas a lot of teams throughout the country have provided us with more questions. And a performance like that from Georgia is unfortunately going to lead to more questions. Pitt just dropped 42 on that Georgia Tech team, and now all of a sudden Georgia is scoring 16? I still have them at No. 4, though.

3. Oregon

Klatt’s take: Oregon is continuing to get better and better and more complete. They beat Washington, tough road environment. They’re banged up at wide receiver. Really impressive in November, by the way, they went through this gauntlet at Iowa, USC, at Washington and they were able to handle it, They are going to be a better team for it.

2. Indiana

1. Ohio State

Klatt’s take: Indiana crushed Purdue as expected, they’re at No. 2, and then Ohio State at No. 1. Those three teams at the top are the most complete teams, they’re the teams that have the least questions as opposed to the others. Maybe Texas Tech would disagree with that because, obviously, I think that’s a pretty complete team. 

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