Joel Klatt Wants Higher Bar for Group of 5 Teams in CFP: 'They Were Overmatched'

The first two games in the first round of the 2025 College Football Playoff were pretty competitive. The final two games, however, were not.

For FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt, No. 6 Ole Miss' 45-10 drubbing of No. 11 Tulane and No. 5 Oregon's decisive 51-34 victory over No. 12 James Madison put a damper on what should've been an exciting weekend for the sport. With Tulane and James Madison losing in the fashion they did, Klatt believes the playoff format needs to be reconsidered. 

"It was a tough day for the Group of 5,"  Klatt said. "It was a tough day for the creators of this playoff. It was a tough day for the leaders of college football. All of us sat there and were like, ‘How do you continue to screw up what is so obviously an easy fix?’ I think that this playoff is not built right. 

"I got into all sorts of hot water this week when I said, ‘In college football, we don’t want Cinderellas.' I'm right. Did you watch the last two games of the first round? Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Texas and BYU were just sitting at home watching Tulane and JMU play in games in which they were overmatched. That's not cool."

[College Football Playoff Predictions: First-Round Winners to The National Champion ]

In the current iteration of the 12-team CFP, the five highest-ranked conference champions receive an automatic berth. In the vast majority of other seasons, the winners of the Power 4 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC) and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champ would receive those automatic bids.

This year's field saw 8-5 Duke throw a wrench into things by winning the ACC. Duke wasn't ranked in the final CFP poll, while No. 20 Tulane (AAC champion) and No. 24 James Madison (Sun Belt champion) were