Joel Klatt, Gus Johnson shred SEC, College Football Playoff critics during Holiday Bowl broadcast

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt and Gus Johnson are not going to get many well wishes from the SEC. The duo shredded the league, as well as College Football Playoff critics, during the Holiday Bowl broadcast on Friday.

A lot of the conversation surrounding the first round of the CFP was complaints about blowouts, despite that not being a new concept, and the lack of SEC teams like Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina not being in. The argument was that teams like that would’ve put up a better fight than teams like Indiana or SMU.

Well, Klatt and Johnson took time to slam those voices.

“The home team should win, right,” Klatt said. “I mean, like the better teams got to host, it’s tough to win on the road in college football, what did we expect? Everyone making this like an indictment on the losing teams? I’ll tell you, the home teams played great. I thought it was fantastic. It was a great weekend of college football.”

Next, it was Johnson weighing in.

“What I loved about it more than anything, SMU and Tennessee had to go play in cold weather,” Johnson responded. “SEC teams finally played a game in cold weather.”
Then came the boom from Klatt regarding College Football Playoff teams.

And then back to Klatt.

“Yeah, how’d that work out for them,” Klatt said. “I will tell you this though, I knew Ohio State was gonna run (Tennessee( out of the building when they ran out there with that fake toughness with their shirts off and started warming up.”

Joel Klatt and Gus Johnson threw some shade at the SEC and weighed in on the CFP debate. pic.twitter.com/K9YrfRD1TI

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 28, 2024

This isn’t the first time Klatt was fed up with College Football Playoff discourse. Ahead of Christmas, he fired back at the critics.

“College football right now is amazing,” Klatt said. “This weekend should have been a celebration of that. Really good teams hosting playoff games in incredible environments. I don’t really care who the opponents are, because, quite frankly, in a 12-team playoff, like we have now, there’s going to be flawed teams that get in.

“Whether it’s Indiana because of their strength of schedule, or SMU because of their strength of schedule, with only one loss each. …Or if you’re looking at a three-loss team from the SEC, whether It’s Alabama or Ole Miss or South Carolina — those are flawed teams.

“This idea that all the sudden, because Notre Dame beat Indiana handily, and Penn State beat SMU handily, all of a sudden, it was an indictment on those programs and an indictment on the playoff. I took issue with that.”