Joel Klatt takes aim at College Football Playoff committee for 'horrendous' 12-team bracket

It’s no surprise that Oregon is the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff — but they may have the least desirable path to the national championship game in the bracket.

The Ducks will play either Ohio State or Tennessee after their first-round bye. Meanwhile, Penn State, who lost to Oregon on Saturday in the Big Ten Championship game, appears to have an easier path than the team with the top overall seed.

Penn State will take on SMU in the first round. The winner takes on Boise State for a spot in the national semifinal. Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt sounded off on Oregon’s behalf after the College Football Playoff bracket was officiall revealed.

“What a horrendous job this committee did…The team that was penalized the most was @oregonfootball and the team that was rewarded the most was @PennStateFball…I guess the Ducks should have laid down in the 4th…Just atrocious,” his tweet read.

He followed up with an “obvious fix” to the current format.

“Re-seed after the first round to reward the best regular season.”

Klatt continued his argument against the Nittany Lions, noting that they “lost the two toughest games they had all year,” and are being “rewarded with that path!!”

After conference championship week, Klatt revealed his predicted matchups within the CFP, which saw him seed the Nittany Lions eighth against nine-seed Tennessee. That would have presented a quarterfinal matchup against No. 1 Oregon. His No. 6 seed was Ohio State taking on 11th seed Clemson.

Instead, the playoff committee swapped Klatt’s six seed for the eight and Penn State was given the path that sees them play SMU and if they win, Boise State.

Penn State will take on SMU on Saturday, Dec. 21 at Noon ET while Ohio State vs. Tennessee will headline the first round with the 8 p.m. ET slot on ABC/ESPN. Both Big Ten schools, Penn State and Ohio State are both favored by at least a touchdown against their first-round opponents.