Joel Klatt Names Dark Horse Program He’d Love To See In College Football Playoff

Joel Klatt said he believes the Big 12 will be the most competitive conference going into the 2024 college football season. That doesn’t necessarily mean the best Big 12 teams will be favorites against the top programs across the country. His statements reflect his belief that there’s no true consensus on which teams will compete for a conference title.

The expanded College Football Playoff format means the top team from each conference will get an automatic bid into the field with a top-four seed and a BYE. That leaves the door open for plenty of teams who’ve never had a real shot at a college football championship to firmly plant themselves in the conversation.

One team Klatt said he’d love to see do just that is the Kansas Jayhawks.

“Wouldn’t you love to see Kansas in the Playoff,” Klatt said on Monday’s episode of " The Joel Klatt Show" . “The 14-team format, what it really means is hope. That’s what it really means.”

The Jayhawks have been an afterthought in college football almost every year outside of their incredible 2007 campaign. With this new format and the level of play they’ve produced the past two seasons, Klatt says he’s starting to think of scenarios he’d never envision Kansas playing in.

“Do you know how many times we could legitimately sit here and say, ‘Kansas has postseason, Playoff, national championship implication chances?’ Never. Now we do,” Klatt said.

Kansas comes in at No. 22 in the preseason AP poll , and Klatt says they have the talent to surge even higher.

“Kansas has a dynamic offense: Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal, I love Lance Leipold," Klatt said. "They’re building something special. It won’t shock me at all if they play for a Big 12 title."

Kansas has yet to win a Big 12 championship and they haven’t won any conference titles in football since 1968. Klatt believes their best years are ahead of them and it will make for an exciting start to the 2024 college football season.

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