Michigan No. 1, Notre Dame in top 10 in Klatt’s new rankings

Now that the College Football Playoff rankings are out, here’s a TFB policy note: from here out, in every story, if a ranking is beside a team’s name, it’ll be that team’s CFP ranking – as opposed to, I don’t know – the Associated Press poll ranking, the AFCA Coaches poll ranking, or even the Joel Klatt ranking.

Here at TFB, we enjoy Klatt’s calls, his appearances on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and even his honesty on his own top 10 that’s released every week.

I will personally say that putting Notre Dame in his top 10 this week, with two losses in the two biggest games they’ve played, is a bit much.

Klatt’s rankings are out (2023 college football top 10 rankings: Joel Klatt’s top 10 teams after Week 9), and in addition to having Michigan – who has the 111th-ranked strength of schedule in the nation, according to the ESPN Football Power Index (FPI). I don’t know that I pay just a lot of attention to the FPI, but I can look at that schedule (non-conference opponents East Carolina, UNLV, and Bowling Green, all at home) and combined with the fact that the Big 10 is the weakest it’s been in many years, it is dreadful.

Klatt, though, apparently bases his ranking of UM at No. 1 on game control.

“There isn’t a team in college football that has looked as dominant and consistent through the first nine weeks of the season than the Michigan Wolverines,” Klatt wrote, in the story revealing his poll. “This team is clearly now going to be on a mission coming down the stretch with upcoming games against Purdue, No. 9 Penn State, Maryland and No. 3 Ohio State.”

The Wolverines can’t help the state of their conference, that Nebraska is in year 18 of a three-year rebuilding plan, or that Michigan State has decided to blow its program up, or that their 2023 schedule doesn’t include Wisconsin.

But they can help their non-conference schedule. I’ll give them credit for signing up to play Texas next year. But that’s NEXT year.

And there is also that sign-stealing deal going on, you know (Central Michigan investigating whether Michigan staffer was on its sideline scouting Michigan State).

So, Klatt has Georgia at number two, Ohio State at three and Florida State at four. We’ll let you see the remainder of his rankings below.

Here’s Klatt’s latest poll.

JOEL KLATT’S TOP 10 (released Wednesday, November 1):