College sports analyst Joel Klatt recently compared NCAA basketball and college football. On Monday, Dec. 15, @NextRoundLive on X/Twitter released a clip from one of the latest episodes of their podcast, featuring Klatt.
Klatt was asked about his thoughts on how the Tulane Green Wave and the James Madison Dukes can fare in the upcoming collegiate football playoffs. While Klatt shared his opinion, what caught the attention of many was when he mentioned the NCAA basketball tournament every March, which, to him, does not possess a fair format.
🔥HOT TAKE from @joelklatt🔥
“We don’t want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end… The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports.” pic.twitter.com/8eMwoC8b4N
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) December 15, 2025
Fans online slammed Klatt for his take, as they showed their overall disagreement and disappointment with it.
“It took until December 15th, but we’ve got the worst sports take of 2025 wrapped up,” one fan claimed.
“This is a horrible take. The NCAA Cinderella teams is what makes the tourney a national holiday Thursday and Friday of round one. The upsets make it fun. The 2 greatest NCAA tourneys are Villanova and NC State winning it all. Those are the ones everyone remembers,” another fan shared.
“Saying March Madness is dumb is the quickest way to admit you don’t actually like sports, you only like rankings,” another user said.
“I agree with Klatt on 90% of his takes and then he’ll rip off the dumbest sh*t you’ve heard in your entire life, bar none, with the other 10%,” a user posted.
Other X users opted to compare the men’s basketball postseason with that of the college football playoffs.
“Will still complain even if he gets his way. Next it’ll be, ‘Let’s have SEC 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 play during conference championship week and ruin the meaning of the conference championship,'” one user pointed out.
“@joelklatt I listen to your pod regularly, but how can you call the NCAAT a joke when 18 of the 25 national titles this century have been 1 seeds while the NCAAF Playoff gave us an 8 seed winning the title in Year 1?,” another user questioned.
“This is arguably @joelklatt’s worst take of many takes. March Madness is a MUCH better and more exciting tournament than the CFP. The fact that you can lose it all in one bad showing from your team is how college football SHOULD be. The fact that some teams have mulligans and others don’t is inherently unfair and ridiculous,” a user wrote.
March Madness is considered by many to be the most exciting postseason in college sports, given its unpredictable and volatile nature. The college basketball postseason tournaments, for both men and women, begin with the round of 64, which is then trimmed down to 32. From there, teams try to advance to the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, and then the Final Four, which determines who will compete for the NCAA championship.
Read More: Joel Klatt Serves Lane Kiffin Blunt Reality Check As Florida, LSU’s $90M Race Can Destroy Ole Miss Legacy
Joel Klatt Believes March Madness Does Not Produce The True Best Teams Of A Season
The take that got fans and onlookers all riled up with Joel Klatt was when he opined that March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament format, is a joke and does not truly bring out the best teams of a certain season.
This is because, for Klatt, underdog teams should not be given the chance to upset highly-ranked programs.
“ We don’t want Cinderella’s, we want the best teams playing each other at the end. In fact, hot take, I mean like the hottest of all takes that I’ve ever had in my entire life. The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports. We go and we put, we put teams at odd times on neutral sites in a one game affair. Like that doesn’t crown a true champion,” Klatt explained.
Also Read: Joel Klatt Casts Shadow Over Steve Sarkisian’s Texas’ Playoff Chances Amid Potential 9–3 Season in 2025
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