Joel Klatt wonders how much football CFP committee has ‘watched’ before ranking UCLA

The College Football Playoff selection committee put the UCLA Bruins at No. 8 in its first rankings on Tuesday, behind the two-loss Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas Longhorns. UCLA spent Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis giving the committee a reason to look again, beating the Minnesota Golden Gophers 34-20 to reach 9-0 for the first time since 1998.

The game was still in doubt in the fourth quarter when Ty Dieffenbach found Aidan Mizell for a 75-yard touchdown that put UCLA ahead for good. On the Bruins’ next offensive snap, the same two connected for another 75-yard score. Dieffenbach finished with 303 yards on eight completions, and the school says he is the only FBS quarterback since at least 1995 to throw for 300 yards on eight or fewer completions.

Joel Klatt, calling the game for FOX alongside Gus Johnson, used the final seconds of the broadcast to go after the committee.

“Let’s hope the committee watched this game. I don’t think the committee has watched a ton of football based on the rankings they gave us on Tuesday night. This team should definitely move up,” Klatt said.

“Let’s hope the committee watched this game. I don’t think the committee has watched a ton of football based on the rankings they gave us on Tuesday night. This team should definitely move up.”

Joel Klatt after UCLA improves to 9-0 https://t.co/kiYeTynikm

— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) November 7, 2026

UCLA was the lowest-ranked unbeaten team in that first top 25, trailing five teams with losses: the Georgia Bulldogs at 7-1, the Indiana Hoosiers at 8-1, Alabama at 6-2, the Kentucky Wildcats at 7-1 and Texas at 6-2. Alabama’s two losses came against Georgia and the Tennessee Volunteers, while Texas lost to the Oklahoma Sooners and Florida Gators, both unranked.

The committee says it compares each team’s full profile, and that approach is how two SEC teams with two losses apiece landed ahead of a Big Ten team that had not lost at all. UCLA is now the only unbeaten team left in a conference that has produced the last three national champions.

Will the committee actually move UCLA past Alabama and Texas?

The Miami Hurricanes, the committee’s No. 1 team, lost to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday night, which opens a spot near the top. The harder part sits right above the Bruins. Alabama won 31-13 at the LSU Tigers, and Texas came back to win 34-20 at the Missouri Tigers, so both two-loss teams added a road win over a ranked opponent on the same day UCLA won at an unranked Minnesota.

UCLA has its own evidence.

Minnesota had taken defending national champion Indiana to overtime a week earlier, and the Bruins’ defense held the Gophers to 4-of-15 on third down. UCLA has kept opponents under 33 percent on third downs for eight straight games.

UCLA went 3-9 in 2025 before hiring Bob Chesney from James Madison, and Chesney is now the first coach in program history to open his tenure 9-0. The No. 8 ranking drew loud pushback from Bruins fans well before Klatt said a word on the broadcast, and the Bruins left Minneapolis with another week of evidence for that case.

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