Joel Klatt takes a clear stance on college football becoming corporate

The 2024 college football season ended in a dominant Ohio State Buckeyes win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the national championship game in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

The game had the distinction of being the most expensive national championship game on record, with ticket prices averaging $2,637. This was 36% higher than last year's game, which pitted the Washington Huskies against the Michigan Wolverines.

During Friday's segment of the "Joel Klatt Show," the host made his stance clear on college football pricing out regular fans and becoming more "corporate" as the years go by.

"You can't identify with a professional sports team," Klatt said. "You can be a fan of them 100%. Like I'm a Broncos fan, guess what, I was never a Bronco. But I was a Buff and my dad was a Buff and my sister was a Buff and everybody that ever went to Colorado, whether they played or didn't, they're a Buff.

"College football cannot become too corporate that we lose that tribalism and family feel that we have that is inherently a better part of our game than what it is in the NFL. When I talk about not squeezing out the fans, that's what I'm talking about."

Analyst sides with college football fans

Over the years, prices of tickets to college football games have risen. With the recent House vs. NCAA settlement, programs have come up with ways to raise more cash to satisfy the revenue-sharing agreement with their student-athletes.

During Friday's segment of the "Joel Klatt Show," the eponymous host sided with college football fans over the recent hikes in prices, pinpointing the sacrifices that they undergo to even attend games involving their teams.

"Wherever you went to school," Klatt said. "Maybe you went to Ohio State, you're a Buckeye. Maybe you went to Georgia, go Dawgs! And that is a part of the fabric of who you are as a person. Our sport is much more tribal, it's much more family I should say than the NFL.

"Because those people that go to the spring game, those people that go to the games in the Fall. That are trying to cobble up the money to go to the neutral site games. A lot, if not all, of them feel like they are part of the fabric of that program because they identify with the program."

The face of college sports has changed drastically in the past few years after the advent of NIL and the long-suffering fans have borne some of the brunt of the huge changes.