Joel Klatt is Hungry For More at FOX Sports

As the college football regular-season slate of games culminated in early December, Joel Klatt watched the quest for glory commence from afar. The College Football Playoff, expanded to a 12-team bracket for the first time, took place with renewed events, fresh rivalries and thrilling finishes. These tangential alterations, however, received mixed feedback from stakeholders and consumers, specifically being critiqued after various lopsided final scores in the first round.

The first-round contests aired live on networks operated by The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery, the latter of which inked a five-year sublicensing agreement for rights to select games. Despite not being involved in the broadcasts, Klatt felt frustration towards the commentary about this early consortium of matchups and indicated how the NFL playoffs usually has identical margins at this time. Even though he avers some changes need to be made to the format, he enjoyed watching the proceedings that ended in the Ohio State Buckeyes reigning victorious.

“I’d love to be a partner,” Klatt said. “I would love if FOX had some of these playoff games. I would do anything to do one of these playoff games, and I think that the playoff was really good for the sport, incredible for the sport. Think of all the teams that had access to this top end of the sport that would otherwise not have access. You look at Indiana and Arizona State and Boise State, and these teams got to have a playoff run and their time in the sun, and rightly so.”

Klatt is on the broadcasts for a marquee sports property as the lead analyst for FOX Big Noon Saturday. FOX Sports recently completed its sixth year airing games in the early afternoon window, and it has allowed the network to better capitalize on consumption patterns and highlight the Big Ten Conference. Klatt credits network executives for recognizing a proverbial void where the company could take advantage and merit significant levels of attention, and the collaborative effort has continued to pay dividends.

“I was really fortunate that I was coming up at the time when FOX was really investing heavily into college football,” Klatt said, “and so in one respect my timing was incredibly lucky, but then it became even better when FOX decided to go all in on not just doing college football, but creating a premium window of college football.”

In reflecting back on the genesis of Big Noon Saturday, Klatt professed that FOX Sports was trying to compete by spending money on rights, but he remarked how the company was having difficulties gaining a foothold in the space. Although there are mixed opinions surrounding the start time, he believes that players and coaches enjoy the games earlier in the day and that the property has developed into becoming appointment television.

“This was a way for us to really jumpstart and be in the space of the pregame world because we were able to put that pregame show on, and rather than just let it lead into nothing, it led into our biggest games,” Klatt said. “And so College GameDay is so good and big, and they have been doing it for so long at such a high level, that it was really the only way to compete in any significant way, and we’ve been able to do that.”

No matter the assignment, Klatt always considers why certain things occur and aims to compendiously articulate his logic in a discernible, entertaining manner. Rather than falling into a trap of elucidating what is taking place, he ensures to talk about the rationale behind certain actions, schemes or calls.

“Everyone loves football, but very few people actually know what’s actually going on on the football field, and if you can unlock what’s going on and take a fan a step ahead and really get into the ‘Why’ things are going on, they feel they’re solving a Rubik’s cube,” Klatt said, “and if I can help them do that, then I feel like I’m doing my job.”

Klatt recently completed a decade working alongside play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson on college football games, a partnership that has thrived based on understanding their roles and embracing differences. Perceiving Johnson as skilled at amplifying the game from an emotional perspective, Klatt safeguards against interference and fulfills his obligation to synthesize esoterica and explain recondite nuances of play. Through embracing their obligations and executing the job with aplomb, the duo has resonated with fans and provided a comprehensive view on the action.

“I think there are too many play-by-play guys that talk football and that’s not their job,” said Klatt. “They pin their analyst into corners and they have to touch on what they just said or give their opinion about what’s happening on the field. I don’t think that’s right. The game, football wise, should be viewed through the analyst’s brain, and Gus allows me to do that. I’m super grateful for that.”

Klatt is preparing to commence game broadcasts for the United Football League, a joint venture between Fox Corporation and XFL Properties LLC entering its second season of play. The spring football entity was created out of a merger between the USFL and XFL, and it presents its games in a nontraditional manner with refined telecast elements and production ingenuity. There are several innovative elements permeated throughout the presentation derived from personnel supplementing in-game audio, groundbreaking camera angles and inside looks at conversations between coaches and officials. Rather than the analysis driving the telecast, Klatt avers that the content is more at the forefront in this setting.

“I talked about that Rubik’s cube from a college football perspective, whereas I view my role in the UFL as more of a translator,” Klatt said. “You’re hearing all of this language that you might not understand, and I’m trying to translate it for you so that you can take that language and be like, ‘Okay, it means that I’m about to see this.’”

As a walk-on quarterback who earned a starting role while attending the University of Colorado Boulder, Klatt brings an invaluable perspective to the airwaves gleaned through palpable experiences. When his playing career concluded, he began his broadcasting endeavors by analyzing high school football games on regional television. From there, he transitioned into studio work for FOX Sports Southwest surrounding Big 12 Conference football, but he regards his experience in radio as most beneficial to his career.

“That did wonders for my ability to communicate, my understanding of what people wanted to hear,” Klatt said. “They didn’t want to hear just gibberish – they wanted a point, and they wanted it backed up with substance, and so those type of story arcs in radio, I think, helped me be a better analyst on TV.”

Concurrent with his time in radio, Klatt continued to gain opportunities to contribute to regional and national broadcasts surrounding college football. A few years before the launch of FS1, he started appearing on FOX Sports broadcasts and growing more accustomed to national broadcasts. The incessant repetitions he had before officially joining the network positioned him to thrive, adopting the excerpt written by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell that enunciates the need for 10,000 hours of deliberate practice before attaining mastery in any field.

“Let’s put it this way – if you’re a lot better player than I am and you have a Hall of Fame pedigree, then you’re going to get put out there a lot sooner and a lot quicker in your career,” Klatt said. “Now, [it] works to some people’s advantage – there’s no doubt – but I got to make so many mistakes and learn before anyone really saw my work.”

The previous season of UFL play was among the best spring football Klatt had seen in prior iterations, and he is optimistic that the quality will continue to augment in the days to come. In fact, he appraises the undertaking as a massive success for those at FOX and the players who have concurrently received chances to compete in the NFL. Adding to the spring sports calendar traditionally occupied by baseball, basketball and hockey with 20 games on the FOX broadcast television network, Klatt is a proponent of football at this time of year and welcomes the distinguished approach in its presentation.

“You need to push the envelope in what I would think is a nontraditional league, and we’re going to do the television in a nontraditional way,” Klatt said. “So not only the opportunities for the players – we get to see football, which I love and I just want more of – but then also this pushing forward and from a technological standpoint and a broadcasting standpoint.”

Despite Fox Corporation having an ownership stake in the UFL, Klatt has not been impeded or restricted in his discourse. Over the inaugural season, during which he worked with Curt Menefee and Brock Huard, he offered both plaudits and critiques towards the officiating and aggregate play. Klatt has the utmost confidence in the leadership team at FOX Sports to lead the outlet forward as the inextricable link between college conferences and media helps drive business forward.

“[At] a lot of networks, you don’t get access to those people, but we have access to them because we are a family,” Klatt said. “It’s not a network that has been around for 50 years – it’s fairly new. We try to push the envelope, and they’re going to continue to do that with not only our rights, but the way that we broadcast television, and they’re going to do it in a way in which makes us all feel valued and a part of the success, and that’s a big reason why I love working for them.”

The first year of UFL games on FOX Sports averaged 816,000 viewers, and the company plans to air games on Friday nights as the new season commences. Using his platform to facilitate the growth of the entity, he is going to make sure to keep talking about the quality of the league, stellar play and investments in the broadcasts. For example, The Joel Klatt Show video podcast is one outlet through which he can promote both UFL and college football as he seeks to continue disseminating his voice.

“I felt very strongly that in college football, you needed to speak about the sport globally and have a global voice over the sport if you wanted to be synonymous or [a] top-end analyst in the sport,” Klatt said. “Obviously Kirk Herbstreit does an amazing job, and he’s been synonymous with the sport and kind of the king of college football for a long time, and in my mind, I was like, ‘Okay, well how do I compete with that?’”

Klatt does not see himself moving to NFL broadcasts in his future, but he is not ruling it out either because of the ambiguity surrounding what could come next. While he has called many marquee matchups, he dreams of being on the broadcast for the Rose Bowl Game and divulged that he would do anything to have a chance to be part of that. Packed with various obligations amid the football season, Klatt maintains gratitude and cherishes the platforms on which he gets to appear as he looks to become even more associated with the sport and render value to stakeholders.

“This is a real passion and a love affair of mine, so I might be busy, but I don’t view it as working hard,” Klatt said. “I view it as I get to do this, and I’m super fortunate in order to be in that sport. For me, it’s all about balance though, and as my career has grown, balancing the amount of time I spend on my passion and my career versus the amount of time I spend with my family and I designate for my wife and my kids, I think that’s the important part.”

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