CHICAGO — If you’re a fan of a B1G team and you don’t know Joel Klatt by now, you should.

The Fox Sports college football analyst was the color commentator in each of the last two B1G Championships, both of which ended up being thrillers. As the network’s lead color analyst alongside play-by-play dynamo Gus Johnson, Klatt figures to be part of many more thrillers with Fox expanding its primetime coverage of B1G football in 2017.

But Klatt was also at the center of two of the B1G’s more infamous on-camera moments in recent memory.

He somewhat heroically stood up for every Iowa fan in an attempt to silence Colin Cowherd’s never-ending bashing of the Hawkeyes.

If you haven’t seen the clip by now, here you go:

So naturally, Klatt was asked about that during an interview session on Tuesday at B1G Media Days.

He said that his response to Cowherd’s praise of former Hawkeyes wasn’t pre-rehearsed at all. His only purpose on the show that day was to talk about the NFL draft.

Instead, the discussion shifted to Iowa.

“All of the sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks while (Cowherd) was talking,” Klatt said. “He was going ‘Oh, the 49ers and they get (C.J.) Beathard and George Kittle’ and I was like, ‘Timeout. All of the sudden, he’s like an Iowa bandwagon guy.’

“It was literally spur of the moment, and I just decided to call him out because I thought it’d be fun.”

Klatt wasn’t aware of what type of response it would get. It didn’t take long for him to get an answer to that question.

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“The Iowa fans loved it. I had no idea,” Klatt said. “I walked off set and I thought, ‘Hopefully people thought that was fun or funny or entertaining or whatever,’ and I checked my Twitter and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I need to travel to Iowa. I could get free drinks for a month up there right now.”

Instantly, Klatt’s Twitter account gained “thousands” of follows from Iowa fans, who still show up in his mentions two months later.

RELATED: Joel Klatt dunks all over Colin Cowherd and his Iowa hate

Klatt doesn’t know if he’ll be traveling to Iowa City for a game yet, but he’d likely get plenty of handshakes if and when that time comes. Even if he doesn’t get to Iowa to call a game in 2017, Klatt will be on “The Herd” once a week during the college football season.

It sounds like the Iowa battle between he and Cowherd could have several more rounds.

“Now, I’m just gonna continue with it,” Klatt said. “I’m just gonna continue to hold Colin to the fire. Hopefully those Iowa fans will appreciate it.”

Iowa fans probably won’t appreciate Klatt re-living the 2015 B1G Championship. That game, of course, ended with L.J. Scott’s plunge into the end zone to secure the Spartans’ conference title.

It also ended infamously with Connor Cook’s awkward acceptance of the B1G Championship MVP trophy, which presented by two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin. Cook was skewered on social media for coming off “disrespectful.”

In case you forgot how that went down, here’s what everyone saw on TV:

Klatt had a front-row seat for the exchange. He had a completely different perspective on Cook’s attitude toward the Ohio State legend.

“It was interesting because I didn’t recognize it at all. I had no idea what happened,” Klatt said. “What I saw was that (Cook) didn’t play very well that game. He was hurt. It was a really ugly 22-play drive. He was shot-putting a couple third downs. They got the job done but it’s not like he was out there two years ago (the 2013 B1G Championship). He played great in that game. He was the MVP and rightly so.

“But in the Iowa game, it was like, who are you gonna give it to? Are you gonna give it to L.J. Scott? It was almost like, ‘(Cook) is the senior, he’s the quarterback, he’s the MVP.’ But it’s not like he played great.”

RELATED: Joel Klatt: Jim Harbaugh is the best developmental coach in the country

So from Klatt’s viewpoint, Cook wasn’t being cocky in the slightest.

“When I was on the stage, I looked back and I said (Cook’s) name, he was almost shocked and almost embarrassed. That’s the feeling I got,” Klatt said. “When he came up, it was more that emotion versus, ‘chest out, of course I am,’ which is what came across on TV and when I watched it back.

“When I watched it back, I was like, ‘That’s not at all what I was feeling on the stage.’ I didn’t feel at all like he snubbed anybody. It was more sheepishly like ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’ve got to go do this. I clearly didn’t play my best game.’”

As he learned quickly, the view from TV was a whole lot different than the one he saw.

“I go back to the (production) truck and everyone was like, ‘Woah! Did you see this?! Oh my gosh!’” Klatt said. “I was like, ‘I didn’t even realize that.’”

Whether he snubbed Griffin or not, Klatt admitted that it “definitely didn’t help” Cook’s reputation heading into the draft.

Needless to say, it served as arguably the most viral moment of Klatt’s young career as Fox’s lead college football color analyst. Surely he wouldn’t mind avoiding some awkward moments in his future B1G coverage.

Well, unless he forces Cowherd into another awkward silence about Iowa.