We all know College Football is the greatest and best and most amazing sport that God has given to this world. BUT... there are some things that could make it even better. From playoff to scheduling, here is a list of the top 10 things I would change about college football for the better. I have also included a likeliness factor:
10 = Being discussed now
9 = Likelihood Cam Newton was paid off
8 = Being discussed secretly right now
7 = SEC will win a 7th straight Nat'l Title
6 = Andrew Luck wins the Heisman
5 = Texas still sucks
4 = Florida still sucks
3 = Ohio State fires Jim Tressel
2 = Ohio State's replacement coach is Urban Meyer, who has a long and spotless track record of dealing with arrests and player misconduct.
1 = Lane Kiffin can hold down a job for more than two years
0 = Duke will win a football national championship before this happens.
10. Define what preseason polls mean. This might be just me, but it is my biggest pet peev in all of sports. What does a preseason poll mean? Does it mean how good you think the team is now? How good it will be at the end of the season? How many games it will win? Because these three criteria are very very different. And everyone seems to think it's ok to vote based on the perceived difficulty of the future schedule. Of course, the entire thing is ridiculous, and way too powerful. The position of a team in the preseason poll can effect its final ranking drastically. Unfair!
My idea: standardize what the preseason poll means. It should mean "how good is this team right now?" just like every other week's polls. Why is Week 0 so different? Of course, if it was entirely up to me, I would not release any polls until the 5th or 6th week. Like I do on my blog. Because on my blog, it is entirely up to me.
Likelihood: 6
My idea: standardize what the preseason poll means. It should mean "how good is this team right now?" just like every other week's polls. Why is Week 0 so different? Of course, if it was entirely up to me, I would not release any polls until the 5th or 6th week. Like I do on my blog. Because on my blog, it is entirely up to me.
Likelihood: 6
9. Limit coaches' salaries. I like the free market, don't get me wrong. I think that if the demand is there, the price should follow. However, the football coach should never ever ever be the highest paid university employee (or the basketball coach, either, for that matter. I'm looking at you, Kansas.) I would suppose that money comes with responsibility. Don't give me crap about the responsibilities of the football coach to win games, etc. That is not an added responsibility, that's the job description. No, the straw that makes me break with the "invisible hand" is the Ohio State - Jim Tressel mess. I'm not the only one who noticed the very strange way in which OSU president Gordon Gee said something to the effect of, "I just hope Jim Tressel doesn't fire me..." WTF of the offseason, without a doubt. The football coach either gets a salary like Tressel's and has the responsibility to be an upstanding member of the Athletic department, or he can stand under the Athletic Department and President's coattails and be paid like it. (Paid well, but not Nick Saban - $6 million - well.)
Likelihood: 1
8. Give the NCAA some teeth. The USC situation garnered the most action by the NCAA since SMU's death penalty. Good. They deserved it. Unfortunately, so does Ohio State and likely Auburn. USC was a good first step, but now the NCAA needs to come through. In today's world, if money changed hands, there IS a trail. The NCAA needs to have the guts to take on the shady dealings in college football. The next year and outcomes of the Tressel and Cam Newton situations will say a lot about the agency's resolve.
Likelihood: 8
7. Provide stipends to all NCAA athletes. This is NOT about paying athletes. I will be the first to come out against that practice. Paying athletes would not only breed corruption, having athletes as employees of the university, but it would be impossible to comply with Title IX (scholarships for men's and women's sports must be equal in amount, basically). Can you imagine what a s#*^storm there would be if it was decreed that football and basketball (men's only, of course) stars would be making, say, $5000 per semester (or whatever minimum wage would come to)? Then different schools could decide to pay differing amounts based on state law, and it would be an arms race just like we see with coaches. My plan would be to require that all scholarships for NCAA sports come with a stipend of say, $1500, for the season in which the sport is played. That might curtail some of the sleezy activity that may or may not be going on in athletic departments around the country cough*auburnalabama*cough.
6. Restore stigmas of playing FCS teams. This one is simple. No FBS school may play two FCS schools in a season, and a 6-6 team with a win over an FCS school may not be chosen for a bowl game before a 6-6 team without a FCS win. Example: Iowa State and Ohio both finish 6-6, but Iowa State has a win over FCS Northern Iowa, and Ohio's wins are all over fellow FBS schools. The Dallas Football Classic may NOT pick Iowa State to compete in the game if Ohio is still on the table.
Likelihood: 6
5. Make all non-conference games Home-and-Homes. Four teams this year (Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee and Pittsburgh) have 8 home games. One team (Army) has 4 home games, and 17 schools have just 5 home games. The four teams with 8 home games are all "Big Six" schools. 14 of the 17 schools with 5 home games are non-"Big Six"ers. And two of the three Big Sixers with 5 home games have neutral-site games. The Haves can continue to take from the Have-nots the income that comes from hosting a game. The best way to remedy this problem would be to guarantee that all non-conference games be scheduled as home-and-homes, or at the very least, a 2-for-1 deal. A major conference school visiting a non-AQ brings a "game of the year" type atmosphere. This year 23 AQ-teams play at non-AQ schools, including several top-25 teams: Virginia Tech at Marshall, Nebraska at Wyoming, and Oklahoma State at Tulsa.
Likelihood: 4
4. Have a basketball-like Conference Challenge. Let conferences (or ESPN, w/e) choose non-conference games to maximize exposure. Who doesn't love the idea of Kickoff Saturday featuring a dozen awesome matchups, instead of two (Oregon vs. LSU, Boise State vs. Georgia). Imagine a Big Ten (or B1G, as we are now encouraged to spell it) vs Pac-12 challenge: Ohio State-Oregon, Stanford-Wisconsin, Penn State-Utah on the first weekend? Or spread out the games over the first four weeks: Here's how I envision it:
Likelihood: 8
7. Provide stipends to all NCAA athletes. This is NOT about paying athletes. I will be the first to come out against that practice. Paying athletes would not only breed corruption, having athletes as employees of the university, but it would be impossible to comply with Title IX (scholarships for men's and women's sports must be equal in amount, basically). Can you imagine what a s#*^storm there would be if it was decreed that football and basketball (men's only, of course) stars would be making, say, $5000 per semester (or whatever minimum wage would come to)? Then different schools could decide to pay differing amounts based on state law, and it would be an arms race just like we see with coaches. My plan would be to require that all scholarships for NCAA sports come with a stipend of say, $1500, for the season in which the sport is played. That might curtail some of the sleezy activity that may or may not be going on in athletic departments around the country cough*auburnalabama*cough.
Likelihood: 9
6. Restore stigmas of playing FCS teams. This one is simple. No FBS school may play two FCS schools in a season, and a 6-6 team with a win over an FCS school may not be chosen for a bowl game before a 6-6 team without a FCS win. Example: Iowa State and Ohio both finish 6-6, but Iowa State has a win over FCS Northern Iowa, and Ohio's wins are all over fellow FBS schools. The Dallas Football Classic may NOT pick Iowa State to compete in the game if Ohio is still on the table.
Likelihood: 6
5. Make all non-conference games Home-and-Homes. Four teams this year (Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee and Pittsburgh) have 8 home games. One team (Army) has 4 home games, and 17 schools have just 5 home games. The four teams with 8 home games are all "Big Six" schools. 14 of the 17 schools with 5 home games are non-"Big Six"ers. And two of the three Big Sixers with 5 home games have neutral-site games. The Haves can continue to take from the Have-nots the income that comes from hosting a game. The best way to remedy this problem would be to guarantee that all non-conference games be scheduled as home-and-homes, or at the very least, a 2-for-1 deal. A major conference school visiting a non-AQ brings a "game of the year" type atmosphere. This year 23 AQ-teams play at non-AQ schools, including several top-25 teams: Virginia Tech at Marshall, Nebraska at Wyoming, and Oklahoma State at Tulsa.
Likelihood: 4
4. Have a basketball-like Conference Challenge. Let conferences (or ESPN, w/e) choose non-conference games to maximize exposure. Who doesn't love the idea of Kickoff Saturday featuring a dozen awesome matchups, instead of two (Oregon vs. LSU, Boise State vs. Georgia). Imagine a Big Ten (or B1G, as we are now encouraged to spell it) vs Pac-12 challenge: Ohio State-Oregon, Stanford-Wisconsin, Penn State-Utah on the first weekend? Or spread out the games over the first four weeks: Here's how I envision it:
*Game of the Week (College Gameday Location)
Saturday, September 3
Big 12 - SEC Challenge: Oklahoma vs LSU*
B1G - Pac12 Challenge: Penn State vs Utah
ACC - BEast Challenge: Miami vs Pitt (scheduled anyway, for later date)
Annual Boise State Invitational: Boise State vs Georgia (already scheduled)
Saturday, September 10
Big 12 - SEC Challenge: Texas A&M vs Arkansas (already scheduled, for later date)
B1G - Pac12 Challenge: Ohio State vs Oregon*
ACC-BEast Challenge: Florida State vs South Florida
Saturday, September 17
Big 12 - SEC Challenge: Texas vs Florida (the "Hey! We were good two years ago" challenge)
B1G - Pac12 Challenge: Stanford vs Wisconsin
ACC-BEast Challenge: Maryland vs Syracuse
Saturday, September 24
Big 12 - SEC Challenge: Oklahoma State vs Alabama*
B1G - Pac12 Challenge: Nebraska vs Arizona State
ACC-BEast Challenge: Virginia Tech vs West Virginia
Besides providing good TV and bragging rights, the conferences could be shifted around every year, on a rotating basis, so each conference gets to play all the others over the course of 5 year. So cool! And so not happening.
Likelihood: 2
3. Eliminate Pre-Bowl Monetary Agreements. Bowl games are extremely profitable endeavors... for the Bowl. The colleges that take part see little, if any of the profit. For example, UConn's reward for winning the Big East and getting a trip to the Fiesta Bowl was a net loss of over a million dollars. The problem is that the bowl games have pre-arranged with the schools to cover a certain number of tickets. The school must purchase that number of tickets and then attempt to re-sell them to ticket holders in order to recoup that cost. For too many schools, this does not happen, and the school is left holding the tab.
Likelihood: 6
2. Eliminate Tie-ins for Bowl Games. Too often, a bowl is contractually obligated to take a school that it doesn't want, for various reasons (think Nebraska v. Washington in the 2010 Holiday Bowl). Below the first couple of bowls for each conference, the rest should have provisions to take any team they want, regardless of conference once every two or three years. Such a simple provision would be easy to insert into contracts, and is good for the bowl and the schools involved. Why does this not happen???
Likelihood: 5
1. Playoff. There needs to be a college football playoff. There needs to be. Everyone knows it, even the presidents who are so invested in maintaining the status quo. They just like being comfortable, and a playoff would put a big damper on their posturing. My plan for a playoff would be to take the top 12 teams in the BCS standings and play them as follows:
First Round - December 19
1.1 #5 vs #12
1.2 #6 vs #11
1.3 #7 vs #10
1.4 #8 vs #9
Locations will be: Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl and will be rotated in picking order each year
For example, the Rose Bowl, which picks first, may choose to take the #6 vs #11 matchup because #6 is Stanford and #11 is Boise State, both West Coast schools. etc.
Second Round - January 1
2.1 #1 vs #8-#9 winner
2.2 #2 vs #7-#10 winner
2.3 #3 vs #6-#11 winner
2.4 #4 vs #5-#12 winner
Locations will be the same as the previous round: Game 1 in the Second Round would have the same location as 1.4 in Round One.
Semis - January 8
Winner of 2.1 vs Winner of 2.4
Winner of 2.2 vs Winner of 2.3
Locations would be rotated between the four bowl sites
Nat'l Championship - January 15
Winners of each Semi
Location would be rotated between the four sites
This would be awesome, would not interfere with school significantly more than the bowl system does already, and 12 is enough that number 13 can't really complain too much.
Likelihood: 5
So these are my thoughts on changing college football for the better. Hopefully some changes can be implemented to keep college football exciting, relevant, and fair.
3. Eliminate Pre-Bowl Monetary Agreements. Bowl games are extremely profitable endeavors... for the Bowl. The colleges that take part see little, if any of the profit. For example, UConn's reward for winning the Big East and getting a trip to the Fiesta Bowl was a net loss of over a million dollars. The problem is that the bowl games have pre-arranged with the schools to cover a certain number of tickets. The school must purchase that number of tickets and then attempt to re-sell them to ticket holders in order to recoup that cost. For too many schools, this does not happen, and the school is left holding the tab.
Likelihood: 6
2. Eliminate Tie-ins for Bowl Games. Too often, a bowl is contractually obligated to take a school that it doesn't want, for various reasons (think Nebraska v. Washington in the 2010 Holiday Bowl). Below the first couple of bowls for each conference, the rest should have provisions to take any team they want, regardless of conference once every two or three years. Such a simple provision would be easy to insert into contracts, and is good for the bowl and the schools involved. Why does this not happen???
Likelihood: 5
1. Playoff. There needs to be a college football playoff. There needs to be. Everyone knows it, even the presidents who are so invested in maintaining the status quo. They just like being comfortable, and a playoff would put a big damper on their posturing. My plan for a playoff would be to take the top 12 teams in the BCS standings and play them as follows:
First Round - December 19
1.1 #5 vs #12
1.2 #6 vs #11
1.3 #7 vs #10
1.4 #8 vs #9
Locations will be: Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl and will be rotated in picking order each year
For example, the Rose Bowl, which picks first, may choose to take the #6 vs #11 matchup because #6 is Stanford and #11 is Boise State, both West Coast schools. etc.
Second Round - January 1
2.1 #1 vs #8-#9 winner
2.2 #2 vs #7-#10 winner
2.3 #3 vs #6-#11 winner
2.4 #4 vs #5-#12 winner
Locations will be the same as the previous round: Game 1 in the Second Round would have the same location as 1.4 in Round One.
Semis - January 8
Winner of 2.1 vs Winner of 2.4
Winner of 2.2 vs Winner of 2.3
Locations would be rotated between the four bowl sites
Nat'l Championship - January 15
Winners of each Semi
Location would be rotated between the four sites
This would be awesome, would not interfere with school significantly more than the bowl system does already, and 12 is enough that number 13 can't really complain too much.
Likelihood: 5
So these are my thoughts on changing college football for the better. Hopefully some changes can be implemented to keep college football exciting, relevant, and fair.
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