A repost from Nov. 2015. With the interest in a smaller and more competitive Division One, here is a plan that would work.
I have never thought of college football at the highest level as having a fair process of “choosing” a National Championship team. With money at the top of the list of reasons, the universities and their leadership, from the presidents of said institutions through the different governing bodies (NCAA for one) down to the sponsors and money changers (that include the corporations and bowl committees), college football has been a fraud. Picking teams to “have” a chance to win a National Championship from men and women on committees, or from polls of coaches and sports writers, continues to muddy the waters of a “true on-the-field champion.” That should be accomplished through play on the field and not in someone mind as an opinion. Every team at the highest level should have an opportunity to be the National Champion, no matter of past history or feel from the “choosers”. Until we get to a system as I propose in this article, all National Championships won by every school from day one back when Rutgers took the field in 1800’s is a tainted title, one that can be disputed, and most often is by the schools that were considered “not passing the eye test” of being worthy to participate. Can you say TCU 2014?
My football system would consist of 72 teams; they must make the cut of attendance statistics and size of stadium, program brand, and money put forth to participate at the highest level. The teams that I include in my system can be changed out after a five year run, and if certain teams do not make the criteria of being worthy of a Top 72 team ranking, they could and would be replaced, again, after that initial five year run. That gives up and coming schools/programs an opportunity to get into that highest group. The 73rd school would join another “class” of schools that could and would decide how they crown an additional National Champion on their level of play. Fact of the matter, you just cannot say you play college football at the highest level, you have to prove it. Basically, things are not written in stone on the Top 72 and that gives schools that want to try to get into the highest group a fair opportunity to replace a program that is not cutting the mustard.
To make the top 72 minimum requirements are not that hard to meet if the school and their brand is significant to play at the highest level with support from their school/administration/fan base. Four (4) conferences of 18 teams divided into two (2) nine team divisions.
The conferences: The Power Midwest, the Power South, the Power Heartland and the Power West The traditional conferences would still exist in other sports but for the highest level of varsity football, no.
The winner of each of the eight divisions (of the four conferences) would make the True College Footballl playoffs and play in one of the four quarter final games (as selected by lottery for participation and site). Winners would play in two National Semi-final games (as selected as by lottery for opponent and site), and one National Championship Game for the semi-final winners. The Championship game would rotate be in the rotation of sites each year. Sites of all seven games include: Dallas, Atlanta, Pasadena, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, Indianapolis. (Again, all teams would be picked by draw, quarter and semi-final rounds.)
All teams would play twelve games (regular season), eight in-conference games and four non-conference games that would have no bearing on conference titles to make the playoff system. This allows teams to play a better non-conference schedule that could and would include intersectional rival games. All non-division games would be scheduled by the schools themselves. Ranking systems could still have polls but they would not have any thing to do with the final eight schools for the playoffs. Example, Oklahoma and Texas would both be in the Heartland Conference but in different divisions, but the OU/UT game would still be played the second weekend in October. All inter-divisional games would be played in the final eight weeks of the regular season with the first four non-conference games played before that the sixth week.
All teams of the 72 will play eight in-division conference games that would constitute how we get to the eight playoff contenders. Win the division and you are in. Games outside the division do not have a bearing on the division title. Again there would be eight division champions, with head to head determining the champion in case of a tie. In a three-way tie, the point differential between the three teams would be the decider, and in case of a tie in that scenario, you would again go back to head to head with the two that remained tied. In case of a three way tie after point differential, the least points allowed would be followed by the most points scored, and finally, a coin flip. (I do not think you would ever get to that coin flip as the odds of that happening are probably a billion to one.)
Minimum Requirements
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An existing member of a Power Five school or a invitation by the Commissioner’s committee of five.
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Requirements for invitation: For those that are not from a Power Five school, the five year attendance of possible schools would be ranked. A school would also have to have a minimum stadium seating capacity of 40,000.
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A minimum dollar amount dedicated to the football program as determined by the lowest dollar amount spend on the football program of lowest Power Five school. This would make sure that any school added to the proposed conferences would have a dedicated amount to participate in the top echelon of schools.
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All conferences (four) would have a commissioner that would have one vote in decision making with one overall head commissioner that would rotate from the four sections where the four conferences come from….making a total of five voting heads, allowing for decisions to always be on the odd number with no abstentions on voting.
The Conferences and their schools would be as follows:
The Power Mideast Conference
Division A: Ohio State Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota, , Notre Dame, Syracuse
Division B: Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Indiana, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Boston College
Power South Conference
Division A: Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Duke, Florida State, Miami (Fla), Georgia Tech,
Division B: LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, North Carolina State, Clemson, Florida, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest
Power Heartland Conference
Division A: Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Louisville, Memphis, Missouri
Division B: Texas A&M, Texas, Texas Christian, Baylor, Texas Tech, Central Florida, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Temple
Power West Conference
Division A: USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona, Utah, BYU, Colorado, Fresno State, Houston
Division B: Washington State, Washington, Boise State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, East Carolina, Colorado State
Again, schools must have a 40,000 seat stadium and attendance will be monitored for compliance as the schools that have the lowest home attendance are subject to be replaced. The non-Power schools accepted in year one into the system are: Memphis, Colorado State, Fresno State, East Carolina, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Temple, BYU, and Boise State.
Please Note: The placement in the divisions in this article can be changed and would be changed, I am sure if it was to be implemented. This is just a system to get to an on-the-field way to get one true National Championship team.
Fred I read with interest once again your attempt to settle the ongoing dilemma I face as a fan of college football. First off thank you for giving it the old college try as they say. Unfortunately the committees, AD’s NCAA and sponsors are so busy racking in the dollars that they don’t see the benefits of the larger picture, which is a true National Champion. The NCAA secretively added a 12 game years ago and then added a Conference Championship and then added a semi-final and final to placate the casual fan of the game and continued to rake in the millions. Quickly I will explain what happens in Canada, and this is by no means a comparison, but works very well without questions beyond winning on the field. Like your suggestion the country is divided into 4 sections. Those 4 sections play each team within their Conference and then play to win the Conference. Easy 4 winners who rotate the semi final opponent each year to create equal opportunity. My suggestion for the NCAA would be a Premiership of 40 teams, much like soccer, that has no ties , like you suggested to any Conferences. You have to play teams only in the Premiership and one rival game allowed if they are out of the Premier Conference. You are not allowed to play any division lower, FCS, DivII or other cupcake games to boost attendance or create a bye situation as it now stands. Then during the conclusion of the playoffs, you would 5 teams out of the Premier Conference and 5 upper echelon teams into a top spot. Stop telling TCU, Boise State , Northern Illinois and Western Michigan that they are relevant and not let them play for a National Title based on some fictional series of games against lesser opponents, when the Non-power Five Conferences literally have no choice in the 9 games they play inside their Conference. My new system allows the best to play the best and the cream rises to the top and the ten game schedule allows for better than 4 team playoff. I know this was a lengthy note, but thank you for taking the time to listen. Cheers Casey Ciere Hamilton Ontario Canada
thank you for your response……totally appreciated and you have some very good thoughts on the matter.
Fred, great article and thoughts. I personally believe there is room for 88 teams. That would give you eight 11 team Districts and I would be happy to send you my breakdown of districts if you’d like. The 11 team districts would require a complete round robin with the top two teams playing a championship game. You’d still have out of district games and you could still structure the schedule around traditional rivalries.
New Division: their would be nearly 50 teams to create a new division. If you blend that with the higher lever FCS schools you could create an incredibly competitive division which would have its own championship
Let’s talk finances:
The last Final Four contract was 22 years at $20B. NCAA football generates nearly 4x’s more revenue than Basketball. TV contract money is harder to actualize because of the bowls and independent TV contracts by conference. Let’s assume a 16 team playoff would generate only a 4x multiple but some individuals I’ve spoken with estimated that TV contract could be nearly 20x’s that of basketball Final Four. That would be nearly $45MM on top of their current revenue that averages nearly $36MM now.
A 16 team playoff could begin the 2nd or 3rd Friday of December and conclude before the NFL playoffs starts and the athletes would miss nearly no school because of Xmas break.
So many more ways to discuss this but it would work and the money would be mind blowing
Please send. I put together my system in less than an hour and I know it is just one system of many that could improve the way we get a champion with fidelity.
Did Auburn get rid of theor football program in this scenario?
when I did the list I put some error eggs into the blog to see if anyone could find them…..congratulations.
First of all thanks for the insight; however, it will never happen because it makes to much sense. I’m getting tired of seeing the same old 3-4 teams in the playoffs each year and I think the majority of college football fans are feeling the same way. This is why so many players opt out of bowl season because there’s really nothing to play for unlike NCAA basketball or baseball were 64 teams have a shot and more than not you don’t have the same final four teams each year. I had a similar thought on changes by setting it up more like the NFL with two conference and 8 divisions. You can do 6 teams in each division you play every one in your division and 6 teams from another division with all teams playing against the same division. The 12th game could be the FCS school or essentially the preseason game. Each year the divisions rotate to play another division this way there’s no dodging teams. 16 team playoffs like the NFL.
Appreciate your post Darryl. Maybe one day we will have a system that treats all teams fairly and not with some sort of eye test or past history as of their brand.