Here we are, on the last days of the college football season. Yes, that’s right, 16 days after the CFP Semifinal games we will get the championship game on Monday night. Not only do we have to wait 16 days in between the Semifinal and the Championship we had to wait 21 days from the end of Championship Weekend until the Semifinals.
The schedule has been so bad that there will be 3 NFL Sundays between the Semifinals and the Championship game. Now, this an anomaly to this year. Many will remember that the CFP was arrogant that it believed people would change their New Year’s Eve plans and watch college football and when it was embarrassed they were left scrambling to change things but due to contracts and bids, this year got stuck. This is truly only one of many ways that the sport that I love the most is broken.
I have a few ways on how to fix the schedule and other issues that plague this great sport.
The first thing I would do is reduce the number of scholarships per team from 85 to 80. In doing so, it would better distribute the talent across more schools. If you think that the talent is already equally distributed think again. 24/7 Sports has 28 5 star recruits across the country. Of those 28, 23 players have committed to 11 schools. Clemson has 6 alone.
Reducing the number of scholarships isn’t going to stop where the top-end talent is going to go. However, it will allow other schools to get in on some of the development players that have been going to other schools.
Staying with recruiting, I would limit each recruiting class to 20 players each year. The current NCAA rule allows for each program to sign 25 recruits per academic year. I would also get rid of the blue shirt and grey shirt rules. For those unfamiliar with these rules, in a nutshell, they are rules that allow programs to sign players and not allow them to count against the current years recruiting class.
Instead, these 2 rules allow programs to push the scholarship to the next season while the player is actually enrolled in school and allowed to participate in the strength and conditioning program and get acclimated to school while not counting against the scholarships.
I would enact the NIL rule as quickly as possible. Now, I actually believe that enacting the name, image, and likeness rules is going to be a boon for some Mid Major programs. The NIL is not going to affect the top-end talent, they are going to continue going to the Alabama’s Clemson’s and Ohio State’s. However, what if you are that midlevel 4-star player and you have a chance to go to Tuscaloosa, of Auburn, or Norman. Not exactly giant media markets.
However, if you are that same 4-star player and can go to a University of Houston, or UCF located in Orlando, or Rutgers located in the New York City media market, or Maryland located in the Washington D.C market. A big name is always going to garner national attention wherever they go and the endorsements will follow. But, if you don’t have that name, but you make some noise in those places, because of the sizes of those media markets, players will be able to get local endorsements and take advantage. And if you are that top player, maybe the New York media market calls to you and the player makes a business decision even before he begins school.
The schedule has to change in so many ways. There are discrepancies in the number of conference games each conference plays. Some conferences have rules where the member schools are not allowed to play FCS schools.
The schedule rules need to be universal. The schedule rules will be as follows 1) The regular season will still continue to play 12 games. 2) No team in FBS will be permitted to play FCS schools. 3) Each conference will be required to 8 conference games and 4 OOC games. 4) Each P5 school will be required to play at least one other P5 program each year. These rules will not only level the playing field between conferences, but it will also help ticket sales.
There will no longer be “buy” games that each that season ticket holders are required to pay for and make a few attractive games that might boost ticket sales.
The CFP will be expanded from the current format of 4 teams to 8 teams. The 8 participants will be the 5 P5 conference champions, 1 G5 representative, and 2 wild card teams. The reason for this is to open up the field so everyone can get a shot. It is intended to battle the regionalization of an already super regionalized sport. Doing this will guarantee that the entire country is invested in college football. It also makes the conference title games a de-facto playoff game.
Those arguing that the G5 shouldn’t have a representative and that they’ll get embarrassed? Well, do you think that Memphis could have done worse than Oklahoma against LSU? Regionalization is slowly killing college football. The western part of the United States has been included only 2 times. The first rounds of the playoffs will be held at the lower seeds home field, two weeks after the conference title games. The new Semifinals will be held at the now New Year 6 sites the week of Christmas.
That allows the Championship Game to be held on New Years Day at a floating site. Now, what this requires is that the arrogance of the Rose and Sugar be humbled. It requires these Bowls to understand that they are standing in the way of progress. They believe that THEY are college football, when in all honesty, since the CFP came into existence, they have become nothing but glorified exhibition games.
If they do not want to get on board with the new schedule cut them out. And see where the SEC and the B10 decide to go.
