This is going to be a long one to read, but I really enjoy college football. Watching it self-destruct right before my very eyes us hard to watch. The NIL nonsense, the involvement of TV networks like ESPN, the new transfer rules, do not help the sport at all. The reality of it is, even a small school like Jackson State can pull in ANY player that they want if they get the right people to donate big money.
This is one man's opinion on how to save the sport...
It is actually hard to believe that these "so-called" institutions of higher learning are led by a bunch of fools. They are so greedy that they don't seem to realize that they are ruining the very sport that they are trying to promote. These same people when it comes to college basketball are geniuses. They have figured out a way to play nice with each other and have made the quest into determining a national champion a month long event (March Madness), that generates tens of millions of dollars to all involved.
When it comes to the sport of college football, a sport that they all would agree generates the majority of each school's athletic budget, they can't seem to see past the end of their nose. The greed and arrogance of the "Power 5 schools" is laughable. Conference's of 15, 20, 25 teams will never work. Do you think that a power hungry, arrogant jagoff's like Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and Briann Kelly will want to play a schedule that involves schools like Florida, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas A&M each year??? Do you think they will be happy with a 8-4 record each year? I can't see that happening. Can you imagine the two teams in a National Championship game having 4+ loses?? It is certainly possible if the "Power 5 schools" continue down the path they are currently on.
What can be done?? One example is this...
The entire sport needs to come together and focus it's attention on what is good for the sport. Create a true playoff format that determines the sports National Champion on the field. A playoff format that involves 16 teams would work well. The first thing that needs to happen is the formation of these huge conferences needs to stop.
Right now, according to ESPN, there are 130 NCAA D-I football programs. These schools, ALL of them, need to be realigned into 13 conferences of 10 teams. The winner of each of these conferences, receives a spot in the playoffs. A committee would determine the other 3 "Wild Card" spots. That same committee determines the seedings for the playoffs, just like they do now in college basketball. I know that some may say that a school from a smaller conference would have no chance against a Power 5 school and history has shown us that is wrong. Remember Appalachian State taking down Michigan a couple of years ago???
For those who say that is to many games for these "kids" to play, I say no way. Right now the 2 teams in the National Championship game will have played 15 games by the end of the game. College football teams can eliminate 1 game form their current schedules. leaving each school with 11 regular season games. Every Power 5 school has a game against a lower level program on their schedule, just cut that game off of each teams schedule.
A 16 team playoff, would mean an additional 4 games for each team that would play in the final game. That would equal the same amount of game that they play now. For those "college football purists", open up the bidding to the bowl game committees and the 15 highest bids get to hold the "Playoff Games" at their locations. The bowl with the highest bid gets to host the National Championship game. Don't you think that this would generate HUGE amounts of money for the sport each year??? All of the money that is generated by a "Winter Wonderland" of college football would be dispersed in a manner similar to the way that the money generated by March Madness is done now.
The aforementioned conferences would each play 9 regular season conferences games and have the ability to schedule 2 games against teams from outside their conference. The formation of these conferences should be done in a commonsense manner involving a teams geographic location. There will no longer be "independent programs" like Notre Dame. They will have to join a league just like everyone else. Who determines which teams join which conference? That is something that an NCAA committee can do.
I know that this is something that will never happen, but can you just imagine the excitement and money that college football would generate each year with something like this? It would be bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year and that money would be dispersed to each of the 130 D-I schools.
Something like this could save the sport.
This is one man's opinion on how to save the sport...
It is actually hard to believe that these "so-called" institutions of higher learning are led by a bunch of fools. They are so greedy that they don't seem to realize that they are ruining the very sport that they are trying to promote. These same people when it comes to college basketball are geniuses. They have figured out a way to play nice with each other and have made the quest into determining a national champion a month long event (March Madness), that generates tens of millions of dollars to all involved.
When it comes to the sport of college football, a sport that they all would agree generates the majority of each school's athletic budget, they can't seem to see past the end of their nose. The greed and arrogance of the "Power 5 schools" is laughable. Conference's of 15, 20, 25 teams will never work. Do you think that a power hungry, arrogant jagoff's like Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and Briann Kelly will want to play a schedule that involves schools like Florida, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas A&M each year??? Do you think they will be happy with a 8-4 record each year? I can't see that happening. Can you imagine the two teams in a National Championship game having 4+ loses?? It is certainly possible if the "Power 5 schools" continue down the path they are currently on.
What can be done?? One example is this...
The entire sport needs to come together and focus it's attention on what is good for the sport. Create a true playoff format that determines the sports National Champion on the field. A playoff format that involves 16 teams would work well. The first thing that needs to happen is the formation of these huge conferences needs to stop.
Right now, according to ESPN, there are 130 NCAA D-I football programs. These schools, ALL of them, need to be realigned into 13 conferences of 10 teams. The winner of each of these conferences, receives a spot in the playoffs. A committee would determine the other 3 "Wild Card" spots. That same committee determines the seedings for the playoffs, just like they do now in college basketball. I know that some may say that a school from a smaller conference would have no chance against a Power 5 school and history has shown us that is wrong. Remember Appalachian State taking down Michigan a couple of years ago???
For those who say that is to many games for these "kids" to play, I say no way. Right now the 2 teams in the National Championship game will have played 15 games by the end of the game. College football teams can eliminate 1 game form their current schedules. leaving each school with 11 regular season games. Every Power 5 school has a game against a lower level program on their schedule, just cut that game off of each teams schedule.
A 16 team playoff, would mean an additional 4 games for each team that would play in the final game. That would equal the same amount of game that they play now. For those "college football purists", open up the bidding to the bowl game committees and the 15 highest bids get to hold the "Playoff Games" at their locations. The bowl with the highest bid gets to host the National Championship game. Don't you think that this would generate HUGE amounts of money for the sport each year??? All of the money that is generated by a "Winter Wonderland" of college football would be dispersed in a manner similar to the way that the money generated by March Madness is done now.
The aforementioned conferences would each play 9 regular season conferences games and have the ability to schedule 2 games against teams from outside their conference. The formation of these conferences should be done in a commonsense manner involving a teams geographic location. There will no longer be "independent programs" like Notre Dame. They will have to join a league just like everyone else. Who determines which teams join which conference? That is something that an NCAA committee can do.
I know that this is something that will never happen, but can you just imagine the excitement and money that college football would generate each year with something like this? It would be bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year and that money would be dispersed to each of the 130 D-I schools.
Something like this could save the sport.