With the latest news that Texas and Oklahoma threw a hand grenade into the Big-12 (not the first time that has happened) and decided to move into the football powerhouse of the SEC, we have reached a jump the shark moment in the world of conference based, college football. Yes, just like the Fonz waterskiing in his leather jacket off the southern California coast, it’s time to put this thing to bed and move forward. This college football conference thing needs to become a thing of the past.
College football, and as a result, college sports overall, has gone through a whirlwind of realignments in the past 2 decades. The results have benefitted a few and screwed over dozens of others. The goal is no longer a competitive league with similar schools based on academics and/or geography. The goal is getting the biggest piece possible of that ever-expanding, financial pie. I get it. It’s a huge pie. I like pie. I’m all for capitalism, but we need a few guardrails before Florida St. and Washington are conference “rivals” in softball.
Adding in the Sooners and Longhorns, the new SEC will swell to 16 teams covering a quarter of the country. The PAC (as in Pacific) 12 has 2 schools not even in the right time zone, and don’t get me started with the Atlantic COAST Conference with teams in Syracuse and South Bend. Plus, there is the Big-10 which has obviously given up on numerical accuracy. Who’s next? Who knows, but there is more to come. Remember there is money at play here.
One suggestion presented by college basketball analyst (and Duke guy) Jay Bilas is for the ACC to jump on the phone today and try to create an ACC/SEC super league. That’s a conference with 30+ teams. If this sounds ridiculous, it is at first glance, but Bilas has a very valid point. If you want to survive as a credible (and money making) division-1 college sports program, you better be thinking about a way to join the haves, or in a couple of years, you’ll be a have not. If the SEC expands some more, Bilas’ alma mater could become a have not. Duke won’t be among the top-5 ACC schools that the SEC may want to poach. The SEC would much rather have Clemson, Notre Dame, or Miami on their gridiron. Remember this is about football money. So what can be done? I’m so glad you asked. College football fans around the globe gather round. I have fixed the sport we know and love. Read on.
Maybe it's spurred on by my binge watching of the show Ted Lasso, but I can fix college sports before we roll into one giant 87 school super league called the SEACBig42PacofAmerica. Let me introduce you to what they do in the world of European football. You know, that thing we call soccer.
Here’s the step by step plan to bring sanity (of some sort) back to college sports.
Step -1 - Pull every D-1 college football team out of every conference and create your own College Football Union, the CFU for short. Let the college presidents figure out how to get back to traditional conferences of 8-10 teams for every other sport. That will allow field hockey, soccer, tennis and all other teams to live within a normal league that doesn’t require road games 1400 miles away (think the old ACC which stretched from Maryland to Georgia Tech).
Step - 2 -Create a football-only, tiered system for the 130 or so division-1 football programs. Here’s how it would look:
Tier - 1 - The top 24 teams in the country. For our first season, this can be determined on a ranking system based off the top-25 season ending polls from the past 5 seasons. I know this will lead to a bloodsport among college presidents and administrators of who is in and who isn’t, but don’t we already do this every year when it comes to who gets a bowl bid and who gets into the playoff? You guys are smart and well paid. Figure it out.
Tier - 2 - Teams 25-48
Tier - 3 - Teams 49-72
Tier - 4 - Teams 73-96
Tier - 5 - Everybody else
Step - 3 - Break these Tiers into 4 divisions. Based on the final rankings from 2019 (our last season before COVID), this is a rough look at what that could be. Forget geographic alignment. It doesn’t matter anymore.
Step - 4 - Each team plays an 11 game schedule. 5 games vs the other teams in their division, 4 more against other teams in their tier, and 2 games for whatever. Those last 2 extra games are based on school choice. If Ohio St and Michigan want to keep their rivalry alive, but one team is still in Tier-1 while the other has slipped into Tier -2, you can still schedule that game. If Bama still wants to schedule New Mexico State as an early season tune-up, the Tide still can. However, there will be a point system used if a tiebreaker is needed at the end of the regular season that awards points based on your schedule. A Tier-1 game gets you 3 points. A Tier-2 game gets you 2 and so on. This encourages a tougher schedule for those who are worried about falling out of their Tier. If your really want that easier game, roll the dice, but earning less points with a lower Tier-3 on your schedule could bite you at season’s end when it comes to making the playoffs or worse, relegation (to be explained later).
Step -5 - The playoffs. Each division winner and 4 Wild Cards advance to an 8 team/ 3 weekend playoff culminating in a national title game. We all know how this works, and we’re moving towards an 8 team playoff anyway. Keep the first 2 rounds as home games for the better seed and a title game in some random stadium that packs in 100 thousand people. That’s 3 awesome weekends of post-season college football.
Step - 6 - What about the other teams? Don’t worry, they get to play too. The bottom 4 teams in their Tier also compete in a playoff with the winner staying in their Tier and the 3 losers getting RELEGATED. For those non-international football watchers, that means 3 teams drop down to the lower Tier.
For example, if Memphis, Minnesota, Auburn and Navy finish as the 4 worst teams in Tier-1, they play a 2 weekend tourney for the right to stay in Tier-1. This can be played on the same weekends as the championship playoff. So, let’s say in the first weekend of this scenario Auburn beats Memphis, while Minnesota beats Navy, and the following weekend Auburn beats Minnesota, the fans on the plains of Auburn can breathe easy. Auburn stays in tier-1 while Memphis, Minnesota, and Navy drop to Tier-2. Would you rather watch a meaningless Pinstripe or Gator Bowl over the holiday season or multiple teams fighting for something meaningful like their spot in Tier-1? The days of mailing in a boring bowl game would be history.
Step -7 - If 3 teams go down a Tier, who goes up? That takes us to Tier-2. Tier-2 also plays an 8 team playoff after the regular season. Under the same format, the 2 teams that make the Tier-2 title game and the one team that loses in the Tier-2 semifinals, but comes back the next weekend to win the Tier-2 consolation game all move up to fill the spots vacated by those moving down.
In this hypothetical Tier-2 final-4, we have Michigan St. vs Stanford and Iowa St vs Texas A&M. Michigan St. and Texas A&M advance to the final with the Spartans winning the Tier-2 title. Woo Hoo! Go Sparty; put a Tier-2 title banner in the gym. Meanwhile, Stanford beats Iowa St to clinch 3rd place. The Spartans, Aggies, and Cardinal all move up to Tier-1 for the next season replacing Memphis, Minnesota, and Navy who move down. The Tigers, Gophers, and Midshipmen need to finish in the top-3 of Tier-2 next season if they want back into Tier-1. That’s a lot to play for. The same system stays in place for Tier-2 relegation and Tiers 3, 4 and 5.
So what have I done here? I’ve saved college football, and I’ve created a much more compelling football postseason. Between the 7 Tier-1 playoff games, the 3 Tier-1 Relegation games, and the 8 Tier-2 playoff games, you now have 18 extremely compelling college football postseason games with a ton on the line (that doesn’t include the Tier-2 Relegation games or anything in Tiers 3,4,& 5). How does that matchup with the current bowl system? Seriously, how does that compare to the Sun, Belk, or Redbox bowls of years gone by? I know. I didn’t watch them either.
I’ve also made life better for every gymnast from West Virginia (and every athlete in every other sport) who currently has to travel to Waco, TX for a “conference” meet at Baylor which is 1300+ miles away. Wouldn’t a meet for a Mountaineer in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Louisville be more logical? I’ll answer, YES. Plus mom and dad can see some of their kid’s road games on a day's drive.
The rest of the college sports programs would also save substantial money in their travel budget while readjusting to leagues that aren’t based on what conference is best for the football team. Regional rivalries could be rekindled in other sports outside of football, and the world would be a more glorious place.
So, will this idea become a reality? Probably not, because unlike so many things that happen in college sports, this idea makes sense. However, it was worth a shot. Now where can I get a PAC39 sweatshirt? That's my new favorite league, since they just landed Seton Hall.
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