What I want:
I want a new division in football that *only* includes 64 schools. There will be a 14 week regular season and an eight team playoff. The eight teams chosen will be picket by picking the top team out of eight different eight team conferences. The 14 week regular season will occur by adding a week to the beginning of the season (before students arrive) and by adding a game at the end of the season (by playing games during what is now championship week). The timing of the eight team playoff will work like the new system, in that the last four games will be played at the same time as the current Football Final Four, and the time will be made for the Football Elite Eight by playing games during the now otherwise vacant Army-Navy game week. Aside from the eight team playoff, there will still be a meaningless bowl system, like there is now. As far as season mechanics go, I envision a system where every school avoids the awkwardness of playing an opening week without a student section by opening at a neutral location as a way to give players exciting memories, spread the school's name, appeal to recruits, or to play in an area where many of the students live (i.e. Notre Dame might open in Boston, Syracuse might open in NYC, Texas might open in Dallas, and LSU might open in New Orleans, and Texas A&M might open in Houston). Furthermore, each school will be allowed to schedule 1-2 teams that were "left behind" much like FBS teams can schedule FSU teams now. Other than that, the schedule would look like this: each school would have 3 games that they could schedule any way that they wanted (i.e. one perm rival, one lower level game, and one random opponent), each school would have 7 division games, and each school would have 4 assigned games from half of another division, so that every school would play every other school every 14 years. In order to keep things competitive and exciting, CFB would take a page out of the NFL playbook and equally distribute revenue (i.e. hoe the “Football Four” revenue is currently set to be distributed). Certain programs would still have advantages due to the perk of getting to play top tier teams every year based on division setups, but those advantages would manifest themselves into financial advantages through ticket sales, merchandising, and bowl payouts, plus there would be indirect financial advantages like more publicity, better time slots, and so on, but there would not be any advantages from direct TV payouts. Also, to avoid injuries/liability, players would only be allowed to play in 13 games/yr. However, the number of scholarships would be increased accordingly (by 20ish). Finally, teams would also be allowed to pay athletes a stipend of a couple thousand dollars a year ($3k?).
Since regional rivalries would be preserved, fan interest would be ignited (better ratings, and better attendance), so there would be more money in the pot for the vast majority of the chosen 64.
The divisions would be as follows:
NORTHEASTERN
BC, SU, PSU, Pitt, ND, UMD, WVU, and VPI
ATLANTIC
UVA, UNC, NCSU, Duke, WF, Clemson, USC (east), and GT
SOUTHEASTERN
UTk, UGA, UF, UA, AU, ‘Ole Miss, MSU, and LSU
MIDWESTERN
OSU, MSU, UM, UW, UMn, Purdue, IU, and UI
SOUTHERN
UK, KU, KSU, MIZZOU, FSU, Miami, Vanderbilt, and Louisville (I would trade ISU and Iowa for FSU and Miami, but that would throw off the competitive balance)
SOUTHWESTERN
TAMU, UTex, OU, OSU, Nebraska, Iowa, ISU, and Arkansas (I would trade ISU and Iowa for FSU and Miami, but that would throw off the competitive balance)
INLAND
ASU, ‘Zona, Colorado, Utah, BYU, Tex Tech, Baylor, and TCU
PACIFIC
USC (west), UCLA, Stanford, Cal, UW, WSU, Oregon, and OSU
For example, Texas Tech’s schedule might look like this:
UTex (in San Antonio), SMU (bought FCS-like game), @TAMU, Baylor, @TCU, ASU, @‘Zona, Colorado, @Utah, BYU, @Mich, Wisc, @Minn, and Purdue , then, if TT has a wining record, either a bowl or entrance to the eight team playoff.
NOTE: There are currently 64 power schools plus BYU and ND (66 total), so I had to drop 2. I chose NW and Rutgers. I would have picked WF over Rutgers, but that would cause an uproar from UNC, Duke, NCSU, and possibly schools like UVA and Clemson. If Rutgers is included at the expense of WF, put VPI in the Atlantic so they take WF’s spot and bring up Rutgers to take VPI’s spot.
(This post was last modified: 12-28-2013 11:13 PM by nzmorange.)
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