Dear Fellow MAC Supporters,

I share the same passion and fight for equality as you. Please read my recent letter below to Coach Calhoun of the USAFA. It is time for us to bond together with other G5 schools and fight for equality and to save major college football. A "True" playoff system will generate more fan interest, much more revenue, and will provide both P5 and G5 schools with a fair representation to a national championship!

Wishing you all the very best in 2015 and beyond!

Go MAC!!! Go G5!!!

December 20, 2014

Troy Calhoun
Head Football Coach
United States Air Force Academy

RE: Football Bowl System (FBS) 16 Team Playoff System Proposal


Dear Coach Calhoun,

It is a pleasure and an honor to have this opportunity to write you this letter today. I appreciate and respect all that you do for your student athletes, and the statements you made recently about the atrocity of major college football – calling the current playoff system, “…un-American”. I couldn’t agree with you more! The current playoff and the former BCS are complete hypocrisies of what the NCAA stands for - Integrity and Equality as summarized in the NCAA’s Core Purpose and Core Values.

A fair and equitable playoff for all of the Football Bowl System (FBS) is what is needed, and it is long overdue as I trust you can agree. The following is an outline of a true playoff system that will promote collegiate equality and save major college football! This is a plan that will enhance our bowl system, create an equitable opportunity for all our student athletes, and generate an event unprecedented in all of college football!

Background
All collegiate sports, including all divisions within football, allow open competition on the playing field to determine a true national champion – except for FBS football! In all sports in the NCAA, if you win, you earn the right to keep playing. If you win your conference, you have a chance to compete for the ultimate goal of an NCAA championship. The NCAA has done a great job of promoting this equality and fairness in all other sports and all other divisions of football – including NCAA Division 1 basketball, so why not FBS football? Could you image the outcry in the NFL if a four team playoff was to replace the current system? Could you imagine a change in the NCAA Basketball tournament that would not allow a conference champion an automatic bid? The outcry would be monumental, not to mention the huge losses in revenue that would be incomprehensible.

The problem with the current system and the former BCS is simply this – they are not fair! Past history showcased the ineffectiveness of the BCS. When a TCU team could go 13-0, beat another AQ team like Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and not have had an opportunity to play for a championship, then we know there is a failed system. This year with the new four team playoff is just as flawed – TCU and Baylor are classic examples of the fall guy. The new playoff system will continue to propagate the disparity between the P5 and G5 conferences, and in my opinion is an infringement of justice and an antitrust matter. We need to change this system to save college football. How can we as a society continue to deny our young men the hope, and true opportunity to play for a championship? No one can say that a young man at Alabama works, prepares or practices harder or dreams bigger than a young man at Air Force, at Toledo, at Boise, at Marshall, at BYU, or at Navy, etc…

Playoff Plan
The plan is pretty simple and it will eliminate all controversy - a 16 team playoff. The winner of each conference (P5 and G5) is assured a spot, along with 6 at large bids. The 6 at-large spots can be determined through an AP/Coaches polling system. The playoff will start the week following conference championships, and the higher seeded school will host the first round game. This will be a large revenue boost for the higher seeded schools – essentially guarantying a first round home game sellout in the tournament. The winners of the first round games will then be plugged into the 4 major New Year’s Day Bowls – Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange. The winners will then play the following week with a national championship set the following week. This scenario will also preserve the other 35+ bowls. Attached is a sample playoff schedule of the teams from this past season (10 conference champions with 6 at large teams).

When considering a playoff, some may argue that there would be too many games played and it would hurt the student athlete. This would not be a problem. Teams typically have too much time off following the regular season prior to a bowl game. With a playoff, teams would have an opportunity to play the first round game the week following conference championships which would be the middle of December. This would give teams and fans 2 full weeks to prepare for the second round games on New Year’s Day. If the NCAA felt that there was a need to have an extra week at the end of the season for the playoff, then one less non-conference game could be played during the regular season – reducing the schedule to 11 games instead of 12. Also, the other divisions of football have a 16 team playoff system and it seems to work very well.

Benefits
A playoff with each conference represented would create energy and excitement from coast to coast that we have not seen in all the history of college football! Imagine the possibilities. A playoff would combine what is great with college basketball with the excitement of college football. The media buzz around the sport would reach new heights. We would get a chance to see the Davids vs. the Goliaths, the Cinderellas. The conference battles will be intensified. The common fan will be transformed and interest from small to large programs will be unparalled. The benefits will extend across each and every conference.

Every team in the FBS will have the realistic hope and dream of playing for a National Championship. Every team will enter each season knowing that how they perform on the field will determine how far they can go – not the name on the jersey or how big their stadium or conference is. It needs to be emphasized that this plan benefits the larger schools as much as the smaller schools, because it provides realistic access each and every year to less prominent teams in the larger conferences – teams such as Northwestern, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, North Carolina State, etc.. . Currently – that is just not the case, and the reality is that only a handful of P5 schools are considered for the national championship each year.

The beauty of a playoff system is that every game will be extra important during the regular season. Early non-conference games are important to keep a team’s hopes of reaching a high AP/Coaches Poll ranking to gain access by an at large bid, should the team not win its conference’s automatic bid. Conference games will be catapulted to the ultimate competitive level as teams scrape, claw and fight to win their conference for an automatic bid to the “big dance”! The regular season will be a playoff in itself – only more intense and more exciting than ever before. With increased interest comes increased revenue. Viewership and advertising will skyrocket. Similar to the NCAA Basketball “March Madness”, the FBS Football Playoff will be showcased in every household. Every fan, from small conference to large will be glued to their TVs!

Coach Calhoun – please contact me so we may start a journey together to transform FBS college football playoff into the purest and greatest sporting event in history! Thank you again for taking a stand and speaking out – this shows your true character as a man! Wishing you all the very best – and looking forward to talking with you soon!

Happy Holidays!

Here is the hypothetical bracket for reference

hope this one is easier to read

Love it. Do it.

Good luck with that.

I love it. Will never happen.

The best case (realistic) scenario for the MAC is that the CFP expands to 8 and the G5 gets one autobid. That's the closest we'll get to your proposal, even if it's the best solution.

The best the G5 can hope for is to get a team in an 8-team playoff by having a top 8 ranked team. The G5 will never get an auto bid to the big money. And I think we will see the 4-team playoff for more years than people think (or want). They locked it into the contract pretty well.

The G5 was better off having a seat at one of the 5 major bowls than it is now where it has no chance at the big games and the three other formerly major bowls are devalued. Should they go to 8 teams eventually, the P5 will not give any G5 conference an easy way in. In the unlikely event a G5 team could find itself ranked in the top 8, it might have a chance then. But it will be purely on perceived merit, not an automatic bid.

question for all the defeatists, aka those who think they are "realists"-

can you name another sports league besides FBS college football where none of the members of the league have a direct path to a championship? the corruption of classifying conferences as "P5" or "G5" is without equal in the sports world and should not be shrugged off with a "oh well, what can you do?" mentality. I'm glad to see someone taking a stand.

My only criticism of the letter is that it is too detailed, the details can be addressed after the major problem is addressed- FBS is a blatantly corrupt sports league that systemically discriminates against most of its members in favor of a chosen few. In my opinion there are 3 major issues that should be addressed-

1. Direct path to a championship. Every team in the league (FBS) should have a direct path to a championship without the aid of off the field influences (committees, polls, TV executives, etc.) FCS does, D1 basketball does, every other sports league in the world does it, no reason why FBS can't do it.
2. Equal league revenue share. creating groups of Haves (P5) and Have-Nots (G5) is unethical. No conference would ever consider sharing conference revenue on a 70/27 split, no pro sports league would ever do it either. Time to break the monopoly.
3. Coach salary caps. Pro leagues understand the need for salary caps in order to protect league wide competitiveness, FBS needs to follow suit.

NIU would have been a 15 or 16 looking back on it and OSU losing to Baylor looks unlikely if anyone watched the Sugar Bowl.

I'm simply trying to describe what I see, label it as you will, pp. The current playoff contract runs through 2023. The G5 conferences signed on for more money but less access to the top prize. The P5 conferences held the bargaining power and could have easily split off from the NCAA and simply reformed as their own entity. There simply is no basis for antitrust here. The big schools are the ones who create the giant profits and conferences like the MAC are happy to glom onto the deal in lieu of the alternative.

It's not about fairness of competition and hasn't been for quite a while. It's about money and that ship sailed years ago. If the G5 conferences want to change the status quo, they'll have to make a financial argument, not a football argument.

The amount of money the top 10% of the P5 schools bring to the table has overwhelmed the game. But nobody wants to pass up their share including the MAC, CUSA, etc. it was sign on or get left behind.

It's a very big TV show that the smaller conferences don't bring much to. The playoff system exacerbates the competitive problem for the G5, but they couldn't resist the money.

There are 2 reasons this will never happen. 1. ESPN 2. SEC, PAC12. BIG. BIG12 and ACC

ESPN has money and energy invested in the SEC myth. ESPN doesn't want to have to learn about conferences or teams outside the P5. Money wise a 16 team playoff would be a wash for ESPN. If this were to happen, ESPN may lose its monopoly on FBS FB. Having some other network or online competition for viewing rights will do wonders. ASN televised CUSA games this year, while not perfect, it was better than ESPN. They actually learned the players names and did some background before the telecast. Every break in action wasn't a 30 second add for the P5 games on later. FOX and NBC could also try to break the monopoly.

This would also include paying more to the G5 for TV rights because it would give the G5 some bargaining power.

The P5 conferences don't want to share revenue with the G5 other than body bag games.

While 100% of the G5 fans would love to see this happen, it wont. ESPN and the P5 don't want to give up any power.

I sort of wish the P5 would just leave the NCAA and become a semi-pro league. Then instead of having the G5 complain it will be the lower P5 schools that will die off. How long does Wake Forest, Vandy, Ill., NW, Cal and other bottom p5 team field a team going 0-12 every year. The P5 and ESPN are ruining college football.

The current 4-team playoff among mega-football factories does nothing for me.

What makes March Madness so intriguing is...

1. Every team that steps on the court on Day 1 has a shot at the NC if you control your business, even if the odds are really low.
2. Upsets are fun. Teams like Florida Gulf Coast and George Mason may not have won the whole enchilada, but they created great storylines. Same can happen in football. And no, OSU beating Alabama last week isn't some thrilling upset. Please.

Love to see the same thing happen in football. The playoff could be the 'March Madness' of sorts, and you can still have the one-off smaller bowls for those who didn't make the prime cut.

Love the idea but if you're giving each G5 champ an auto bid you probably have to expand the tournament to 24 teams for it to make sense.

A 16 team field in 2014 would include the P5 champs (Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor, Oregon, Alabama), the G5 champs (Memphis, Marshall, NIU, Boise State, Georgia Southern) and say the next 6 teams in the final College Football Playoff Rankings (TCU, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Arizona, Kansas State). The following teams would be left out due to inclusion of the G5 (Georgia Tech 10-3, Georgia 9-3, UCLA 9-3, Arizona State 9-3, Mizzou 10-3). That doesn't look like the best tournament you could possibly have.

Going to a 24 team field like FCS has would allow inclusion of the G5 champs plus the top 19 in the College Football Playoff Rankings (see below). Pretty much every worthy team gets in.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings

You can't expand this thing to that many times without reducing the number of regular season games. As it stands now with only a 4 team playoff, Oregon and O$U will have played 15 games. I don't see any way the school administrators will go for that.

Go to an 11-game season like last decade, and eliminate FCS games.

(01-09-2015 10:41 AM)NIU1981 Wrote:  Love the idea but if you're giving each G5 champ an auto bid you probably have to expand the tournament to 24 teams for it to make sense.

A 16 team field in 2014 would include the P5 champs (Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor, Oregon, Alabama), the G5 champs (Memphis, Marshall, NIU, Boise State, Georgia Southern) and say the next 6 teams in the final College Football Playoff Rankings (TCU, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Arizona, Kansas State). The following teams would be left out due to inclusion of the G5 (Georgia Tech 10-3, Georgia 9-3, UCLA 9-3, Arizona State 9-3, Mizzou 10-3). That doesn't look like the best tournament you could possibly have.

Going to a 24 team field like FCS has would allow inclusion of the G5 champs plus the top 19 in the College Football Playoff Rankings (see below). Pretty much every worthy team gets in.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings

The 16 team field you just posted looks fine. The GT's of the world will still get a 7-figure bowl, plus screw them, they've gotten more than their fair share already.

(01-09-2015 11:00 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  You can't expand this thing to that many times without reducing the number of regular season games. As it stands now with only a 4 team playoff, Oregon and O$U will have played 15 games. I don't see any way the school administrators will go for that.

Most FCS teams played 12 regular season games in 2014 along with a 24 team playoff so it can be done. I would say conference championship games would have to go.

- 10 conferences = 10 conference champs.

- rank conference champs 1-10*

- bottom 4 conference champs play play-in games (7v10, 8v9)

- 2 winners join top 6 in 8 team play offs.

done.

*all of the current BS regarding selection committees, polls, computer algorithms, etc. can be relegated to choosing the seeding of the tournament instead of choosing the participants, as it is under the current format.




some additional thoughts on details-
- A system is created to rank conferences based on OOC schedule. Teams are punished for scheduling buyout cupcakes, must play 50% of OOC on the road. no more FCS teams.
- This current P5/G5 70/27 revenue split is done. Every conference gets an equitable share with bonuses to conferences based on performance, not blood line and history.

- currently the length of time between the first conference championship game and the NCG is 6 weeks. This new format will fit in 6 weeks as well-

WK 1- Conferences ranked 7-10 play conference championship game. Conferences ranked 1-6 get a bye week.
WK2- Conferences ranked 1-6 play conf championship games. Champs from conferences 7-10 get bye week.
Wk3- Champs 7-10 play play-in games, champs 1-6 get second bye week.
WK4- 4 quarter final games are played
Wk5- 2 semi final games are played
WK6- Championship Game.

Urban Meyer was on Dan Patrick and asked about expansion. He is against it but said they would have to increase scholarship limits if they want to increase the number of games.