Presumably, in these comments Bowlsby meant that they are looking at extending the CFB regular season to a total of 14 weekends prior to the CCG weekend, while only playing 12 games not including a CCG. No chance that they're going to delay the start of bowl games another week, so if enacted the first "regular" weekend of the FBS season would be the weekend before the Labor Day weekend.

In addition to the issues mentioned by Bowlsby, some might be hesitant about this rule change because of the likelihood of weaker ticket sales for games played in August.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...ams-picked

Quote:The Council also spent time discussing what a mandatory 14-date season could look like, with the idea that every team could have two bye weeks in a season to help decrease the amount of injuries. Every FBS conference has a representative who will look at different scheduling models.

"It's a lot easier to say 14 playing dates than it is to get there because when you overlay traditional rivals that have to play every year, and you don't want to have somebody have two byes in a row, and there are those who play in divisions, those who play eight games, those who play nine, it's not an easy solution," he said. "We have to do some modeling around what it could look like for all of the different conferences. There is some evidence that injuries will be lessened without having to play 12 weeks in a row."

As a fan, I don't like the double-bye season. It does not flow well, and there are too many off weeks in October, which is the idea month weather wise to be playing. It just seems so dumb to have a beautiful day in October and your team is off. Plus during double bye seasons, it seems like either your team is always playing a team that just came off a bye or your team just came off a bye.

Plus Bowlsby comments says you get more injuries if you play 12 games in a row. In a single bye season, you don't play 12 games in a row. And if injuries were such a concern, they should have stayed at 11 games.

As a G5 fan it gives the G5 school more flexibility in scheduling.

It would be nice for BYU, Army, UMass, NMSU who could have their byes set later in the season.

(06-29-2016 08:34 PM)goofus Wrote:  As a fan, I don't like the double-bye season. It does not flow well, and there are too many off weeks in October, which is the idea month weather wise to be playing. It just seems so dumb to have a beautiful day in October and your team is off. Plus during double bye seasons, it seems like either your team is always playing a team that just came off a bye or your team just came off a bye.

Plus Bowlsby comments says you get more injuries if you play 12 games in a row. In a single bye season, you don't play 12 games in a row. And if injuries were such a concern, they should have stayed at 11 games.

well 7 of the 14 Big Ten teams this season have byes in October. Another 3 have byes on Sep 24.

(06-29-2016 08:45 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:34 PM)goofus Wrote:  As a fan, I don't like the double-bye season. It does not flow well, and there are too many off weeks in October, which is the idea month weather wise to be playing. It just seems so dumb to have a beautiful day in October and your team is off. Plus during double bye seasons, it seems like either your team is always playing a team that just came off a bye or your team just came off a bye.

Plus Bowlsby comments says you get more injuries if you play 12 games in a row. In a single bye season, you don't play 12 games in a row. And if injuries were such a concern, they should have stayed at 11 games.

well 7 of the 14 Big Ten teams this season have byes in October. Another 3 have byes on Sep 24.

Yes and in a double bye season like 2014, a lot of teams had 2 byes in October and 5 games in November. It was just so flicking dumb.

(06-29-2016 08:48 PM)goofus Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:45 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:34 PM)goofus Wrote:  As a fan, I don't like the double-bye season. It does not flow well, and there are too many off weeks in October, which is the idea month weather wise to be playing. It just seems so dumb to have a beautiful day in October and your team is off. Plus during double bye seasons, it seems like either your team is always playing a team that just came off a bye or your team just came off a bye.

Plus Bowlsby comments says you get more injuries if you play 12 games in a row. In a single bye season, you don't play 12 games in a row. And if injuries were such a concern, they should have stayed at 11 games.

well 7 of the 14 Big Ten teams this season have byes in October. Another 3 have byes on Sep 24.

Yes and in a double bye season like 2014, a lot of teams had 2 byes in October and 5 games in November. It was just so flicking dumb.

not really..
Illinois- Oct 18, Nov 8
Indiana- Sep 6, Oct 25
Iowa- Oct 4, Oct 25
Md- Oct 11, Nov 8
Mich- Oct 18, Nov 15
Mich St- Sep 13, Nov 1
Minn- Oct 4, Nov 1
Neb- Oct 11, Nov 8
NW- Sep 13, Oct 25
OSU- Sep 20, Oct 11
PSU- Oct 4, Oct 18
Pur- Oct 25, Nov 15
Rut- Oct 11, Nov 8
Wisc- Sep 13, Oct 18

So of the 14 Big Ten schools- only 2 had 2 byes in October. 5 had September byes(and that number would just go up for Big Ten schools now given the only 3 OOC game schedule).

For teams that play Thursday night games, having a bye the week before a Thursday is pretty important. This would enable them to do it twice a year - or just have one "regular" bye week.

If it extends the most wonderful time of the year by a week, then I'm all for it. I don't see a problem with two bye weeks, although I would rather see it extended into December instead of starting a week earlier.

(06-29-2016 10:02 PM)chidave Wrote:  If it extends the most wonderful time of the year by a week, then I'm all for it. I don't see a problem with two bye weeks, although I would rather see it extended into December instead of starting a week earlier.

it makes sense to do it in August though.

There's 7 possible start dates right now..
Aug 30- 14 week year- ends Dec 6
Aug 31- 14 week year-ends Dec 7
Sep 1- 13 week year(Aug 25)-ends Dec 1
Sep 2- 13 week year(Aug 26)-ends Dec 2
Sep 3- 13 week year(Aug 27)-ends Dec 3
Sep 4- 13 week year(Aug 28) ends Dec 4
Sep 5- 13 week year(Aug 29)-Ends Dec 5

Sorry- but I'd much rather see football on Aug 29 than games on Dec 12. Earliest possible would be Aug 25.

(06-29-2016 09:33 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  For teams that play Thursday night games, having a bye the week before a Thursday is pretty important. This would enable them to do it twice a year - or just have one "regular" bye week.

That would be a big benefit, having the flexibility to build in a bye week ahead of every Thursday game, for both teams in the game.

It would also be a good idea for the NFL to add a second bye week to their season, especially given that each team plays at least once on Thursday, but that's a topic that should be discussed over here.

It seems this would negate the new Hawaii exemption that would allow a game in week 0.

(06-29-2016 10:58 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  It seems this would negate the new Hawaii exemption that would allow a game in week 0.

yeah I was thinking the same thing.

Sorry- but I'd much rather see football on Aug 29 than games on Dec 12. Earliest possible would be Aug 25.
[/quote]

I think earliest possible would be Aug 23rd. Thursday before first Saturday.

(06-29-2016 10:02 PM)chidave Wrote:  If it extends the most wonderful time of the year by a week, then I'm all for it. I don't see a problem with two bye weeks, although I would rather see it extended into December instead of starting a week earlier.

Who wants to come to Houston and play Rice in August? And if you're any kind of a draw, the C-USA television package might pick up the game and move the kick-off to 2 pm.

I don't think August games are a good idea in the Deep South.

(06-30-2016 07:58 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 10:02 PM)chidave Wrote:  If it extends the most wonderful time of the year by a week, then I'm all for it. I don't see a problem with two bye weeks, although I would rather see it extended into December instead of starting a week earlier.

Who wants to come to Houston and play Rice in August? And if you're any kind of a draw, the C-USA television package might pick up the game and move the kick-off to 2 pm.

I don't think August games are a good idea in the Deep South.

Great then maybe teams in the deep south will come up north for once.

(06-29-2016 09:04 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:48 PM)goofus Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:45 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 08:34 PM)goofus Wrote:  As a fan, I don't like the double-bye season. It does not flow well, and there are too many off weeks in October, which is the idea month weather wise to be playing. It just seems so dumb to have a beautiful day in October and your team is off. Plus during double bye seasons, it seems like either your team is always playing a team that just came off a bye or your team just came off a bye.

Plus Bowlsby comments says you get more injuries if you play 12 games in a row. In a single bye season, you don't play 12 games in a row. And if injuries were such a concern, they should have stayed at 11 games.

well 7 of the 14 Big Ten teams this season have byes in October. Another 3 have byes on Sep 24.

Yes and in a double bye season like 2014, a lot of teams had 2 byes in October and 5 games in November. It was just so flicking dumb.

not really..
Illinois- Oct 18, Nov 8
Indiana- Sep 6, Oct 25
Iowa- Oct 4, Oct 25
Md- Oct 11, Nov 8
Mich- Oct 18, Nov 15
Mich St- Sep 13, Nov 1
Minn- Oct 4, Nov 1
Neb- Oct 11, Nov 8
NW- Sep 13, Oct 25
OSU- Sep 20, Oct 11
PSU- Oct 4, Oct 18
Pur- Oct 25, Nov 15
Rut- Oct 11, Nov 8
Wisc- Sep 13, Oct 18

So of the 14 Big Ten schools- only 2 had 2 byes in October. 5 had September byes(and that number would just go up for Big Ten schools now given the only 3 OOC game schedule).

Ok, you made a good a point I will agree. But there still was a total of 14 byes in October, which is why it probably seemed like teams were always on a bye. In 2013 when there was only 12 teams, there was even a couple of weeks in October where there was only 4 games per weekend for the whole conference. It's just feels like too many teams were sitting at home in October.

This season you already have Aug 27th Saturday games on ESPN featuring NDSU/CSU (FCS) and Cal/Hawaii (FBS -- Sat local time, Fri US TV time). Then you have a bevy of teams playing games on Wed Aug 31 and Thur Sept 1, thinking that they'll lose ticket buyers and TV viewers to long labor day weekends.

I'm absolutely in agreement that there should be 14 weeks prior to CCG week in which regular season games should be allowed. Also, this should mean that FCS gets to permanently play 12 games in the regular season.


About losing the "Hawaii exemption": two ways to combat that, 1) then you just ratchet the exemption back another week earlier for one team in the country to play Hawaii, anywhere in the world, and get an exclusive TV date (although "competing" with NFL preseason) or 2) you simply say that every team playing at Hawaii gets to schedule 13 regular season games, if it wants to.

(06-29-2016 09:33 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  For teams that play Thursday night games, having a bye the week before a Thursday is pretty important. This would enable them to do it twice a year - or just have one "regular" bye week.

I would expect that this would drive ESPN and Fox to also ask for more Wednesday night and Friday night games involving P5 teams. Maybe Tuesday as well.

Well a week zero is great for the G5 leagues playing Tue-Wed-Thu games though Thursday games do not really need the prior Saturday off.

The downside of week 0 is that it big foots the FCS schools and the special Hawai'i exemption.

I wouldn't mind spreading the season out by one more week.