Joel Klatt on How to Fix College Football

His suggestion is that all conferences should look the same (ie, same number of teams and divisions) and to institute a schedule czar. Then, peer teams (based on the previous year records) would be matched up for two OOC games (one home, one road).

I like the direction, but dislike his suggestion that teams round out their schedules with TWO FCS home games.

If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

(11-17-2016 12:24 PM)ken d Wrote:  If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

Agreed. The sport has never been as popular as it is today.

Small changes might make it even more popular, but there's no reason for a systemic change when the system clearly works well.

(11-17-2016 12:24 PM)ken d Wrote:  If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

Its been broke. Declining TV and attendance. You fix if by expanding the playoff and being more inclusive. The vast majority of the college football's growth potential is in the G5---the big king pin programs don't have much more room for growth.

Just make a small adjustment to the playoff that expands it to 8. The 4 extra games would simply snap onto the existing CFP framework and would occur on the home campus of the highest rated teams the week after Championship Saturday. Once those games are played, the entire CFP would continue on along the same schedule used today. All 5 P5 champs are in, the top G5 champ is in, and 2 wild cards selected by the committee.

Give the G5 a legit path to the playoff and I think you could see a nice spurt of growth in the overall Tv ratings and attendance as increased interest spurred by real access to the CFP promotes significant growth in the smaller programs of the G5.

CFB has peaked.

I have no desire to replace our games with South Carolina and a second SEC foe with some other random matchup given to us by some "scheduling czar".

Not to mention the fact that the SC Legislature has made it clear numerous times that the instant something threatens the annual game there will be legislation filed and passed that legally requires us to play.

This guy has too much time on his hands.

One of the charms of college football is the non-standard scheduling that favors rivalries over "efficiency" or somesuch. Last thing we need is some dictatorial body homogenizing the conferences, etc.

And IMO, college football is as popular as it ever has been. As others say, "since it ain't broke ...".

I'd like to see the rules changed to allow one pre-season FCS exhibition game. Doesn't count on your win-loss record or stats, but still generates revenue (including for the FCS school) and gives the team some live-action reps.

This would indirectly force more teams to play each other more often OOC, instead of hiding behind the FCS games and polishing their shiny, but falsified, win-loss records.

(11-17-2016 12:40 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(11-17-2016 12:24 PM)ken d Wrote:  If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

Its been broke. Declining TV and attendance. You fix if by expanding the playoff and being more inclusive. The vast majority of the college football's growth potential is in the G5---the big king pin programs don't have much more room for growth.

Just make a small adjustment to the playoff that expands it to 8. The 4 extra games would simply snap onto the existing CFP framework and would occur on the home campus of the highest rated teams the week after Championship Saturday. Once those games are played, the entire CFP would continue on along the same schedule used today. All 5 P5 champs are in, the top G5 champ is in, and 2 wild cards selected by the committee.

Give the G5 a legit path to the playoff and I think you could see a nice spurt of growth in the overall Tv ratings and attendance as increased interest spurred by real access to the CFP promotes significant growth in the smaller programs of the G5.

Many, myself included, might argue that this is a case of "If it ain't broke, break it". It assumes, for one thing, that "growth" is a goal, or a measure of success. It also assumes that more is better. Personally, my take is that much of college football's popularity can be attributed to the very things some fans would like to change.

More teams in the playoff? At some point you will have a game of musical chairs where everybody gets a seat when the music stops. What fun is that? I like that there are more P5 conferences than there are seats at the playoff table. If every P5 champ is an automatic qualifier, you lose at least half of the pre-playoff conversation that the threat of being left out and disagreement about the ultimate selections causes.

It is the very quirkiness and lack of symmetry that makes college football special, and not just a minor league version of the NFL. I've stopped watching the NFL because of the cookie cutter sameness that permeates that league's structure. I don't want to see college football emulate that.

Dude, TV ratings for college football are UP, not down for college football.

CFB is not the NFL. For many reasons.

Any proposals to make it more so like the NFL I think is just clickbait.

(11-17-2016 12:40 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  ---the big king pin programs don't have much more room for growth.

Well, Walmart and it's ilk could carry more P5 merchandise from non-local teams, giving the town of Springfield, IL for instance, to be fans of Arizona State. Or for Oakville, ON to cheer loudly for North Carolina.

The thing to change would be to either eliminate the playing of FCS schools altogether or make it so schools have the option that instead of a spring game at the end of spring practices they could instead schedule an FCS school pre-season. Obviously almost every school is going to opt for the FCS opponent pre-season. However, this would be the only FCS game allowed. It would solve a few different issues like the need for most programs to have at least 7 home games for the revenue. It would boost the schedule quality in the season so no more first two weeks of the year riddled with FBS vs. FCS and the annual SEC Cupcake week. Plus we could get more of those OOC rivalries more regularly like Pitt-Penn State or Nebraska-Oklahoma and/or the intersectional OOC matchups.

Brista,

But why should it even be an FCS school for the spring game?? FCS games aren't some long tradition that must be saved. It wasn't that long ago that teams could only count games against DI-AA teams once in four years!

Bring on Minn vs Wisconsin for the spring game, I say. It doesn't count against he record anyway.

If the "fix" involves a pundit that can't get a real sports job, I'll pass.

Except that it really won't. But instead of FCS teams, you'll see more G5 payday games. Schools are still going to have 7 regular season home games no matter what.

And as far as the concept of preseason game- 3 major issues...
1- a lot of schools aren't in session the week before
2- you deal with August weather with heat and also severe storms
3- schools won't want the injury risk quite frankly

Stever, you're thinking like a head coach, not an AD that has made a revenue commitment for the fiscal year to the school's CFO.

(11-17-2016 01:57 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Brista,

But why should it even be an FCS school for the spring game?? FCS games aren't some long tradition that must be saved. It wasn't that long ago that teams could only count games against DI-AA teams once in four years!

Bring on Minn vs Wisconsin forge spring game, I say. It doesn't count against he record anyway.

That actually is a really good idea... Having a friendly scrimmage against another Division I school would be good for both teams.

Apologize. I misread.

He was talking about replacing the spring game with a week 0 "preseason" game. I didn't catch that.


Nonetheless, I don't see why Minn and Wisc, for example, can't have a real or limited spring game.

(11-17-2016 02:02 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Stever, you're thinking like a head coach, not an AD that has made a revenue commitment for the fiscal year to the school's CFO.

actually I was thinking like an AD. If game is on when school is in session, they aren't going to make that much money off of it. And the weather issue is real as if a game gets weather cancelled(and it would be more likely than normal as they wouldn't wait great lengths)- they have to refund all the money.