I have covered college football for almost a decade and been a fan for over thirty years. 2020 was a college football season like no other. If there’s one thing that 2020 has
taught us, it’s that college football is a business. Cries of “think of the
student-athlete” have fallen on deaf ears as conference commissioners and
television executives continued to look for as many ways as possible to fill
the airwaves. Before you read further, this is not a commentary on the COVID-19
pandemic. This is a viewpoint on the state of college football in 2020 and how we can improve it in 2021 and beyond.
The “Power 5” has always been a
myth in college football. What it should be called is the “Wealthiest 5”
conferences. Looking at information provided by the Knight Commission (seriously, check this site out) and making educated guesses on private schools
who are not required to disclose this information, it is clear that the “power”
that these conferences hold really comes from wealth. In fact, the ACC, B1G,
SEC, Big XII, and Pac 12 hold 64 of the top 65 schools in total athletic spending.
Only FBS independent UConn had more athletic spending than at least one P5 conference
member, but its number is expected to dip with the loss of television money
from the American Athletic Conference.
The haves and have-nots are not
just limited to the FBS ranks. It is clear among the FCS ranks as well. There
is no solution for the money disparity to even the spending, but there is a way
to make for better football. Instead of two subdivisions of Division I
football, let’s double that to four subdivisions.
How does this work? First, we’re
separating football from other sports and creating football-specific
conferences. There are currently 258 schools that are currently playing or in
the process of transitioning to Division I football. The breakdown will be 65,
64, 64, and 65 teams in each subdivision. We can call these subdivisions
whatever we want to, but for the purpose of this exercise, we’ll refer to them
as Division 1A (wealthiest quartile) through Division 1D (least wealthy
quartile). Notre Dame will be allowed to remain as an independent in Division
1A and the non-scholarship Ivy League and Pioneer League will be placed in Division
1D.
Each subdivision is broken up into
four regions of sixteen teams each. This can allow for regional super
conferences with two eight-team divisions or smaller eight-team conferences. I’ll
advocate for eight conferences in this article for reasons that will become obvious
later. Division 1D is unique due to the two non-scholarship leagues. Instead of
four sixteen-team regions, there are four twelve-team regions with eight
six-team divisions or smaller conferences.
This scenario allows for promotion
and relegation (which is something I support), but I’ll leave that for another
day.
Division 1A
There
are 64 teams with one independent.
With eight conferences, an eight-team
playoff would be easy to implement with all conference champions making the
field. Second place teams would be able to qualify if the playoff were expanded
to twelve or sixteen teams. Notre Dame can qualify for the playoff as an
independent only if they are ranked ahead of a conference champion in a playoff
of at least twelve teams. There would be a ten-game regular season with teams
allowed to schedule no more than one game against a team below their
subdivision. One non-conference game must be against a team from another
region. Teams not qualifying for a playoff position can qualify for a bowl game
against a team from another region.
West Region
Division
1B
With eight conferences, an eight-team playoff would be easy to implement
with all conference champions making the field. Second place teams would be
able to qualify if the playoff were expanded to twelve or sixteen teams. There
would be a ten-game regular season with teams allowed to schedule no more than
one game against a team below their subdivision. There are no regional
requirements for non-conference games in this subdivision as teams are allowed
to play teams from the higher subdivision. Teams not qualifying for a playoff
position can schedule a nonconference game at a neutral site against a team
from another region who finished in the same place in their conference.
West Region
Division 1C
With eight
conferences, an eight-team playoff would be easy to implement with all
conference champions making the field. Second place teams would be able to qualify
if the playoff were expanded to twelve or sixteen teams. There would be a
ten-game regular season with teams allowed to schedule no more than one game
against a team below their subdivision. There are no regional requirements for
non-conference games in this subdivision as teams are allowed to play teams
from the higher subdivision. Teams not qualifying for a playoff position can schedule
a nonconference game against a team from the other conference in the region.
West Region
Division 1D
There are 65 teams, including eighteen non-scholarship schools
With ten conferences,
an eight-team playoff would not be enough to provide a spot for each conference
champion so a playoff of twelve or sixteen teams would be necessary. There
would be a ten-game regular season with teams allowed to schedule no more than
one game against a team above their subdivision. One non-conference game must be
against a team from the other conference in the region, not including the
non-scholarship teams. There are no regional requirements for non-conference
games in this subdivision as teams are allowed to play teams from the higher
subdivision.
Southwest Region
Conference 1
College football is something special and is something that needs to be saved through measures like this. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let us know on Twitter (@NCGridiron) or Facebook.
