My perfect college football system.

[fishheatcats]

Let me start by saying I hate college football. Partly because of the ridiculous BCS/Poll system, but mostly because I don't, and will never have, a team. Even when I went to Florida Atlantic(not exactly a powerhouse, but still) I didn't care one lick about the football team. I can't get into a sport unless I have a hometown team to root for, and I don't feel right just picking the 'Canes cause they are the closest to me. Also, the players change every 2-4 years so the team is always different, so I guess I just prefer the pros. However, I do get some enjoyment out of seeing the upsets when the stupid polls and rankings are wrong. I saw a story on Yahoo! today about a 16 team playoff system, with the champions of the 11 conferences get automatic bids and then there are 5 at large bids. This still is a problem as it would be up to some committee to pick the other 5 teams. Outside opinions should have no place in the outcome of team's season, the team's record should.

My idea I've had for awhile is similar, but with some key differences:

1. Divide the country into 8 conferences with 12 teams each. that makes 96 teams in Division 1. Also, set up Division 2 with corresponding conferences.

2. Each conference only plays the teams in it's conference every year, 6 home games, 6 away, alternating years for which teams you play home or away. This makes for a 12 game regular season, and throws that strength of schedule nonsense out the window. You play the same schedule every year.

3. Promotion/Demotion like European soccer. The best 2 teams from a Division 2 conference(let's say SEC for argument's sake) are promoted to Division 1 and the worst 2 from the Div. 1 SEC are demoted. This provides smaller schools with an opportunity for national exposure, improving recruiting and the overall quality of the game. They even have a shot, albeit unlikely, at the Div. 1 National Title.

4. The champions of each conference enter an 8 team playoff(same for Div. 2). This would not be seeded in the traditional sense, but in a sort of NBA lottery style draw before the season. Conferences would be picked at random to play each other in the playoffs. The playoffs would all be at neutral sites. The games could even keep the bowl names they have now. The Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange Bowls, being the big 4 right now would all stay, and then 3 other sites would be picked each year. Similar to the BCS the sites would rotate so the National Championship would be in a different place each year.

My favorite thing about this idea is that it is impossible to go undefeated and not be the national champions. If you win every one of your games and no one else accomplished the same feat, you should be the champs(i.e. Boise State from last year, possibly Hawaii this year). The week to week excitement is still there, because if you don't win your conference, you don't have a shot at the title, so every game is important. However you're season isn't a failure if you lose 1 or 2 games before week 6, it's not over till it's over. While I may never totally be into college football, if they implemented something like this, I'd be a lot more interested. Looking forward to what you guys think and would like to hear any suggestions on how to make it better.

[Drew22]

This wouldn't work.

It would totally mess up basketball.

Also you have 12 team conferences, with 12 games not outside your conference. There are only 11 other teams, what are you going to do scrimmage your selfs?

It would make these tiny little schools move up to I-A, and there tiny little stadiums wouldn't be able to generate much revenue.

[Spearhead]

#1 You lost me with, "I hate college football."

#2 European soccer?

Goodbye.

[fishheatcats]

This wouldn't work.

It would totally mess up basketball.

Also you have 12 team conferences, with 12 games not outside your conference. There are only 11 other teams, what are you going to do scrimmage your selfs?

It would make these tiny little schools move up to I-A, and there tiny little stadiums wouldn't be able to generate much revenue.

Whoops my fault I meant 13 teams in each for a 12 game schedule.. so that'd make 104 Div 1. Teams. Also, I didn't say anything about basketball, just football. They can leave basketball the way it is. As for the tiny schools, if they are good enough to stay up in Div. 1 for awhile, they could get more money from advertisements and merchandise, and eventually get a big new stadium.

[GFB]

Wrong forum chief......

[fishheatcats]

Wrong forum chief......

That's what I thought but when I went to the General Sports forum the faq said this sort of thing would be better suited to the Concept board...

[McCall]

Wrong forum chief......

He's all kinds of wrong with this, not just the forum.

[averyj]

Wrong forum chief......

He's all kinds of wrong with this, not just the forum.

Oh, he's correct.

This is the forum he's looking for.

[rams80]

Ummm....

This would never work.

(IBTL)

[Cooleyvol]

You lost me at doing away with the present conferences.

[CDuffy26]

Why woudl you want to change the collfootball system if you hate college football? Personally, more people like the system than those who dislike (Not neccisarily on this board).

[omnibus]

U know what, I LIKE IT!!!

I know it will never happen, but it would be a better system overall. I like the relegation, lets face it, teams like Marshall (YES I KNOW!) and Western Kentucky and Youngstown State deserve to be in D-1 more than Army, Duke and Temple year in and year out. I like the fact that you would play EVERY team in the conference, something that bothers me in every conference. And I like that it feeds into a playoff for the champions. That would take out the arguement that "the regular season wouldn't matter".

Again, it will never happen, but so will the adoption of any of the greatest uniforms on earth that are posted right here on this thread. IT IS A COLLEGE FOOTBALL REGULATORY CONCEPT. And I get it.

Now, ON TO THE CONFERENCES!

[ezreiter3]

These ideas are frankly, awful, no offense. If you "hate" college football don't try to fix it. You could never have teams jumping divisions, small schools could not afford the travel. I respect anyone that tries to provide a solution to the madness of college football but this just isn't one.

[BB61]

No.

No no no no no no no.

No.

No!

ETA: NO!

[MiK]

i think it would work. minus the 2 lower moving down thing, because then surprise teams that do horrible one season and amazing the next year would lose their chance at the national title when really, they should be the champs. And really, 95% of 1-AA teams can't compete with the highest teams in the bowl series. The tournament and conference aligning is good though.

And just because you "hate" college football, doesn't mean you wouldn't like to see it changed so that maybe, you might not hate it anymore...just a thought for everyone else that jumped on that bandwagon.

[fishheatcats]

These ideas are frankly, awful, no offense.

None taken lol. I expected a mixed bag of responses, as people have very strong opinions about college football. Just throwing an idea out there for discussion.

...also perhaps "hate" was a strong word, more like "don't care for" was more appropriate(I feel kinda like Tim Hardaway lol). And MiK is correct, I would like to see some sort of change so that I will like college football more. My main problem is with the polls and teams going undeafeated but not having a shot at the title. Even with a playoff I probably wouldn't care too much more, but it just bugs the hell out of me to see a team with no losses ranked worse than one with 1 or more. In the current system, you can pass over Boise State because of who they played, which is a valid argument, that's why I suggested having teams only play within their conference. At the end of a season, there can only be 1 undefeated team in my system, and they would be the national champions. The promotion/relegation thing I think would be necessary in this system because some current Div. 1 teams would be on the fringe and would have to be sent to Div. 2 the first year, but deserve a shot to move up again should another team flake out. Also if a team just has a bad year, the next year they can be Div. 2 champs and work their way back. Just an idea, and as omnibus said will never happen, but makes for good conversation .

[Jimmy!]

Worst...idea....ever.

[BaltimoreFan]

I had a similar idea, but there is about a 0% chance it would ever happen. I believe there are 120 Division 1 teams, so you could split them up into ten 12 team conferences, each with a championship game. So essentially the entire season is a playoff. You have to win you your division to get to the championship game. Then each chapionship game winner gets an automatic bid to the tournament. That would elminate the arguments about snubs. Or at least it should because your team would have to "earn a spot into the playoffs. Of course like I said it would never happen. I doubt many teams would agree to switching up the conferences (or Notre Dame would even agree to join one).

[McCall]

Rather than re-doing conferences, I'd say just make it so that the big conferences have to play teams in other big confereces. So it'd be whatever conference games they play, and all non-conference games would have to be from another big conf. Designate big, mid, small. Like the current BCS conferences would be the big, and so on and so forth. Then whoever wins those conferences championships would be automatically in the top 6 seeds of the tournament. The Mid-Majors would be set a certain range of seeds, and same with the smaller schools. Leave some open for a few at-large bids. This forces teams to play a tougher schedule through the regular season, and helps quiet any qualms about some high ranked teams playing a much softer schedule than other teams that they think should be ranked higher.

Set up similar to this:

Major Conferences: ACC, Big XII, Big East, Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC.

Mid-Major Conferences: COnference USA, Mountain West, WAC.

Minor Conferences: Mid-American and Sun Belt.

Independents:

-Notre Dame grouped with Major Conferences, should they have a good enough record and ranking to make an At-Large bid, they'd be guaranteed one.

-Army and Navy grouped with Mid-Majors

-Western Kentucky. I'm not sure which they would better fall under, Mid-Major or Minor. I'll let someone else judge that.

Tournament Seeding:

>Major Conferences Champions would get Seeds 1-6 or 7, depending on Notre Dame and where their ranking should designate them being seeded.

>Mid-Majors, along with At-Large Majors (and even an At-Large Mid-Major or two), would be distributed throughout the 7 or 8 (depending on ND) through 14 seeds (this meaning Notre Dame could be seeded as low as 14 if deemed good enough to get into the tournament, but not a higher seed).

>The 2 Minor Conferences would automatically get the 15th and 16th seeds.

[slightly shotgunned]

Rather than re-doing conferences, I'd say just make it so that the big conferences have to play teams in other big confereces. So it'd be whatever conference games they play, and all non-conference games would have to be from another big conf. Designate big, mid, small. Like the current BCS conferences would be the big, and so on and so forth. Then whoever wins those conferences championships would be automatically in the top 6 seeds of the tournament. The Mid-Majors would be set a certain range of seeds, and same with the smaller schools. Leave some open for a few at-large bids. This forces teams to play a tougher schedule through the regular season, and helps quiet any qualms about some high ranked teams playing a much softer schedule than other teams that they think should be ranked higher.

Set up similar to this:

Major Conferences: ACC, Big XII, Big East, Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC.

Mid-Major Conferences: COnference USA, Mountain West, WAC.

Minor Conferences: Mid-American and Sun Belt.

Independents:

-Notre Dame grouped with Major Conferences, should they have a good enough record and ranking to make an At-Large bid, they'd be guaranteed one.

-Army and Navy grouped with Mid-Majors

-Western Kentucky. I'm not sure which they would better fall under, Mid-Major or Minor. I'll let someone else judge that.

Tournament Seeding:

>Major Conferences Champions would get Seeds 1-6 or 7, depending on Notre Dame and where their ranking should designate them being seeded.

>Mid-Majors, along with At-Large Majors (and even an At-Large Mid-Major or two), would be distributed throughout the 7 or 8 (depending on ND) through 14 seeds (this meaning Notre Dame could be seeded as low as 14 if deemed good enough to get into the tournament, but not a higher seed).

>The 2 Minor Conferences would automatically get the 15th and 16th seeds.

i like the idea, but i see something that i personally don't like about the independents. MAKE THEM JOIN CONFERENCES. i don't like the idea of an independent getting an automatic bid without having to win a conference tournament. i know it would never happen either way, as has been said, but still, just wanted to point that out.