Can you believe it? We're not even a week to go until September and already college football is underway. Watching the first few minutes of "College Gameday" this morning, the experts were talking about Clemson and Alabama in the championship game...again. Ugh, same shit, different year.
I wish somethin could be done to fix the continuity problem that college football seemingly has; every year you can pencil in five or six teams to be in championship contention. Alabama, Ohio State, a second SEC school, a Big XII school, Notre Dame, and an ACC school. It's gets redundant and tiresome after a while.
Unfortunately, the current system is dominated by television, and as Daft Punk once said, television rules the nation. But what if college football weren't held down by exorbitant television deals and ESPN? And it was a utopian sport without the shady recruiting practices and under the table deals (I assume they happen) that the big schools get away with more often than not?
A few months ago, I decided to totally revamp the system in my head. First, there would be a sixteen-team playoff to determine the national champion. Second, I would totally realign the conferences. How so? Well, let me explain.
Currently, the "power 5", as it's known, looks like this:
| Atlantic Coast | Southeastern | Big Ten | Pac 10 | Big 12 | ||||
| Boston College | Alabama | Illinois | Arizona | Baylor | ||||
| Clemson | Arkansas | Indiana | Arizona State | Kansas | ||||
| Duke | Auburn | Iowa | California | Kansas State | ||||
| Florida State | Florida | Maryland | UCLA | Iowa State | ||||
| Georgia Tech | Georgia | Michigan | Colorado | Oklahoma | ||||
| Louisville | Kentucky | Michigan State | Oregon | Oklahoma St | ||||
| Miami | LSU | Minnesota | Oregon State | Texas | ||||
| North Carolina | Mississippi | Nebraska | So. California | Texas Christian | ||||
| NC State | Miss State | Northwestern | Stanford | Texas Tech | ||||
| Pittsburgh | Missouri | Ohio State | Utah | West Virginia | ||||
| Syracuse | South Carolina | Penn State | Washington | |||||
| Virginia | Tennessee | Purdue | Washington St | |||||
| Virginia Tech | Texas A&M | Rutgers | ||||||
| Wake Forest | Vanderbilt | Wisconsin | ||||||
| Conf USA | Independents | Mountain West | MAC | Sun Belt | American | |||||
| Charlotte | Army | Air Force | Akron | App. St | UCF | |||||
| Florida Atlantic | BYU | Boise State | Ball State | Arkansas State | Cincinnati | |||||
| Florida Int'l | Notre Dame | Colorado State | Bowling Green | Ga Southern | Connecticut | |||||
| Louisiana Tech | Massachusetts | Fresno State | Buffalo | Georgia State | ECU | |||||
| Marshall | Liberty | Hawaii | Central Mich | Idaho | Houston | |||||
| Middle Tenn | Nevada | Eastern Mich | LA-Lafayette | Memphis | ||||||
| North Texas | UNLV | Kent State | LA-Monroe | Navy | ||||||
| Old Dominion | New Mexico | Miami OH | New Mexico St | USF | ||||||
| Rice | San Diego State | Northern IL | South Alabama | SMU | ||||||
| Southern Miss | San Jose State | Ohio | Texas State | Temple | ||||||
| Texas El Paso | Utah State | Toledo | Troy | Tulane | ||||||
| UTSA | Wyoming | Western Mich | CCU | Tulsa | ||||||
One of the first things I did was take the schools from the American Conference and add them to the Power 5, making it a Power 6 and shut up UCF fans who feel they're slighted from the national conversation. Second, I decided to put schools in conferences that geographically made sense; that means that West Virginia is out of the Big XII, and Missouri and Texas A&M are out of the SEC and back in the Big XII. Also, Maryland, Rutgers, and Penn State are no longer In the Big 10. I also decided to break up the northern schools in the ACC, which means Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse, and BC are out of that conference.
As for the American, I decided to completely obliterate the conference altogether since geographically it's all over the place. The three northeast schools, UConn, Temple, and Navy I decided to leave in. I also decided to add Pitt, Syracuse, and Boston College from the ACC, Penn State, Rutgers, and Maryland from the Big 10, and West Virginia from the Big XII. I also tossed in Army (natural rival with Navy) and UMass to make it twelve teams so a championship game could be played. The American now has all of the northeast's FBS schools in one conference; oh and the backyard brawl between WVU and Pitt is back. You're welcome.
As for Cincinnati, I decided to place them and Louisville from the ACC and place them in the SEC to replace Texas A&M and Missouri. The Big XII with the departure of West Virginia and the re-addition of A&M and Missouri makes 11 teams; they need a 12th. Why not Houston? Problem solved. The Big Ten now has a problem with 11 teams. Simple solution: add Notre Dame. Then you have the ACC who I split apart already. They've gone from fourteen to ten schools. But don't worry, I've got a solution. Hey, UCF. You know how you complain about being in an inferior league and not much recognition. Well, you and USF can take your petty "War on I-4" to the ACC. Good luck with that.
That leaves the Pac 12 as the only conference remaining. Truth be told, I was going to leave them alone, but then I realized that Boise State might complain that I had given preferential treatment to UCF for putting them in a power conference and not them. So at the last minute I added them and BYU to the conference.
So, here's what your new Power Six would look like:
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As for the other conferences, they would look like this after realignment:
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The 16-team playoff would go like this: Winners from the Power Six conferences get an automatic bid, plus two winners amongst the other five conferences. Plus eight at-large bids. First and second round games would be on the campus of the higher seed, then the bowl system would fill in the other matchups. Until you get to the National Championship game at a pre-determined site.
Would this solve everything wrong about college football? Of course not, but it doesn't hurt to dream.
As for this season, I'm going to try something I haven't done before: predict the winners of certain games. Since there are only two this week, I have two picks. No research or analysis here, just fling by the seat of my pants. This evening in Orlando, Miami and Florida renew acquaintances. Honestly, I think this could (and should) be an annual series, but it seems like one school keeps trying to duck from the other. I am a Gators fan, but not a "Tim Tebow is our lord and savior, and the world needs to revolve around him" Gators fan. And no fangirls, he isn't going to get called up by the Mets this season, so quit dreaming. You're almost as annoying as Rays fans (who I promise to get to in another post...someday). As for Miami, they have not even been to the ACC title game let alone win an ACC title...yet. Hopefully the game will be entertaining, but I have Miami in an upset.
The other game pits Arizona at Hawaii. My only thought on this is will I stay up to watch it? Probably not, but it would be nice to hear Rich Waltz (formerly of the Marlins and ow with CBSSN) again. Arizona wins a squeaker. Enjoy your Saturday!
CT
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