The writing is on the wall, or at least near the goal line. With the current number of investigations and allegations directing a spread offense towards the current BCS system, surely the system can’t hold out. Non AQ conferences have been voicing oppostion for years, but the recent success of those small conferences against the big guys has helped their plight gain ground. Now, don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that the suits on Capitol Hill have more important things to address. Since they appear to be listening, however, perhaps I can offer a solution.
Super conferences and a play-off system. How would that solve things, you might ask. Currently, there are just over 120 FBS football programs in the nation. At the kickoff of the FBS season, only a handful of teams currently have a chance at winning the national title. Too much emphasis is put on popularity poils with conference strength given strong emphasis. If a team begins the season ranked number one or two in the polls, all that team must do is win every game. That is not an easy task for any team, mind you. However, if a team is voted further back, not only must that team win every game, but they must also hope the teams in front of them lose. So let’s start by forming Super Conferences. By forcing everyone in eight specific regional conferences, college football will be more able to negotiate focused television contracts which will provide greater and more equal market coverage across the field. Equality in market coverage can lead to parity, and parity drives the NFL. With 120 FBS teams spread out amongst eight super conferences, we score fifteen teams per conference. Provide room for future expansion and add a 16th slot to each conference. Now we have eight Super conferences with 15 to 16 teams each. Every team will play the same number of games. We’ll go with twelve, since that is the current standard. Every game is a conference game. There are NO more non conference games. Instead, we’ll save those for the special bowl games. This really removes the strength of schedule argument from the playing field. It no longer matters which teams play which, just which team wins the game. Everything is decided on the field the way it should be. This also negates the need for conference title games, as you do not want one game to overshadow an entire season worth of effort. (Imagine a 3 or 4 loss team like K-St. upsetting an undefeated Oklahoma team and ruining the playoffs.)
At the end of the regular season, each conference will send its best team to the playoffs. Let me stop you here before the complaints start rumbling and stumbling in. If you are not the best team in your conference, you cannot be the best team in the country! Ergo, no playoff for you. Every conference will have a chance to prove on the field, that it is the strongest and toughest conference. Sure, there will be still be opinions and polls, but those views will have to be backed up on the field. Playoffs take place over a three week period allowing teams to rest and prepare for their opposition. The playoff system should rotate each year so that the same conferences don’t play each other in the first round every year. However, it does not matter whether you play a team in the first round or the championship game. You have to beat them on the field, regardless of when you play them.
All of this can be done within the current bowl system time frame. Imagine too, that those 35 or so other bowl games actually matter again. When its all said and done, college football will finally be able to declare a national champion with no controversy. The BCS will not be forced to sit through another season wondering if this is the year their system is horribly exposed. And hey, maybe college football will finally get some great conference rivalries started through the new bowl system, much like college basketball has with its ACC / Big Ten rivalry. Thanks for listening.