If you were the omnipotent king of cfb, and could start from scratch, how would you align the conferenes? Feel free to promote from I-AA if needed.
Do we get to install a championship tournament, or do we have to work within the confines of the current system?
You can install a playoff. I was just curious how you’d realign the teams into new/different conferences.
I’d find a way to make D-1 smaller and more manageable. I’ve always felt that the “National Championship” was a stupid red herring that largely detracted from what was best about CFB. CFB was at it’s best when it was a regional game, effectively a series of separate but equal fiefdoms who battled for regional supremacy. The winner of the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-10 conference titles were the most important thing. It was an ideal situation. Local interest was at a peak and attendance was always fantastic. TV revenues were less because there wasn’t quite the national exposure there is now, but that was less important then. The middle and lower tier schools in the major conferences really had something to play for back then. First, they always had a legitimate shot at winning a conference title every couple decades. All they needed to do was topple the big dogs in any given year. Nowadays, even if they accomplish that, it’s relatively meaningless because they aren’t getting a crack at a “championship” game. They’ll get a BCS berth and a big chunk of change, but they aren’t getting a title shot.
If I were king I’d do one of 2 things to CFB.
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Get rid of the BCS altogether. Squash any talk of a playoff and relegate the “National Champion” to nothing more than a media creation like it was 30 years ago. If there’s a “national champion” let ESPN hand out the trophy and host the team, the NCAA should stay out of it. Redefine the Bowl games as rivalry games between conferences. The Rose Bowl is the Big Ten vs. Pac-10 champ. The Sugar is the SEC champ vs. the Big 12 champ and so on. Kill off the stupid bowl sprawl and limit the number of at large bids. Make every NCAA sanctioned and operated (get rid of the bowl committees altogether) bowl a prescribed contest between conference finishers. Make every conference have a conference title game to decide the bids. I’d say that no more than the top 3 finishers in the major conferences get bowl bids plus a few at large bids.
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If people insist on having a national title game and aren’t content with anything short of a playoff, then we should break D-I into divisions. Make a D-I East and a D-I West. The East champ plays the West champ for a championship game. Make some tough choices and get rid of many of the lesser D-I schools. Keep it to say 48 schools in each division. Implement relegation at the bottom to give those middle tier schools like Troy and Akron a chance to move up. Use the lesser bowls as conference title games. Use the major bowls as playoffs games between conference champs.
Step 1: Cut the number of D1 programs in about half.
Step 2: Get rid of conferences.
You end up with one league consisting of about 60 teams. Those teams can still handle their own scheduling and so forth. You can probably even keep the BCS in this situation as very few, if any, teams would actually get through a season unscathed.
Big East
BC
Syracuse
Pitt
Penn St
Temple
Uconn
Rutgers
Villanova
Georgetown
Umass
Buffalo
Army
Navy
Big 10
Michigan
Michigan St
Ohio St
Cincinnati
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Illinois
Northwestern
Mizzou
Iowa
Iowa St
Wisconsin
Minnesota
ACC
South Carolina
Clemson
UNC
NC St
Duke
Wake
UVA
Va Tech
West Virginia
Marshall
Maryland
ECU
WCU
SEC
UGA
GT
Florida
FSU
Miami-FL
Ole Miss
MS St
'bama
Auburn
LSU
Tulane
Arkansas
Tennessee
Vandy
Memphis
Kentucky
Louisville
C-USA
Arkansas St
So MS
UAB
LA Tech
Troy
ULL
ULM
FIU
FAU
Middle TN
Florida A&M
EKU
WKU
Tenn St
Tenn Tech
Tenn-Martin
Big 12
TCU
SMU
UTEP
Rice
Baylor
Houston
Texas
Texas Tech
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Ok St
Tulsa
Kansas
K-St.
Mt West
Utah
Utah St
Colorado
Colorado St
AFA
BYU
Arizona
Arizona St
New Mexico
New Mexico St
Wyoming
Montana
Montana St
Idaho
Idaho St
Boise St
Northern AZ
Weber St
Pac 10
USC
UCLA
Cal
Stanford
SDSU
SJSU
Sacramento St
Fresno St
East WA
Washington
Washington St
Hawaii
Oregon
Oregon St
Portland St
Nevada
UNLV
MAC
Bowling Green
Akron
Ohio
Kent
Miami-OH
Ball St
WMU
EMU
CMU
Toledo
North IA
SIU
EIU
WIU
NIU
Mizzou St
Youngstown St
IL St
IN St
Think I’d go with 4 Super Conferences of 16 teams. SEC, Big 10+6, Big 12+4 , and PAC 16.
Conference Champions go to a 4 team playoff, seeding by random draw, two winners play for the National Title, two losers play because somebody will watch the advertising during the game I guess.
Bowl Eligible Non-Champions in each Super Conference can go to traditional bowls for bragging rights.
This was produced last year when all the hubbub about conference re-alignment was a hot topic. I have seen nothing that made more sense since then:
Keep the SEC just as it is. Abolish all the other conferences. All the newly-independent teams would have to battle it out with each other just to see who has the privilege of getting its ass kicked by the SEC champion (Florida) in the national title game.