You're the Dictator of College Football. What do you change?
Recently, multiple sports radio personalities have expressed concern about the future of college football due to the growing regionalization of the sport. We’re now heading towards our fifth straight year of having 2 of Alabama, Georgia or Clemson being in the national championship game which is obviously unhealthy for the sport. Below is a few ideas that I’ve heard and think would be ideal but I'd like to hear others' thoughts and ideas:
- Further Conference Realignment
- The Big 12 needs to be split up with each respective school being absorbed into the remaining Power 5 conferences and Group of 5 Conferences creating a Power 4 (16 teams each) and a Group of 5.
Big 10 Adds: Kansas & Kansas St
Pac 12 Adds: Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma & Oklahoma St.
SEC Adds: TCU & Baylor
ACC Adds: West Virginia
G5 Adds: Iowa State
- Scheduling
- Power 4 conferences must be matched up with each other on a rotating schedule. Ie. Year 1: Big 10 vs SEC, ACC vs Pac 12. Year 2: Big 10 vs Pac 12, SEC vs ACC. Year 3: Big 10 vs ACC, SEC vs Pac 12.
- Each Power 4 teams should be required to play one home game and one away game against their conference matchup every year.
- Playoff Expansion / Changes
- CFP should expand to 8 teams. Power 4 Conference Champions get automatic bids. Highest ranked G5 team gets auto bid. 3 at-large bids put in by CFP Committee. 3 at-large can come from any conference.
- CFP Committee ranks playoffs teams as they do now, however, Power 4 Champions must be ranked 1-4. G5 team and at-large teams are ranked 5-8. First round games are at the higher seed’s home field.
- Scholarship Changes
- Reduce scholarship allotment from 85 to 75.
Promotion/relegation with the Big Ten and the MAC. Team with the worst conference record in the Big Ten plays in the MAC next year. MAC champs play in the Big Ten. Would make the late season Big Ten games between the Rutgerses of the conference way more fun.
And pay for likeness, expand the playoffs to six (top two get byes) and playoff home games for the higher ranked teams for the "wild card" round and semis.
Oh also PSU and MSU are automatically relegated to the MAC and cannot be promoted for a period of five years for being disgraceful.
I like your way of thinking!
(1) when teams violate rules they ACTUALLY get punished.
(2) scandals are met with fair trials but are NOT taken lightly (even if no direct NCAA rule was broken)
(3) this part would probably never happen because $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ but I would limit commercials to between quarters only.
(4) replay only allowed for TDs/first downs/completed passes and can ONLY be called by the booth
(5) the refs/booth guys all work for the NCAA only. They're not outsourced and they don't belong to a league. All refs will be graded and the better refs get better jobs. No more teams, you get promoted/relegated based on your grade, which is done by my team of hand-picked former refs.
(6) Professed osu fanboy refs and John O'Neill will NEVER ref again.
(7) Stolen from above and elaborated on -- ALL conference champions go to the playoff (no more bowl games), seeding in playoff games will be determined by a UEFA-esque coefficient based on conference relative head-to-head.
(8) NCAA videogame comes back because the players get paid to be in it.
(9) Also stolen from above and probably the best idea period, but each power 5 pairs with a mid-major conference and has a promotion relegation playoff with last place team of P5 vs champion of mid-major (in our case Rutgers vs. NIU from last year) the week of the playoffs.
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I would remove college sports from television broadcasting. The only problem with college football is greed.
Eliminate commercial kickoff commercial
The single most important rule change has to be the Pass Interference
Mark the ball at the spot of the foul
B1G and PAC12 leave the College Football Playoff system to form the B1G-PAC super conference.
Winners of the B1G & PAC meet in the Rose Bowl on Jan 1 as God intended.
If they want to play extra games after that, against the winner of the SEC vs ACC or B12, so be it.
Student athletes all get work-study financial aid for time put in both practicing and performing/competing.
At $20/hr * 20 hr/week = $400/week spending money.
Get rid of playoff, Big Ten goes to Rose Bowl.
National champ is voting again, but get rid of computer poll and use fan voting + coaches + press.
Get rid of helmets and shoulder pads - if you are stupid enough to use bad tackling form you will break your collarbone but not get concussions.
Git rid of any replays.
The entire ball must be over the goal/first down line. No "breaking the plane" nonsense.
Players get stipends, can advertise themselves.
Sorry my friend but yuck. The last thing I want every year it's to have a excellent season and then play Pac-12 School leaving possibilities and potential for great matchups.
Also nothing worse than taking Do or Die situation off the plate. To me that is what sports is all about Can you imagine how much better it would have been back in the day Michigan would have played Nebraska for the national championship instead of people voting on it, that way it's actually decided on the field.
Gimmicky Top Five:
5. Push back the baseball and softball schedules: no games may be played before April 1, WS to be played in late August.
Why: So half the country can participate.
4. Institute Non-Binding Letters of Intent. Colleges can offer these any time from the end of a player's junior season in HS to early signing day. Players may sign one (just one) in that time that they can opt out of before ESD, but schools must honor them. A player who has signed an NBLOI may not be contacted by other schools, and can't take any more official visits to other schools, but have no more restrictions on contact with their schools. After Early Signing Day all LOIs are binding to both parties.
Why: Because some players know where they want to go and yet are still limited by all the silly contact rules. Also because schools make "offers" all the time that they don't intend to honor. Kids should be able to say "Enough!" and shut off the hose.
3. Players not drafted, or drafted but not signed to their pro teams by July 1 (football) or Aug 1 (basketball) may return to college, under normal eligibility & transfer rules. Apologies not apologies to the pro leagues with their 3- or 1-and-done rules that deprive college of players those leagues don't intend to use.
Why: Because why lose all that talent the pros don't want anyway? The downside is it will encourage more players to enter the draft, mostly guys who don't intend to stick unless they're drafted highly. It sucks for the leagues, who would have to negotiate against "I can go back to college and try again if you don't pay me." But they also get a better pool to draft from, and they can also bite me.
2. Go to the Olympic Model for player compensation: Schools themselves are limited to providing scholarships/room/board/stipend in return for exclusive control over TV contracts only. NCAA no longer controls what they get on the side, players may negotiate collectively.
Why: The TV money is the ballgame. That's why the NCAA won't budge on amateurism. But players would probably be satisfied with the 10s of thousands they could earn outside of it. Let the NCAA have its cherished billions from TV, and let the players have their name and image likeness rights for everything else. EA Sports could make a videogame. They could work with their schools to sell player-named jerseys and bobbleheads. They could sponsor local mortgage brokers.
1. Now that's it legal to get money, it's illegal not to report it to the IRS as income for both payers and payees. We will conduct a massive investigation into schools and coaches for complicity in tax evasion, and assist the IRS in going after the bagmen who didn't report their gifts in their taxes.
As for retroactive punishment, our goal will be to cut off the bagmen, subjecting them to criminal liability for tax fraud, not punishing programs or players. Players and former players who comply will be given immunity for themselves and their schools for repercussions. Those who lie to investigators or do not comply will lose scholarships.
All scholarship penalties will begin 3 years from (the last game of the last season since) the point of discovery, e.g. if Isaiah Wilson doesn't report his earnings and from whom, and we discover it anyway right now, Georgia will lose 1 scholarship for 3 years starting in 2022.
This will continue to be the method for scholarship losses.
Why: Punishing programs down the road without punishing players in those programs is the right way to do it. Current freshmen will get to play out their careers--the scholarship limits hit when they're seniors. But it'll suppress recruiting for years before the limits get in place, and will allow the schools to plan for it instead of having to trim their rosters of guys who didn't cheat. If you sign up to play for a school in that situation, you know what you're getting into.
Also I think the NIL deal above will make the current bagman situation obsolete, but won't make the very gross individuals, many of whom who are unloading untaxed gains, go away. A massive cleansing of those guys will give the market for legitimate sponsorship time to grow up so we don't get a Russia situation where the mob is in the best position to take over industries that suddenly became legal.
Seth - you win.
Exceptional suggestions from Seth, His Excellency, the new high Grand Poobah of Football.
#1 & #2 state perfectly my nebulous ideas for player compensation. Even better, I don't see Title IX issues, because the money isn't directly from the schools or the NCAA. Also, schools in niche sports, e.g. water polo in California, rodeo in the northern plains States, could try to get smaller packages for their athletes.
My #3: no more kickoffs. After a score, the formerly "kicking team" gets the ball at their 35 with 4th and 20. They can go for it, or punt. This eliminates the most dangerous play in football, and replaces the almost never works (and even more dangerous) on-side kick with a play that asks the teams' best athletes to use the skills they are actually good at doing.
#5 ---- I know, you and Brian (and others) like this idea. But it is at major odds with the current logistics of MLB, the summer collegiate leagues, and the desires of top-tier college baseball talent.
Of course, Michigan just damn near won a National Title in the current system!
This past June was very strong evidence that "half of the country can participate" AND compete at the highest levels.
Ok, as dictator, I would rewrite history. After all, we have always been at war Eastasia... Sooooo..
JT was short. It's now in the fucking book and Michigan won the Big Ten, playoffs and is the 2016 National Champs.
Also, the block was clean and Michigan is the 2013 NCAA basketball champs. We'll get that by overthrowing the NCAA Basketball dictator and taking over.
All those Bama/Clemson/etc championships in the BCS era? Fucking gone down the memory hole. They now belong to Michigan. Statues showing Michigan as the true national champs will be on every corner of every campus..
Michigan wins all titles and any competitor trying to win will be sent to the gulags.
Hail to the victors will be sung before every game. Anyone not singing or standing at attention will be sent to the gulags.
There's more, but that's off the top of my head...
I agree, if the pick 6 did not happen, OSU would not have even tied the game, no overtime and Michigan would have went to the playoffs. This game probably cost Jim about 5 years getting the team back on the national stage. He has a chance this year to get back on track but we still may be a few years away before having the talent and depth at all positions.
Stop playing your championship game on a freaking Monday night! I realize 'NFL playoffs' and all so negotiate or whatever to get the final game on Saturday primetime. People associate college football with Saturdays...period. As currently stands I come home from work on that Monday and the game later that night is an afterthought.
Stop playing your championship game on a freaking Monday night! I realize 'NFL playoffs' and all so negotiate or whatever to get the final game on Saturday primetime. People associate college football with Saturdays...period. As currently stands I come home from work on that Monday and the game later that night is an afterthought.
Stop playing your championship game on a freaking Monday night! I realize 'NFL playoffs' and all so negotiate or whatever to get the final game on Saturday primetime. People associate college football with Saturdays...period. As currently stands I come home from work on that Monday and the game later that night is an afterthought.
The dreaded triple post.
Overtime, you have to go for 2 on a td and each round the ball is moved back 10 yds. No field goal attempts allowed.
Allow players to monetize of there own likeness.
Create four 20 team conferences, split into two 10 team divisions.
And 8 team playoff, starting with the division champs playing each other(SEC east vs Big Ten West and so on. Rotate this around so each Division champ is clean a different division champ utilizing all the possibilities over the years.
Play all nine other teams in your division, two in your other Conference Division, and one team from another conference.
A maximum of 25 scholarships a year, no if ands or buts. If you can't feel your total of 85, use Walk-On's.
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I only have two real heartaches with college ball.
1. You can't have 2 teams from the same conference in the playoff unless there is at least 1 loss separating a Conference winner from a runner-up.
2. Indiana and Purdue must merge teams. That state can't support 2 good teams (or even 1) with Notre Dame, this should be obvious by now. Replacement is Notre Dame, and they go in the West just to piss them off further.
Alternative to Notre Dame is Syracuse.
I bring back the video game
1. Four playoff teams are selected after the traditional bowl games are played. This forces contending teams to play a quality opponent and settles the "should UCF get in?" debate. Also can help cut down on players skipping bowl games.
2. Kickoff is replaced with a 4th and 15 from your own 40. Punts are more exciting and less dangerous, plus eliminates the randomness of onside kicks.
3. Overtime stays the same, except drives start at the 50 instead of the 25, so you can't always get an easy FG.
Conference championship games are done away with, and conferences are forced to shrink down to no more than 10 members. This allows a full round robin schedule for every conference. There would be around 6 or 7 "power conferences" after this.
An 8-team playoff is established with the top 4 seeds being granted home field in the opening round. The power conferences champions would all get an automatic bid into the playoff.
The current New Years 6 bowl format is kept for the semis, and invites to the other 4 bowls for non playoff teams.
No FCS opponents allowed to be scheduled in the month of November.
I'm surprised it took this far down the thread for someone to address the FCS opponents in November thing. I would take that one step further by dictating that all non-conference games must be completed before conference play begins. What would that mean for independents like ND or BYU? Tough shit. Join a conference. I would also dictate that all bye weeks must occur in the first half of the season. Thus, no more Alabama getting a bye week or playing The Citadel (virtual bye) the week before playing Auburn.
I don't have a problem with nonconference being played late (Florida/Florida State, for example). But, I do think such accommodations should be made only for actual rivalry games. So no, Alabama you don't get to replace Citadel with Florida International or Wyoming.
1. Establish a constitution that says something like:
a) College football will make no rule abridging the rights of players to their own names and likenesses.
b) College football will make no rule abridging the rights of players and schools to enter into contracts with each other or with third parties, nor will college football interfere, work against, speak against, or in any other way act against the contracts of the schools and players.
c) College football will not investigate, regulate, or punish players or schools for any reasons other than athletic, physical safety, and medical set forth in the rules section below.
d) Rules of the game: ..., including provisions for ratification by the schools and amendments
e) Rules prescribing the physical safety and medical standards every player and school must adhere to: ..., again including provisions for ratification and amendments
2. Dissolve all current conferences. Let the schools sort out their own new conferences.
3. Dissolve the post season structure. Let the schools sort it out.
I create a Division Zero, whole different tier of NCAA football, designed explicitly as a marketing vehicle for schools as well as apprenticeship for a career in professional football. I would then pay players, allowing them to be compensated either in school credits or cash, but dispensing with the illusion of student/athlete for these professional apprentices. Schools could maintain concomitantly Division One teams, for the genuine student athletes, but I would expect that the lucrative television contracts would be with Div Zero. Since they are unambiguously employees, they would receive payment that would compensate them for long term health risks, that are part of the career path they have chosen. The programs would be on a salary cap system if not a flat pay scale. Better programs with better resources would be more appealing simply because they would offer better
I would expect relatively few schools would be able to have the coaching staff/field/weightroom/ other resources necessary to have a legitimate apprenticeship for NFL, but those would be the ones regularly in the top 30 anyway.
I would also expect Division One would still have a strong following, appealing more to the student-athlete/Olympic ideal, and would be more full of players more inclined to pursue a career outside of football once college is over.
I level the playing field by taking the bag money and opening up offshore accounts. I also take the hookers & blow.
Players can have NIL rights, but I get a taste.
I have death penalty squads to police violations and make examples of PSU & MSU to show I mean business. UNC fucked up, UNC gets punished. Universities that try to stonewall my investigations get punished.
Referees will be evaluated. No OSU fanboys ref OSU. There will be mandatory training camps and re-education camps for those that need it. There will be mandatory eye check ups.
Players get paid in various previously-discussed ways and can move around as freely as coaches.
Media timeouts are instead just picture-in-picture ads during games.
Playoffs expanded to 12 and championship games eliminated.
Refs get two video replays a half in addition to challenges from coaches. If you screw up more than that you should be taken to task for it.
PSU and MSU fired into the sun.
Have a regular season of 11 games and expand playoffs to 16 teams
to level playing field so it’s not just Clemson and Alabama you have to make changes to recruiting and limit the number of 5 stars and maybe 4 stars the top schools and sign the following year. I know it’s not fair to kids who want to go there but college football is becoming boring with only 2 teams capable of winning it all every year
make it so college players are never paid to play the game. Keep them as amateurs and true student athletes
I don't think college football is overly broken. But I would like the following changes:
1. Rule enforcement and penalization is done at the conference level vs. the NCAA level. The conferences are simply closer to the situations and smaller organizations (the NCAA is too large at this point).
2. Every FBS team is required to play one TRUE road OOC game per regular season. No more of this nonsense like Alabama going 9 (!!!) years without a true road OOC game.
3. Playoff expanded to 8 teams. 5 Power 5 champions, best Gang of 5 champion, 2 wildcards. Notre Dame gets de-prioritized for the wildcard as long as they are too cowardly to play in a conference that has a Championship Game.
4. Same timing rules as the NFL. Games are too long (too many plays).
5. Do away with the December signing period. I originally thought that would be a good idea. I was wrong - there is too much flux with coaches in December and you get bullshit like what Manny Diaz did with Temple (the student-athletes signed with Temple and then Diaz went back to Miami).
1. No field turf (aka plastic grass)
2. No fbs games
3. Eliminate overtime (ties are not the end of the world)
4. Death penalty for sparty and Ped state football programs
5. Rutgers out of the B1G
6 10-team conferences, round robin conference schedule to determine champions, 6 conference champions receive autobids, 2 at-large bids with priority given to a co-conference champ (if one or two exist) that loses the conference autobid due to a tie-breaker, first round played on campus of 4 highest seeds, championship always at the Rose Bowl
1. 2 coaches challenges per game, period. 30 second max instant replay review time, else call stands
2. Targeting with ejection must be confirmed by two refs and is not reviewable. Otherwise just 15 yards
3. 8 team playoffs
4. Max 2 media timeouts per quarter. Ref can overrule guy with red hat as he wishes
5. Defensive players cannot “chop block” offensive lineman. 15 yard penalty
Michigan wins the Big Ten.
Is that an option?
No, your suggestions have to be at least remotely realistic.
I believe the big should have no divisions and should have there own big championship committee where after the 7th week they do a show on big ten network and release the big ten championship rankings. I’m half serious here. The east is stacked and it would be nice to see the two best teams from the big play in the championship
Michigan has been rightfully named the winner of the 2016 osu game and they can never do script Ohio in an away stadium ever again. It takes 10 goddamn minutes to spell a 4 letter word.
After thinking about it the osu band is abolished. They get USCs band and the one song they know how to play. I have spoken.
1. P-5 winners in playoff. 4 highest ranked get homefield in the first round (before Christmas). Two top-ranked G5 or Independent (at least one must be G5), one P-5 wild card.
2. Clock restarts on Ready For Play signal after incomplete passes, just like out of bounds plays. (Besides media time outs, it's stopping the clock on incomplete passes that have made games so much longer). Clock stops until snap (on incomplete passes, out of bounds plays) during last three minutes of each half.
3. No unnatural media time-outs (use them up in one minute breaks druing injury or replay timeouts).
4. Hard limit of 20(25) four year scholarships granted per year. If a scholarship player leaves for any reason, you don't gain extra scholarships to give out the next year. 5 walk-on scholarships per year.
4alt) Scholarships granted are equal to the number of scholarship players actually graduating.
5. Revenue (including royalty money from all images of athletes) goes into a pool which covers long-term insurance and education of athletes.
6. Try for point from the 2-yard line.
7. The team scored upon last in regulation chooses whether it wants to play offense or defense first in overtime.
8. Overtime wins/losses count for fractionally less than wins/losses in regulation.
You are totally right that the games are way too long in college football. On average they run 30 plays each more than the NFL. The reason for this has not to do with the incomplete passes but more to do with the facts they don't start the clock back up when somebody goes out of bounds and they place the ball like they do in the NFL. That alone would fix problem
Nebraska, Maryland & Rutgers out of Big Ten.
8 team college playoff.
If I was dictator, I would have Michigan play for the national title every year against Rutgers. If Rutgers made it too close, they’re out and someone better at losing will take their place. It’s a next man up mentality.
I would expand the playoffs to 8 teams. There is no reason that a power 5 conference winner has to miss the playoffs. The 5 conference winners will still allow for 3 teams who may have just loss one game in their conference or an independent or smaller conference undefeated or 1 loss team to make the playoffs.
1. Expand the playoff to eight teams with home sites through the semis
2. Remove all restriction to NIL rights
3. Strengthen transfer rules to limit college free agency
4. Stuff ND forever into the big ten. Kick MSU and Penn State out of the big ten.
5. Eliminate or enforce rules to mitigate SEC shenanigans and hew toward a level field for recruiting.
6. Set up higher pay and full time status for game officials. Fire the most corrupt and/or incompetent 10 %.
7. Automate instant replay, like tennis, or man the booth with people who know what the correct answer is.
need to start the clock back up after a guy goes out of bounds and they place the ball just like they do in the NFL as college football is the only collegiate sport I know that is takes longer to play then it's professional sport does.
Next they need to lower the scholarships as there's no reason why the powerhouse teams 3rd string players should be better than the starters at 95% of the schools.
Lastly they need to expand the playoffs to at least 32 teams as the excitement levels would triple in the sport knowing that if your team wins they face a do-or-die situation the following week. Possibilities would be endless and more exciting than they are now
Pay them whatever you want and get rid of trying to police the game. This way we can get rid of all these stupid investigation that never amount to anything but frustration. Let's quit acting like we care they're sitting in the classrooms as no one talks about or rewards coaches for graduation rates or grade point averages, it doesn't make a bit of difference.
Let's just admit we don't care what these so called students are studying as its never once discussed or an actual concern. This is supposed to be America but for some odd reason college sports is the only industry where people are concerned about what someone who is earning and worse yet actually wants them to make considerably less than what the market is willing to pay them.
This would help level the playing field instead of having just the same handful of teams who are the best every year. Most importantly it would also get rid of corruption from some universities hile the others are playing by the rules.