Ten Ways To Make X Better: Football
Previously: hockey, soccer, basketball.
[Bryan Fuller]
This is about college football. The NFL list is "why are you the way you are" ten times.
10. Fumbles out of the endzone are treated like other fumbles.
Nonsense that a fumble that goes out at the one stays with the team that fumbled but one that brushes the pylon is a game-changing turnover. Way to emphasize the essentially arbitrary nature of both football and life, rule. You suck!
9. Count intentional grounding as a sack, and count sacks against pass yardage.
This doesn't do anything to help on-field things but hoooooo boy do I want to throttle whoever came up with these inane statistical quirks that I shake my fist at every week during the season. If I was a defensive end and saw the QB fling the ball moments before I engulfed him and then I didn't get credit for a sack I would send a sternly-worded letter to someone. You better believe that.
8. Actually enforce illegal man downfield rules.
that's two count-em two Air Force OL seven yards downfield on a pass
It's three yards in college and one in the NFL, except it's more like infinity yards in college since refs don't bother calling it*. The lack of enforcement here has created an indefensible subset of run/pass option plays. Those are fine, as long as they stay within the rules. If OL are allowed to go downfield and cut block linebackers, which I have seen multiple times in UFR, you might as well bury defensive coordinators alive. They'll enjoy it more than defending RPOs.
*[Except once when Taylor Lewan engaged a guy on a pass block and blocked him so dang good they ended up a few yards downfield. In the aftermath the announcers admonished him for not being aware enough of where he was on the field; I swore so hard at these gentlemen that an iceberg shaped like a middle finger broke off of Greenland.]
7. College overtime starts at the 35.
The 25 is so close that even a three-and-out gives the offense a reasonably makeable field goal. Moving the start back to the 35 would make each overtime period more likely to be decisive and help prevent 6 OT marathons.
6. Adopt NFL punt coverage rules.
Spread punting and its seven gunners have made the punt return an increasingly boring exercise in watching several people surround a ball until it ceases moving.
That percentage doesn't include balls that aren't fielded at all.
The NFL prohibits all but two people from leaving until the ball is gone; adopting similar rules in CFB would restore some of the drama when man kicks ball to Jabrill Peppers-type object.
6. Adopt MGoPlayoff and never change it.
In a nutshell: 6 team playoff with home games the first two rounds and the championship at the Rose Bowl. Six teams allows all reasonable contenders in almost every year without much if any filler. Byes for the top two and home games help preserve the importance of the regular season despite the slight expansion of the field. Having things at the Rose Bowl is just obvious man. All things should be at the Rose Bowl.
5. Change the scholarship cap to an annual one.
I'm ignoring Title IX and the absurd ways it funnels money from poor to rich here, so that objection is noted.
Virtually all of the problems with oversigning and medical redshirts and not-so-voluntary transfers go away if the incentives change. With an annual cap of new scholarship players instead of an overall one, schools are incentivized to keep everyone around in case they work out. I'd set it at 25 since there would be attrition still; you could tweak it if that ended up being insufficient.
4. Allow players to sign an early, non-binding LOI.
Moving Signing Day up is a dumb idea, but it's one that gets pushed on the regular because some people think the current "offer" environment is bad for player and program. They might have a point, but allowing people to sign mostly-binding LOIs before hiring and firing gets done just increases the chances that bad fits get locked in.
Instead, create a system where recruits can sign an early LOI. Parameters:
- The team must offer a scholarship on Signing Day.
- Team and recruit can have unlimited contact; other teams can have none.
- Recruit cannot take officials to other campuses; gets second to team he signs with.
- Recruit can withdraw NBLOI at any time until Signing Day.
A NBLOI offers more certainty for both player and program without the deleterious effects of locking players in early.
3. Add an FCS exhibition before the season. Other FCS games don't count.
Doesn't count against redshirts. Doesn't require players who are actually going to see the field to play. Adds another chunk of revenue with which schools can play more meaningful nonconference games. Prevents that week where everyone in the SEC plays Chattanooga at the same time.
2. Kickoffs that go through the uprights are worth a point.
Yeah buddy. Put some bite in those personal fouls after touchdowns.
1. Multiball allows you to score as many touchdowns as you need.
In the last two minutes you can snap as many balls as you please as long as they're all snapped at the same time. You get the outcome of the worst ball, but if you score with both you get two touchdowns.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I've seen stuff about this, and I know Chip Kelly is big on it as well. I think the value to capturing data on football players (eventually, all of them) is almost limitless, particularly for injuries. One of the problems with making rules to address head injuries is that we don't really know what particular actions are the culprit beyond "playing football" and thus leadership cannot act properly. And when they do act it can be seen as petty or "wussification" because people don't see things the same way.
Better data equals better choices. And ultimately safer players.
Do you want the sensor to have millimeter, micrometer or nanometer accuracy? Becasue that still would make a difference between 1st down and 4 down or touch down.
What did I miss?
All the ones Brian linked at the top.
I was about to give up on your ridiculous post but you totally redeemed yourself with your last two.
I am in full agreement on items 3, 5, and 9 above. As for number 7, I don't like starting at a pre-designated yard marker at all. I never had a problem w/ games ending in ties in the first place. I like the weird season and series records they result in. I also got a big kick out of Syracuse fans being so upset at Pat Dye for going for the tie in the Sugar Bowl all those years ago. One rule I would like to see change is when they run the clock after penalties (like false starts) are marked off even though no plays have been run. This must cost about 3 or 4 minutes of game time each game.
Good read. I like the idea of more in the playoffs. 4 teams doesn't allow me to root for an underdog. These spots will always be occupied by schools I hate the way it's setup now. The '04 team coulda made the playoffs in a larger playoff, and certainly would have had a chance
Can somebody explain why a 6 team playoff is so much better than just going to 8? 6 just recreates the problem we had in the two team playoff (BCS Championship) days: team #2 and team #3 are usually very hard to distinguish, both often have a reasonable claim to be #1, and the benefit to being #2 vs. #1 is huge. A bye is way too big of a reward for the arbitrary distinction betwen 2 and 3.
The only downside with 8 is that you'll probably end up with a couple of championship game losers in the playoff, but you could fix it by only allowing conference winners in - this might create some tomato cans for the top seeds, but that's still better than a bye.
Every playoff and non-playoff scenario has problems. What you've described is an imbalance, but not nearly as bad as what used to be the difference between #2 and #3, and in both cases those teams get home games in Brian's scenario.
I have elsewhere declared that if an 8-team playoff is a necessary evil, the best option is to strongly prioritize conference champions by making 6 of them automatic berths. However, I don't think that can totally cut it; there has to be an at-large or two for a situation where a really good team gets stuck with a road game in a division with another really good team. We could well find ourselves in that situation someday.
Of course, that makes games like LSU-Bama, Clemson-FSU, and Stanford-Oregon elimination games, which ups the ante. That's why I like smaller playoffs. But you have to have an at large here or there somewhere.
A straight top-6 playoff from last year's rankings would have been:
1. Clemson - bye
--#5 Iowa AT #4 Oklahoma
2. Alabama - bye
--#6 Stanford AT #3 Michigan State
A top-8 straight bracket would have added Ohio State and Notre Dame--three B1G teams in the tournament. Michigan finished ranked #14 in the playoff committee rankings FWIW. #9 and #10, the first two out, were FSU and North Carolina. Houston, the highest ranked mid-major, finished #18.
My 8-team playoff, with five major autobids, an autobid to the best mid-major, and 2 at-larges (relevant: I would not allow one conference to get both at-larges):
#8 Houston AT #1 Clemson
#7 Notre Dame AT #2 Alabama
#6 Stanford AT #3 Michigan State
#5 Iowa AT #4 Oklahoma
Left out: Ohio State as the second Big Ten team, Florida State as the next at large. Without Houston as an autobid, Florida State gets in, but I think both from fairness/entertainment and avoidance of antitrust suits Houston needs that bid. If one conference is permitted to occupy both at-large spots, Ohio State bumps Notre Dame, which would totally invalidate the B1G season but would be a much more exciting game.
As it is, the only game listed there that really moves the needle is Stanford at Michigan State, with maybe a slight chance of Houston showing well at Clemson. Notre Dame and Iowa would be demolished, though.
In my opinion, that is the one thing that makes CFB superior to the NFL where 6 and 7 loss teams make the playoffs. I don't claim to know the formula for the perfect number of teams for a playoff but as long as it keeps 2 and 3 loss teams out (while punishing teams w/ poor SOS) I am good. I know it is not practical, but it would be cool if they could be flexible based on the number of deserving teams. For example, some years only a 4 team playoff makes sense based on the quality of teams available and in other years 6 or 8 might make sense.
Divide FBS into two divisions - Power 5 and non Power 5. It is so stupid that Eastern Michigan competes for the same championship as Michigan. Make a rule that you must play 11 games against an upper division (I.E. Power 5) opponent in order to be considered for the playoff or any January 1 bowl game.
That's fine for the Eastern Michigans of the world (they don't belong in FBS/1-A anyway) but there are a lot of teams in the Houston-Cincinnatti-BYU-Boise realm that would love to move up and can't that would be jilted if that were to occur. They would make quite the stink if they were eliminated. They've already made quite the stink about a lot of the rules changes that have come across the pike. Anti-trust lawsuits are a legitimate threat if moves are made without their consent.
Granted, I think in principle your idea has a lot of merit, an acknowledgement of what is really going on anyway, but getting to that point is tricky.
What about adding promotion/demotion to address the Houston-Cincinnati-BYU-Boise problem? This would encourage program building... but probably have a bunch of drawbacks I'm not thinking of right now....?
Yes. He's referring to the ridiculous rule that if the offense loses the ball out of bounds at the 1" line, it's their ball at that spot, but if it brushes the pylon, it's a touchback. It's easily the most ridiculous of football's arbitrary rules.
I want to see the middle finger-shaped gash in Greenland's coast that Brian caused.
1. No field goals allowed in the red zone. Once you break the 20, you have to go for the touchdown. If you get inside the 20 and then get pushed out, you're still in the no FG rule. You can put a caveat that if you recovered a turnover inside their 20, you can kick the FG to reward the TO but otherwise, no chip shots.
2. In the pro game let a first down stop the clock. Opens the entire field for the last minute drives.
No mention of relegation? Tier CFB into divisions and put in relegation. This would solve the Rutgers issue really quickly... Have the "Power 5" start as the "Premier league" - 5 12-team conferences, the mid-majors as "Champions league", etc. Align the leagues regionally (e.g., the MAC-B1G). This year Rutgers or Purdue would have been replaced by Bowling Green.
For the playoffs, each Power 5 conference has a championship game, the 5 winners plus 1-3 at large teams (6 or 8 teams, top seeds host until championship game) make up the championship playoffs. On the same day as the conference championships, they host an undercard at the same location with the two worst teams from the conference. Loser gets relegated. The mid-majors host the same, with the champion getting promoted to the Power 5, and the undercard loser getting demoted to D-1AA (or whatever it;s called). ... Bowl-eligible teams can play in a bowl game, so that wonderful thing doesn't go away.
As for who you play each season. I love the idea of a lower-tier exhibition/ scrimmage. You can play anyone for this game. The rest of the season is made up of at least 2 games versus power 5 and at most two versus mid-major. This propogates down, so mid-majors can only play at most 2 D-1AA teams.
gets two bases, and all runners on base advance accordingly.
for the first possesion, then everyone after that they start moving back 5 yards each time. I think that should keep teams from going to long in OT.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Instant Replays must be decided in a minute or original call stands............
"Dabbing" is only legal when a lineman scores....
That's all I got.
I'd prefer they just stop playing FCS teams every year (maybe 1-in-3 or something) and just cutting a nice check to every FCS program once a year to cover the lost income. Because while App St. was fun for someone, I guess, the vast majority of these games are Alabama's 3rd-string DL smashing 18-year-olds from the backwoods of Georgia into the ground.
I would eliminate the current EP realities. You could
1, Drop Kick an EP for one point or
2, Run or Pass for one point or
3. Use multiballs (drop kick, run/pass) and if both score then two points.
Laslo Toth
Mr. Bubble Corporation
I love it. Sounds like a Will Ferrell movie or maybe the Southpark guys could do a follow-up to BASEketball.
Seriously, though, I think the soccer guys should consider it.
at the top of the uprights. Letting a ref eyeball field goal attempts that sail above is silly. And you could hang targets from it.
Restart the clock after the ball is reset following incomplete passes, except in the last 3 minutes of the half.
One of the reasons many games (not all) run so long nowadays (besides televison commercuals) is the increased number of passes, which often means incomplete passes, which means stopping the clock. Restarting the clock would mean most regulation games could finish in under three hours, and games would be more uniform in length, which many fans and TV would love.
How about 20 five-year scholarships?
Allow 4 years of eligibily, or maybe 48 games within those 5 years.
Theoretically you could have 100 athletes on scolarship at a time, but of course there would be attrition, probably to the 70-80 range. If you can hang on to them, and keep them in school, good for you.
how about changing the rules so that if you hit the upright and the ball goes out you get 4 points or if you hit the upright and the ball goes in you get 5 points?
Comments