How to Optimize College Football’s FBS
There are many forces at work both trying to keep college football as it is and to change it, either to bring big time sports under control and reoriented to the educational missions of the big football schools or to make it fairer and possibly even more lucrative. The underlying issue will always be who is getting how much money; that is not the point of this article (though I will discuss it at times). I have come up with a mishmash of some common sense and commonly discussed changes coupled with some ideas of my own I have not read or heard anywhere else. This was written in 2013 before the current playoff system was created, but it is still better than what they came up with.
1. Don’t use the bowls to decide any aspect of who will qualify for a playoff or to determine seeding. The current, often-corrupt bowl system needs a complete overhaul, and it should only showcase the teams who meet any set standard of “bowl eligibility” who don’t qualify for the championship playoffs. Any charities affected by the loss of bowl revenues should be compensated from what will surely be massive amounts of TV rights money and ticket sales at the playoff games. In fact, I think charitable giving (rather than the NCAA coffers) should be one of the primary missions of the FBS playoffs, and most should be educational (scholarships, hardware and software purchases, teacher training. See #8 for another idea).
2. Yes, a playoff is the fairest and most lucrative way to decide which team is the best. I take it for granted the vast majority of football fans are in favor of finding a single champion (there is some charm in the old arguments – they will probably still occur anyway). I think, with an emphasis on safety, that more than 2 playoff games is uncalled for, so I propose 4 teams be seeded, with #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3 at neutral sites, with the winners playing again in 7-10 days for the national championship at a neutral site.
3. Here is one of my original ideas: every FBS team in an eligible conference must keep an open date on a weekend in November. This weekend will be used to create match-ups between teams in contention for the playoffs and otherwise allow for more interesting pairings. For example, this past season Alabama might have played Arizona, FSU played Baylor, OSU – Mississippi State, etc. These games would be settled as late as possible to allow for efficient travel and ticket sales as well as the best match-ups, and each team would alternate a home and away game in this time slot every other year. The gate would be split. This would even include games like Tennessee – Colorado, Nebraska – Ole Miss, etc. Everyone would get one game like this. It would help keep the playoffs shorter by helping clarify which teams are most deserving. It would be one of their 12 regular season games, not in addition to the other games.
4. Along with this schedule shift, any FBS team wanting to be considered for the national championship would not be allowed to play any games against non-FBS schools. No more lucrative easy games against FCS schools in the early season or to rest up at the end of the year before the conference championships. The FCS schools will miss out on some money, but they shouldn’t be so worried about that money anyway. This would also encourage more challenging match-ups between the big schools to help sort out the playoffs.
5. I would also propose that, for integrity’s sake, any school with a graduation rate below some reasonable standard, say 50%-60% (I would hope it would be higher) in 6 years (with a 6 year scholarship – still only 4 years of eligibility - as well), would be ineligible for the playoffs. This would be figured over the past 4-5 years (so, some teams with poor graduation rates might know before the season starts they would not be eligible. The student-athletes would be more motivated to keep each other on the right track.). It would be one area where NCAA or other enforcement would be needed to keep schools from cheating on the academics. Also for integrity and health, better and more uniform testing for PEDs (most schools do limited testing and only for drugs of abuse, a hidden scandal), with SCHOOLS receiving bans for players testing positive (yes, this may allow for sabotage, but how paranoid are we. Um)
6. No game would be played after New Year’s Day (or the second of January should January1 fall on a Sunday). The playoff games and championship games need not be played right away after the conference championships – time between would allow for students to finish their exams, etc. There could also be a consolation game for the losers of the first playoff games on New Year’s Day.
7. No team would be eligible for the playoffs if it lost its last game, even if its only loss was in its conference championship in an unforgettably awesome game. It still lost and is not worthy of further playoffs. For example, a previously unbeaten Ohio State would not be eligible if it lost to Michigan St. in the championship game. Since the Big 12 at present doesn’t have a championship game, it would have to have a superior team without a last-game loss to be eligible for the playoffs.
8. Paying the players at the big football schools is likely inevitable, but I would propose also that revenue from these playoff games be set aside to give to players from the teams, either just in the playoffs, or in the entire FBS, who graduate in 6 years as “seed money” (say, $30-40,000) for their future careers or for graduate school, etc. It would give even more encouragement to students to stick it out, especially that last semester, with the combines, etc. encouraging most to stop attending classes.
There will be plenty of money to go around as long as licensing fees, etc. continue on the current trend, and I think it will be an even bigger thing. There will be plenty to talk about to generate more interest: who will be matched up on the open dates, what graduation rates are, feel good stories about student athletes making good with their seed money. It is a win-win-win-win, with the only losers being some of the big bowl committees, which is fine with me.