Fixing College Football

PRE-SCRIPT: I wrote most of this article the day after the NBA draft so many things are dated but still wanted to give my opinion.

A few clean up tidbits before we get started on the main event. First, I like that i spent a couple hours writing a huge post about potential trades and it only turns out that there were 3 of any real consequence and none of them nearly as sexy as the ones mentioned.

Dallas getting Rudy Fernandez to possibly replace the minutes that are going to be lost with Peja and likely DeShawn Stevenson leaving is nice. Especially since Rudy is at 2.2 mil or something for this year. The proble is he plays the same position as both Caron Butler and Corey Brewer, the former of which may be re-signed and the latter I know is going to be given every opportunity to make a significant defensive impact off the bench. Rudy complained of his role in Portland and pouted about it, and I dont think it changes in Dallas. At least we gave up nothing, Jordan Hamilton can score, but he's inconsistent and he'd have a harder time cracking the rotation than Fernandez, also what do you do with the 57th pick? So whatever, I guess I'm fine with the trade since we didn't really give anything up.

I sure am going to miss this whack job and his weirdo Lincoln tattoo.

In the other part of that trade Denver and Portland swapped PGs. I like Portland getting Felton I think. Portland needed some shooters. Denver needed to replace scoring with Carmelo gone, and they got a decent scorer out of Miller.

The marquee trade of the day was the three way between Milwaukee, Sacramento, and Charlotte. Charlotte gets Maggette to replace Jackson. Seems like little was gained there. Charlotte did also move up from 19 to 7 while still keeping the 9th pick. Of course then they went and used the 7th on Bismack Biyombo who has an awesome name but a lot of work to be done on his game. Of course there is a good chance he's better than Tobias Harris (or other similar level player) who was taken at 19. Milwaukee got Stephen Jackson and Beno Udrih and that 19th pick for swapping Maggette and their 10th pick. I think Milwaukee got the better players, but man they certainly lost out with their draft pick. I'm guessing they didn't like anyone at ten. Lastly, Sac traded its 7th for the 10th and got John Salmons for Beno. I know they were targeting Jimmer or some other PG that they knew would still be one there at 10 and so they took on an extra 8 mil for a small 3. Sac did get better on shooting the 3 with Jimmer and Salmons but theres only one ball and I still don't see a quality facilitator on a team with Tyreke, Cousins, Thornton, Salmons and now Jimmer. They could score 108 pts a game but lose by 10. This trade just didn't really seem to do anything to put these three small markets in any better position.

Kings Fans rejoice! This is the picture of your savior! Let's just forget that Sacramento could have has a better player for their pick, evidenced by the next trade I evaluate.

The last notable one was San Antonio trading George Hill to Indiana for the rights to Kawhi Leonard, the 15th overall pick. I guess they just couldn't get rid of Parker. Indiana got the better end of this deal. I like Leonard a lot, but Collison struggled with the Pacers offense this year and Hill can bring his knowledge from San Antonio to a good young team. I think Indiana is a 5 or 6 this year as opposed to the 8 they were last year with the addition of Hill.

All in all my favorite part of NBA drafts - the trading, was likely affected by the looming lockout and uncertainty as to the economics of the new NBA after the lockout ends. These trades didn't drastically change the talent landscape anywhere and really resulted in a let down for me.

Moving on to the main event, on my way home from another championship game loss to our bitter archrivals in my old man softball league, I heard maybe the best idea for changing how college football arrives at its champion from John Calipari - Kentucky's basketball coach: His take: 4 super conferences (North, South, East, West) of 16 to 18 teams each, two divisions of 8 or 9 per conference. The division winners play in a championship of each conference, with the winners of each conference squaring off as semi-finalists against other conference winners in what essentially amounts to a plus 1 format. I LOVE THIS IDEA! So much so, I am going to elaborate and show what the new landscape would look like.

First, it definitely has to be 18 teams in each conference and possibly 20. You have to include as many former D1A teams as possible so as to limit the outcry from teams that will ultimately get left out (There are 120 right now, with 4 more obtaining membership in 2013). If you do 20 per conference, then you get 10 team conferences. Each team must play every other in their conference for 9 games and then they can schedule independently 3 other games (allowing to preserve old school non-conference rivalries like Florida-FSU, or the creation of home and home deals like the Cal-Tennessee games).

The division winners are determined by division record only, with of course allotting similar tiebreakers as you see in the NFL. By doing this you allow other schools the freedom to actually schedule better non-division opponents because the fear of losing a tough out of conference game disappears and those home and home deals are lucrative for each program involved because it draws another marquee matchup in the stadium as well as the resulting TV production revenue. College football fans win becaue you get more good early season games rather than Florida v. Appalachian State.

This system does everything a college football wants to see. You take care of that crap you see in the SEC and Big 10 where you don't play every school in your conference so some years youll have an undefeated Iowa or Wisconsin or Michigan State because they didn't have to play someone equally difficult like Ohio State. The winner at each level is determined solely by the play on the field. The division winners play each other and then the conference winners play each other. No polls (of course you can still have them for fun, or for national semifinals seeding purposes), no computers, no debate.

So with the system in place what would these superconferences look like? Let's find out starting with the West.

I think you keep every Pac-12 school. They generally make money for each other, they have significant tradition and big time ratings markets. So USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, OSU, Washington, WSU, Arizona, ASU, Utah, and Colorado you're in. BYU is automatically in because they have enough pull on their own to go independent. That leaves 7 spaces. Geographically I'd like them to be as West as possible, but you may have to start to really dip into Texas, which might be better served staying as the South.

So let's go hunting starting with the second best western conference: the MWC. They are in flux with TCU, Utah and BYU heading out and Hawaii, Boise State, Fresno State, and Reno heading in. TCU will find their way in to a super conference at this point, but being in the Dallas area it's unclear whether I put them in the West or South. Boise has been good for a little while, but are they top 80 and top 20 in the west? I think so, let's add them. That gives us 14. Fresno State is interesting and has given us great players and great seasons for a long time now. Hawaii is the same way. I'd like to add them for 16. The remainder: Reno, SDSU, Wyoming, New Mexico, Air Force, Colorado State, and UNLV just do not strike me as competitors. Let's explore the WAC before filling out our final 4.

After the MWC realignment the WAC will consist of Idaho, Lousiana Tech, New Mexico St, San Jose St, Utah St, and 4 new members: University of Denver, Seattle University, University of Texas - San Antonio, Texas State University - San Marcos. Yeah the WAC is cut. You could just add 4 major Texas programs (Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU) but then you break up the Texas/OU rivalry out of division. I think that's just a game you keep despite being out of conference and you add these Texas programs to the list. So here is the new West Superconference:

Division A (Oceanic or Something)
Hawaii
USC
UCLA
Fresno St
Cal
Stanford
Oregon
OSU
Washington
WSU

Division B (Mountain or Something)
Arizona
Arizona State
BYU
Utah
Boise St
Colorado
Texas
Baylor
Texas Tech
TCU

These look fairly balanced - Division B may be stronger, but just having Oregon and USC makes it close as they are 2 of the 3 best programs in this superconference. I get giddy seeing TCU and Texas play every year, as well as really finding out how good the Pac10 really is running up against the winner of the half MWC/half Big 12 division every year. Plus you know Fresno State will give one of the powerhouses a run every year, so even the little man can compete in thee divisions.




VERSUS




The idea of this game every year gets me giddy.

Moving to the South!

This one is going to create an amalgam of a few conferences, but it makes the geography better:

All 12 SEC schools are in except Kentucky, I move them: Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Vanderbilt (I may whack this one later), Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Miss St, Florida, , South Carolina. Texas A&M gets split off its Texas brethren to join the G6 conference. Oklahoma and OSU fit better in the south than in the north. Thats 14. FSU and Miami, your in the south move on up. That's 16. Clemson is in South Carolina, no reason to have one and not the other. 17. Georgia Tech, same thing. 18. Now it gets tricky. You have the Sun Belt. I'm not going to list them, but their best school is Florida Int'l and they just started their football program less than a decade ago. That conference is cut. You have Conference USA with teams like Southern Miss, Central Florida, Tulane, Tulsa, Memphis and Houston and the Big East with South Florida, and Baylor out of the Big 12. I think of those teams, South Florida has definitely earned its way in. 19. Every one of those other teams has made a case in the past to be included, but I think I go with Southern Miss. They have posted 16 consecutive winning seasons and just seem to be the overall best of the lot. That's 20. Yeah I actually cut a BCS school but Baylor just didn't measure up for me. Here's the breakdown

Division A (Gulfstream "Like a G6!" Or something)

Oklahoma
OSU
Arkansas
LSU
Alabama
Auburn
Mississippi
Miss St
Southern Miss
Texas A&M

Division B (The Plantation or something)

Georgia
Georgia Tech
Vanderbilt
Tennessee
Florida
Florida St
Miami
South Florida
South Carolina
Clemson

WOW! Division A may be stronger in this super conference but can you imagine the 9 game division slate in each of these divisions. The TV market would explode. Even if you end up with a dud (any game involving Vanderbilt or Kentucky) there are a million other good games in this conference. This would be awesome seeing OU play LSU every year, or seeing the 4 best Florida teams square off every year.




VERSUS




That's a pretty sick game to be played every single year. Those two programs are traditionally really good.

Moving to the North!

All Big 10 schools get placed here, except Penn St. They may get reserved for the East where they belong anyway. So Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana (I'd love to cut them), Minnesota (ditto), Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Northwestern, and Iowa. That's 11. You need to pick up the remaining Big 12 schools (except Baylor): Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State. That's 15. Notre Dame, you're here. 16. Penn State is still available. But I'll withhold for now. The Big East offers a couple of good geographical teams: Louisville and Cincinnati. Let's add them, that's 18. We can explore the Conference USA and the MAC. I think you add Central Michigan and Toledo from the MAC. That's 20 solid programs. Here are the division splits:

Division A (Leaders - Yes that's an actually Division title in the Big 10)

Kansas
Kansas St
Iowa
Iowa State
Missouri
Nebraska
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern

Division B (Legends - Yet another brilliant name from the Big 10)

Michigan
Michigan St
Central Michigan
Toledo
Cincinnati
Louisville
Ohio State
Indiana
Purdue
Kentucky

Even with 2 MAC schools I think Division B is stronger. True neither of these conferences really pop out at you, but that's because Big10 football sucks, but in our scheme you need 80 teams, and so you are going to have mediocre teams. I think if anything these divisions, especially the Division A will be highly competitive. Not a lot to look forward to here so no logos.

Lastly, the East!

So this one gets tricky. I'm glad I saved Penn State for the east, not only because it geographically makes more since, but because off the top of my head i may struggle to put together 20 teams, but let's go!

The remaining ACC teams end up here except Duke and Wake Forest. I'm not sold on them yet. So you get Boston College, Maryland, UNC, NC St, Virginia and Virginia Tech. You get Penn State from the Big 10. That's 7! Almost to a division. Let's pick up what we can from the Big East that hasn't already been pirated. Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia, you're in. That's 10. Pitt you're in. That's 11. I think to keep this going, we have to re-add Duke and Wake Forest, that's 13. Notre Dame will go here, not technically good geographically but they play in the Big East for basketball so it helps. 14. I am going to give them Florida International. They keep winning the Sun Belt and are such a young program my guess is that they continue to trend up going forward and are surely one of the best 80 programs. Thats 15. UConn is also a building program and belongs here, I mean they did make a BCS bowl last year! 16. Navy has been a decent but boring program, make them 17. Army is located in West Point, NY, better preserve the meaning of the traditional Army Navy game. Up to 18. I like Marshall University here for geography reasons (West Virginia) and that they could succeed if they were made a top 80 program. 19. For the last program I have to pull from the MAC again and take the Temple Owls. Al Golden lead that program to acceptability, and now they have managed to pull Steve Addazio who was a prized coordinator off of Florida's staff. I think they have enough to be a top 80 program.

Division A (Union)

Syracuse
Army
Navy
UCONN
Boston College
Rutgers
Notre Dame
Penn State
Temple
Pittsburgh

Division B (Confederate)

West Virginia
Marshall
Virginia
Virginia Tech
UNC
North Carolina State
Duke
Wake Forest
Florida International
Maryland


Honestly, as tough as it was to fill in, taking Penn State and Notre Dame out of the North and putting them in the East made this a more watchable conference and Division B is actually really solid reuniting Virginia Tech and West Virginia from their days in the Big East together. This division would produce some great football games every year.





VERSUS




This is a legitimately good game every year and one people would be willing to watch.

How outstanding is this? It creates numerous epic games every week. It solves our problems of which conference has better competition since it doesnt matter. If you are the best you will come out of your conference to play in the playoff since you have to play everyone in your division plus the best team to play everyone in the other division. So even though the West and South look absolutely stacked the best team will still survive.

So what do we do with the other 72 teams that miss the conference championships and championship playoffs? Why stick them in bowl games of course! No reason not to make money where there is money to be made. What do we do with the other 40 D1 teams that didnt make my cut? Fuck 'em. We could make a relegation type system like what european soccer leagues have and drop crappy programs and add up and coming ones after a review every 4 or 5 years. But generally, no one is going to miss schools like San Jose State or University of Buffalo. But this is about decided who is the best team in a what should be a normal way to decide any champion, take the best and pit them against each other.

I would absolutely love to see this put in action. It puts multiple excellent games on the TV (and betting) schedule every week. It resolves who is the best by actually playing it out on the playing field and we are heading for this system anyway. The Big 10 and Pac 10 have because the new Big 12 and Pac 12. The SEC and ACC are already 12. The Big East is even moving to 12 in the next couple of years. The conferences are too big for these teams to play each other every year (South Carolina doesn't have to play Alabama or LSU this year?!?!?). This system just makes perfect sense for the sport and its fans. Put in the superconferences!

What do you think? Too many teams in my system? Too few? Reorganize based on something other than geography? Or do you like what we have now?