NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
So, I see three obvious, but solvable, problems with college football:
1. There are too many teams. They can't play each other enough to get to a merits based playoff system like the NFL has, so we have to rely upon a group of humans rather than play on the field. Committees and polls are wrong a lot.
2. The current system has too many tin can games where Purdue is playing OSU or NW has to get whooped by PSU. We need more "good on good" games that have real meaning.
3. Without divisions anymore, fan bases are losing things to care about way to early in the season. What is Iowa playing for? The precise mid-tier bowl it will play in? Yawn.
Relegation/Promotion addresses all of these issues.
First, for discussion purposes let's assume the move to super conferences continues, but we end up with three 20-team conferences, here is how it could work:
Each conference has a Premier (top) and Champions division of 10 teams each. Only the teams in the Premier Division are eligible for the playoffs. The 10 teams in each division play the other 9 teams and at the end of the year through various tie-breakers each of the 10 teams will have a rank within the division. The Top 4 teams in each of the conference Premier divisions go into the 12-team playoffs. The bottom 4 teams in the Premier division are relegated to the Champions division the next year. The Top 4 in the Champions Division are promoted. No conference title game. Keep the bowl games for fun. The other three preseason games do not count towards the standings, so schedule anyone you want. Polls are absolutely irrelevant.
There are many ways to structure this, but what I love about relegation is that pretty much everyone but the bottom couple teams has a huge incentive to win those last few games. It would make college football more exciting and make every game hugely relevant pretty much through the final game.
1. There are too many teams. They can't play each other enough to get to a merits based playoff system like the NFL has, so we have to rely upon a group of humans rather than play on the field. Committees and polls are wrong a lot.
2. The current system has too many tin can games where Purdue is playing OSU or NW has to get whooped by PSU. We need more "good on good" games that have real meaning.
3. Without divisions anymore, fan bases are losing things to care about way to early in the season. What is Iowa playing for? The precise mid-tier bowl it will play in? Yawn.
Relegation/Promotion addresses all of these issues.
First, for discussion purposes let's assume the move to super conferences continues, but we end up with three 20-team conferences, here is how it could work:
Each conference has a Premier (top) and Champions division of 10 teams each. Only the teams in the Premier Division are eligible for the playoffs. The 10 teams in each division play the other 9 teams and at the end of the year through various tie-breakers each of the 10 teams will have a rank within the division. The Top 4 teams in each of the conference Premier divisions go into the 12-team playoffs. The bottom 4 teams in the Premier division are relegated to the Champions division the next year. The Top 4 in the Champions Division are promoted. No conference title game. Keep the bowl games for fun. The other three preseason games do not count towards the standings, so schedule anyone you want. Polls are absolutely irrelevant.
There are many ways to structure this, but what I love about relegation is that pretty much everyone but the bottom couple teams has a huge incentive to win those last few games. It would make college football more exciting and make every game hugely relevant pretty much through the final game.
