Making CFB Perfect

[mikeshardtakes]

I hate what college football is becoming. The issues keep compiling and every attempt of resolving issues ends up creating 10 more. As I say that, here is my two cents on how things should run.

Calendar:

- Start the season a couple weeks earlier into mid August

- All teams have one bye, not two

- No week 0 games, everybody starts the same weekend

- BYE week in between conclusion of regular season and start of playoff/bowl season that would be the first week of December for national signing day and award season shows

- The week after the bye the playoff immediately starts, with the championship game set to be played the first Saturday in January

- The one and only portal window would open the Monday after the national championship and be open for two weeks

The Playoff:

My biggest beef with college football is that it is the only sport that we watch with subjectivity involved in declaring who competes for a national champion, so I want to remove as much of that as possible. While I know a lot of fans of Big 10 and SEC teams will cry about this part of the model, it is what it is: Each power 4 conference will have its top 4 teams from its conference standings advance into round 1 of the playoff - and to defend my position I will say this: if you finished 5th or 6th in the SEC you have no business being in the playoff, things are uneven sometimes, countless times throughout recent years across he MLB, NFL and NBA have their been divisions that ridiculously loaded while others struggle, it is what it is - handle your business in the regular season and you don't have to worry about it.

I compare the group of five vs the power five as 3A vs 6A football. You're not going to have Desoto vs Yoakum - so separate them. My model can work in a format for 4, 8, 12 or 16, just remove a team from each conference in the outline below, but for the purpose of this, I will use a 16 team playoff.

- No Group of 5 Teams (they have their own playoff)

- Each of the power 5 conferences will have their top four teams in their standings into round 1 of the playoffs.

 

Round 1 | Conference Semifinals (at venue of higher ranked team):

Conference 1 seed vs 4 seed

Conference 2 seed vs 3 seed

Round 2 | Conference Championship (at venue of higher ranked team):

Winner of 1v4 vs Winner of 2v3

Round 3 | National Semifinals (Played at rotating bowl locations/neutral site):

The four "conference champions" will play in semifinals with the highest ranked team playing the lowest ranked team and the middle two playing each other

1 Seed Champ vs 4 Seed Champ

2 Seed Champ vs 3 Seed Champ

Round 4 | National Championship (playing at rotating bowl locations/neutral site):

Winner of 1v4 vs Winner of 2v3

 

The Portal/Transferring:

- Players sign one year contracts on signing day as freshmen with their LOI and the contract is up for renewal upon completion of "league year" which would be the week following the national championship

- Players are allowed one "free" transfer every two years, any other transfer must result in sitting out a year.

- No interconference transfers without sitting out a year.

- Only exception to sitting out a year is if the coach leaves.

- If player is "pushed out" this is treated like players being cut in the pros and the player can transfer without penalty.

 

NIL:

- Keep revenue sharing, but remove the cap - similar to MLB - the major programs are what drive the sport and should not be punished for having more money.

- All agents must be certified similar to pro league model.

 

Administration/TV:

- Replace NCAA with Commissioner + league office, conference commissioners can organize this together and choose a commissioner.

- Commissioner is the spokesman of the league and does not hold absolute authority, though carries out and enforces rules/punishments (this should limit blatant and destructive tampering)

- Have committees over certain aspects like the NFL does (i.e. Competition Committee)

- Remove conference affiliation from referees and train them all as one body.

- Organize TV deals as one entity as opposed to competing conference vs conference.