My NCAA Football Overhaul

[Titansfan777]

Alright, so everyone criticizes many things about college football. Here is my attempt to satisfy the masses. Allow me to digress:

Step #1: Notre Dame Joins the Big 10

It is pretty much a toss-up on if they join the Big 10 or Big East as of now-If they even join a conference at all. If I am living my dream here as the NCAA President, I threaten them with everything I can to get them to join a conference, and in this scenario, the Big 10.

Step #2: Re-Branding the Big 10

With the addition of the Fighting Irish, the Big 10 name is just foolish now. There haven't been 10 teams in the conference for the better part of two decades now. Now is the time to change the name, The new name of the conference in this will be the Midwestern Conference - The MWC.

With 12 teams now, the conference now will be divided into 2 divisions with roughly equal talent/prestige in each division:

Northern Division:
-Minnesota
-Michigan
-Michigan State
-Northwestern
-Notre Dame
-Wisconsin

Southern Division:
-Illinois
-Indiana
-Iowa
-Ohio State
-Penn State
-Purdue

The new conference, the MWC can now have a championship game. The game will be played on a rotating basis between Soldier Field, Lucas Oil Stadium, and Ford Field. All of these stadiums are in large centers of population and are some of the best facilities out there. Also, the stadiums locations are spread out throughout the conference too for what it would be worth.

The MWC conference champion would get an automatic bid in the playoff system I have devised. The rest of the teams get a chance at the at large bids. As always, the top team from each division plays in the game. Also, the conference would sign a contract with a network like FOX or NBC to exclusively show their team's home games - much like the SEC on CBS. As for scheduling, the MWC would have a strict scheduling blueprint as follows:

-You play each team in your division once (5 games)
-You play 3 teams in the other division once (3 games)
-You play 3 Out of conference games (3)

Step 3: The Big East Gets a Bit Bigger

Marshall and USF join the Big East, bringing both decent Basketball teams and very good football programs. Bringing these schools in allows the Big East to grow in new areas and also strengthens the conference overall.

With 10 Teams now, the conference also follows suit and divides into two divisions:

Northern
-Cincinnati
-Pittsburgh
-Rutgers
-Syracuse
-Connecticut

Southern
-Louisville
-Marshall
-West Virginia
-UCF
-USF

And also has a championship game between the top team from each division. The game can be played in multiple stadiums in the regions, including Lincoln Financial Field, Heinz Field, and Gillette Stadium. The winner also gets an automatic bid in postseason activities while other teams will have to get at large bids. Also, due to the new teams, schedules will be redone as so:

-You play your own divisions teams once (4 games)
-You play 4 games against the other division (4 games)
-You play 3 out of conference games (3 games)

Step 4: Conference USA Changes Things Up A Bit

With the defections of USF and Marshall, the conference is down to 10 teams. As is, the conference could divide into divisions but actually just keeps itself intact as is and only adds a championship game to the mix where the top two teams overall play each other. The New look of the conference looks as so:

-East Carolina
-Houston
-Memphis
-Rice
-SMU
-Southern Mississippi
-Tulane
-Tulsa
-UAB
-UTEP

The winner of the conference is assured a spot in one of the Big 4 Bowl games. (Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange)

Step #5: Hey Pac-10, You're Next

Time to add in a championship game to the conference instead of round robin only. So what they do is The following:

-Continue the round robin schedule (9 Games)
-Schedule 2 out of conference games (2 games)

The two top teams will meet in the conference championship game for an automatic bid. The game can be played at various stadiums in the area, such as Qwest Field, University of Phoenix Stadium, and the new stadium possibly being built in LA. This is one of the few conferences that doesn't experience much of a change in terms of new teams or anything drastic.

What About Some of the Other Conferences???

SEC: Stays intact and is not changed...good for you!!!
-Conference champion automatically qualifies for playoffs.
Big12: Also stays how it is...kudos for being ahead of the game!!!
-Conference champion automatically qualifies for playoffs.
ACC: Its all good...Good job setting your league up right!!!
-Conference champion automatically qualifies for playoffs.

Also, a new rule will be in effect for all teams. All teams will have an 11 game regular season limit and also, all teams get one bye week during the regular season. The season will start in the first weekend in September and end in the weekend before Thanksgiving. All championship games will be played the weekend following Thanksgiving. The playoffs then start the next weekend.

Step: 6: A new Poll

A new ranking system will be used, replacing the Coaches, USA today, BCS, ESPN, Fox and every other poll out there - Just one poll that doesn't come out until the the end of the 6th week of the football season. By no poll coming out right away, it gives all team in all conferences a good chance to show what they have and to impress the voters. Also, the poll will only have 24 spots instead of 25.

[Titansfan777]

Step 7: Playoffs? Playoffs?!?!?!

Yes, playoffs. The playoffs will be done as such. There will be 24 teams in the tournament. Due to there being many bowl games already, teams not qualifying for the tournament are put into one of 10 possible bowls possibly.

The Playoffs will have two types of bye-weeks. The teams that won their respective conferences get a one week bye, along with the top two ranked teams in the rankings regardless that aren't two of the 6 conference winners. And the remaining 16 teams must play right away. Lastly, like the NFL playoffs, there is a bye week between the semifinals and the Championship Game. This might sound confusing so it can be broken down like so with the current BCS rankings:

1-Florida
2-Alabama
3-Texas
4-TCU
5-Cincinnati
6-Boise State
7-Georgia Tech
8-Oregon
9-Pittsburgh
10-Ohio State
11-Iowa
12-Oklahoma State
13-Penn State
14-Virginia Tech
15-LSU
16-Oregon State
17-Miami (FL)
18-Clemson
19-Brigham Young
20-USC
21-Utah
22-California
23-Houston
24-North Carolina

Assumptions:
-The highest ranked team in their conference is assumed to win their conference in this just to help make the point easier.

Here is how you read it:
-The teams get a 1 week bye and are in bold and black.
-The teams in Red are the 2 highest ranking teams regardless of conference/conference champions, who also get a week bye.
-Like the NCAA basketball tournament, you always play highest vs. lowest seed in this tournament too.

Essentially, the tournament will be broken down as such:
Week one: The week after all of the conference championship games. The 16 teams will play each other and the eight teams that advance will more on to the 2nd week.
Week two: The 8 remaining "wild card" teams will face the teams that got bye weeks.
Week three: The semifinals pitting the remaining 4 teams against each other.
Week four: The Championship game. The game will be played on a rotating basis as it is now at multiple stadiums.

Also, the higher seeded teams will host their game at their home field, essentially bringing the NFL's home field advantage in the playoffs to the NCAA. It would essentially work the same way too. This would be great for making amazing games in December and into early January. Imagine seeing a team like USC play PSU in Happy Valley, or LSU playing in Austin, Texas. The revenue that would be generated by the schools in the playoffs by doing this would be astronomical. And you know the matchups would draw more interest than most pro games. Setting up the football playoffs as such would quite possibly make NCAA football the biggest sport in America, eclipsing the NFL even.

The stadiums chosen for the championship game are the following:

Rose Bowl/New LA Stadium - Los Angeles, California
Soldier Field - Chicago, Illinois
New Giants Stadium - Meadowlands, New Jersey
Landshark Stadium - Miami, Florida

All huge markets with very modern stadiums and plenty of hotels/things to do in the area. It also brings NCAA postseason activities to two very large markets in Chicago and NYC. Also, for the first time ever, major bowl games will be played in colder environments. Some might say that these games wouldn't be as sexy as a game in Florida or SoCal or other places in the sunbelt, but these cities are so large and vibrant that they could attract large throngs of fans and with so much to do it would offset the cold weather that would be present in early january.

Step 8: What to do about the current bowl games???

Currently, there are 34 Bowl games. Thats 68 teams that play in postseason activities at the moment - thats over half of D-1. The current games will be turned into 10 bowl games as follows:

Rose Bowl - Los Angeles, CA
Orange Bowl - Miami, FL
Sugar Bowl - New Orleans, LA
Fiesta Bowl - Phoenix, AZ
Cotton Bowl - Dallas, TX
Alamo Bowl - San Antonio, TX
Outback Bowl - Tampa, FL
Capital One Bowl - Orlando, FL
Liberty Bowl - Memphis, TN
Peach Bowl - Atlanta, GA

These bowls will have modified tie-ins as they already do. Teams that are in the playoffs cannot qualify for these bowls. These bowls are somewhat like the NIT in basketball, a great consolation prize for having a great season but missing the playoffs. Also, all teams would have to obtain at least a 7-5 record to get to a bowl game - ensuring winning teams and eliminating many 6-6 teams who don't have what it takes or haven't lived up to expectations to get in. These games will be played on their regularly scheduled dates.

The Final Schedule for all teams

Here is what the typical schedule would look like for a team if they were to make the playoffs:

9/5-UCONN
9/12-Western Michigan
9/19-Marshall
9/26-@ Notre Dame
10/3-@ Minnesota
10/10-Michigan State
10/17-Wisconsin
10/24-@ Northwestern
10/31-@ Iowa
11/7-Bye Week
11/14-Indiana
11/21-@ Ohio State
11/28-Conference Championship Game
12/5-Wildcard round of playoffs
12/12-Round of 16
12/19-Round of 8
12/26-Round of 4
1/2-Bye Week
1/9-Championship Game

Making the maximum amount of games a team would have to play 16-17 games...Roughly an NFL season. Although, the possibility of 3 bye weeks throughout the entire season really helps the athletes out in terms of getting extra time to rest up and heal.
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So what do you think of my massive overhaul of NCAA Football. Most of this stuff I wrote is on my powerpoint as I have to give a presentation on this in my sports marketing class. So what do you think???

[Rolltide14TOMB]

i dont know what yall are talking about but does alabama need to just change the name of their games to "playoffs?" would that make people happy....LSU, Auburn, Florida= playoffs