Complete overhaul of College Football

Article written and submitted by: Mike Bryant

I've been doing some thinking on a the way to compromise and get college football fans all they are looking for in the season. Fans want better OOC games, a real solution in the determination of a national champion, and less bowl games clogging the December calendar.

So how does that happen? Well, it took some work and a radical way of looking at the problems but here we go.

Step #1

Re-Align all the conferences so that each conference has 10 teams. New conferences would be....

ACC
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
North Carolina State
South Florida
Wake Forest
Miami (FL)
South Carolina

Big East
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Boston College
Rutgers
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Connecticut

Big 10
Cincinnati
Indiana
Notre Dame
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Plains Conference
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Illinois
Oklahoma State
Tulsa
Colorado

Pacific-10
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

Southern Conference
Baylor
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Arkansas
TCU
Oklahoma
Southern Miss
UTEP
LSU

SEC
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Mississippi State
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Louisville
Mississippi

Mountain West
Air Force
Brigham Young
Colorado State
New Mexico
San Diego State
UNLV
Rice
Southern Methodist
Houston
Tulane

Sun Belt
Arkansas State
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee State
North Texas
Troy
Louisiana Tech
Memphis

WAC
Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Idaho
Nevada
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Utah State
Utah
Wyoming

Conference USA
East Carolina
Marshall
UAB
UCF
Army
Navy
Buffalo
Western Kentucky
Temple
Bowling Green

Mid-American
Akron
Ball State
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Kent State
Miami (OH)
Northern Illinois
Ohio
Toledo
Western Michigan

Each conference team will play all the other teams in conference, 2 out of conference games, and teams can not schedule 1-AA teams. This 11 game schedule will feature no more than 6 home games, will only include one bye week, and will be concluded the weekend before Thanksgiving.

The change in scheduling removes the need for Conference Title games and allows for Bowl Games to begin the weekend of Thanksgiving and run through the following weekend. Teams must win 7 games to qualify for a bowl game and the BCS will no longer exist. The PAC 10 champ and Big 10 Champ get the Rose Bowl back and other bowl games will take place as before the BCS.

At the conclusion of the bowl games there will be a break for student exams. Then the top 6 teams in the country (after the bowl games) will be selected for a playoff. The playoff will begin after the completion of exams in the middle of December. Teams 3 & 6 and 4 & 5 will play in Round 1. The winners will advance to play teams 1 & 2 the following weekend. The better seed will have home field advantage and the NCAA will pay for all team travel. The championship game will take place on New Year's Day at a rotating site.

There it is, never gonna happen but it sure would be nice improvement to college football.