If I Were the King of College Football

Well, if I were the King of College Football it would be quite fantastic. There's plenty I would do to improve the game. It's already the greatest sport, and my tweaks would make it just a little sweeter.

First, I'd get rid of the NCAA. After all, I'm the king and I'm running things...who needs the stupid NCAA and their authoritarian rule. I'll set up private organizations to investigate each school. Each of these organizations would be assigned to four schools, two out of one conference and two out of another within the same geographic location. They will rotate off those schools after one year's time and begin on four new schools. Any outstanding investigations will be handled by the next organization. Each school is thoroughly investigated each year, non-stop. The goal is no cheating. If you're caught I won't take away wins, I'll punish the players and coaches involved and restrict the athletic department with lack of scholarships and fines. But I won't punish innocent past players and coaches or current players with no postseason bowl games.

Second, let's streamline conference alignment. All independents must join a conference, including Notre Dame. 10 conferences with 12 teams each. Each team plays 9 conference games. There will be 5 "power conferences" and 5 "lower conferences". Each year, on the first game of the year teams from the power conferences play a team from another power conference who finished the previous season with the same conference rank. For example, if Oklahoma State finished 4th in the Big 12, then they would play California who finished 4th in the Pac 12. That game happens every year and rotates home and home every year. SEC #1 vs. Big Ten #1 happens every year. ACC #2 vs. Pac 12 #2 happens every year....that sort of thing. The conference with the worst record in these games gets substituted for the lower conference which had the best record when they played their games. That way you always have the best 5 conferences in there and there is some exciting competition. If agreed upon, the teams can play at a neutral site like the Chick-Fil-A kickoff classic in Atlanta. If you play 5 conference road games and a inter-conference road game...well, that sucks. But most likely the voters will give you some slack for a tough schedule.

So there are 9 conference games and the first game of the season is designated to be played as I stated above. The 11th game is the homecoming game which is played against whatever lower conference team you make a deal with. There are only 1-year contracts for the homecoming game as a school could go from lower to power in a year's time. And the payout is $500,000 + 10% of receipts not to exceed $800,000 to prevent the worst teams from just going to Texas to get their brains beaten in to collect $1,000,000.

The 12th game is optional. You can play a 1-AA (FCS) school before the season starts if you wish. However, if you play this game you must win 7 games to advance to a bowl game. This game would be played on one of the two weekends leading up to Labor Day weekend. This does several things: it acts as a preseason game that counts, it gives a school a chance to make a lot of money on a home game, and it is like an appetizer to the season for fans.

Each conference has to have a conference championship game. Come up with the two teams however you want to, but you have to have a championship game to be played on the first Saturday of December.

Create a 4-team playoff where the first round is played on New Year's day as whichever bowl game has bid enough to host the game. For example, #1 vs. #4 in the Fiesta Bowl and #2 vs. #3 in the Sugar Bowl. Then play the championship game on the Saturday during the weekend before the Superbowl. This way teams and fans have more than three weeks to prepare for the game. This game is simply called the National Title Game and the money from it is divided between the two schools involved. However, the money is given 25% to it's conference, 25% to athletic budgets, 25% to fund new construction on campus, and 25% going to scholarships for students of that school who qualify by getting a certain GPA. By doing this everyone is truly excited to root for their school to win the championship.

And let's move the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta, GA. No reason to have it in South Bend, Indiana where Notre Dame is located. Put it in the capital of college football, Atlanta. And of course my office would be there since I reside in the ATL. Now, I need some followers to promote be to King.

JB