June 15, 2009

The thought that won't go away.

A few months back I presented a pithy college football structure in a comment that has grown more endearing to me at time has passed. I still stand by my primary proposal, but this concept is currently my #2 option. #3 would be an Australian rules football like structure.

The current system is near dead last, just above whatever mess congress could create that would not fix anything and lose money.

Premise
If the current system is valuable because it maintains the value nd intensity of the regular season and the rich tradition of the bowls, why not maximize the value of both?

The basic idea is to maintain the traditional conferences but allow the top teams to represent their conferences in regional elite leagues. This would involve 10 round-robin matches 5 home and 5 away, and allow participants to maintain 2 traditional rivalries. The leagues would thus have 11 members each.

Post season
The top 2 western teams would meet for the Fiesta Bowl, the top 2 eastern teams would meet for the Sugar Bowl and the winners would advance to the Rose Bowl. All other elite teams would host a regional bowl against the top teams from their regions in the remaining bowls, with elite status on the line. These would be seeded with the top outsiders playing the lowest record elite team. This would require 40 other bowl games and 12 new bowl slots. The fact that roughly 16 elite teams would have a losing record would fill these spots.

Tie Breakers:

1) Head to head
(Only 3 or 5 way ties can pass here in a league playing a full round robin schedule)
2) MOV between participating teams
(A beat B, B beat C and C beat A all by the same amount)
3) The team with the longest tenure as an elite team is selected

Initial membership
The elite conferences would need to be seeded. In order of initial seeded tenure we get the following four conferences:

North: Ohio State, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Boston College, Penn State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Michigan State, Connecticut

South: Florida, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Louisville, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Clemson, South Florida

Midwest: Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, TCU, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Texas A&M

West: USC, Boise State, BYU, Utah, Hawaii, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, California, UCLA, Arizona

Conclusion
With these four conferences all playing round robin schedules the regular season would be GREATLY enhanced. You get to a bowl game and win you WILL BE in contention for the title next year. You don't cut it as an elite team and lose your bowl game you WILL LOSE your elite status. The bowls would have real value.

The only question is who would the other 2 Big East teams play? The other 3 PAC 10 teams or the other 4 Big 12 teams maybe? The 5 SEC teams and 6 ACC teams left would obviously play each other, as neither one likes to travel very far.

[Author puts down the pipe and walks away]

Comments:

The thought that won't go away.
A few months back I presented a pithy college football structure in a comment that has grown more endearing to me at time has passed. I still stand by my primary proposal, but this concept is currently my #2 option. #3 would be an Australian rules football like structure. The current system is near dead last, just above whatever mess congress could create that would not fix anything and lose money. Premise If the current system is valuable because it maintains the value nd intensity of the regular season and the rich tradition of the bowls, why not maximize the value of both? The basic idea is to maintain the traditional conferences but allow the top teams to represent their conferences in regional elite leagues. This would involve 10 round-robin matches 5 home and 5 away, and allow participants to maintain 2 traditional rivalries. The leagues would thus have 11 members each. Post season The top 2 western teams would meet for the Fiesta Bowl, the top 2 eastern teams would meet for the Sugar Bowl and the winners would advance to the Rose Bowl. All other elite teams would host a regional bowl against the top teams from their regions in the remaining bowls, with elite status on the line. These would be seeded with the top outsiders playing the lowest record elite team. This would require 40 other bowl games and 12 new bowl slots. The fact that roughly 16 elite teams would have a losing record would fill these spots. Tie Breakers: 1) Head to head (Only 3 or 5 way ties can pass here in a league playing a full round robin schedule) 2) MOV between participating teams (A beat B, B beat C and C beat A all by the same amount) 3) The team with the longest tenure as an elite team is selected Initial membership The elite conferences would need to be seeded. In order of initial seeded tenure we get the following four conferences: North: Ohio State, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Boston College, Penn State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Michigan State, Connecticut South: Florida, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Louisville, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Clemson, South Florida Midwest: Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, TCU, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Texas A&M West: USC, Boise State, BYU, Utah, Hawaii, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, California, UCLA, Arizona Conclusion With these four conferences all playing round robin schedules the regular season would be GREATLY enhanced. You get to a bowl game and win you WILL BE in contention for the title next year. You don't cut it as an elite team and lose your bowl game you WILL LOSE your elite status. The bowls would have real value. The only question is who would the other 2 Big East teams play? The other 3 PAC 10 teams or the other 4 Big 12 teams maybe? The 5 SEC teams and 6 ACC teams left would obviously play each other, as neither one likes to travel very far. [Author puts down the pipe and walks away]