How would you fix college football?

[OregonFan4Life]

Here comes an excessively long post as I’m home sick from work:

I’ve been looking at this postseason from two perspectives, as a duck fan and college football fan. As a duck fan, I’m so optimistic about the future and what Lanning will do and happy he got to see what it takes to build a loaded roster and win a natty, he will bring Oregon a natty.

As a college football fan, I’m furious as this asterisk postseason and the stupid committees destroying the sport with the most flawed postseason system in sports history. The beauty of college football is every week matters, and now we have a system where teams benefit from losing games which breaks everything college football is about. As I see it, Oregon won college football, they went 13-0, had a historic season, but if Ohio State wins tonight and beats Notre Dame they’ll win the old rich fools committee’s beauty pageant. College football is broken, and needs a lot of fixes, what are your ideas to fix college football? Here are some of mine, assuming they’ll keep the playoffs as 12 teams:

1) Every team plays 13 games and no more conference championship games. Ohio State benefited from losing to Michigan and got to rest while Oregon and Penn State were in a battle where Evan Stewart was injured and ultimately couldn’t play in the Rose Bowl. No more meaningless conference championships, everyone plays the same amount of games.

2) No more schedules with two FCS opponents, every power conference team plays 9 conference games with 4 non conference games, one FCS team and one G5 team, and two P4 teams with one played in November. Since the committee is determined to make judgement calls we should even up scheduling and increase P4 nonconference games so we actually know how conferences measure up against each other.

3) Screw the redshirt, give everyone 5 years of eligibility

4) If we want to treat players like pros instead of students then make them actually meet their part of the deal. Allow the transfer portal but players must be at a School for a minimum of 2 years, no transferring after one season (or one week), player can’t just bail on an NFL contract 1 week in, so why should college players? With 5 years of eligibility players can play up to 3 schools and they can apply for a hardship waiver to transfer from a school within 2 years.

5) No more early signing period and make the transfer portal period after the season ends, losing teams shouldn’t get a head start and coaches shouldn’t have to balance early signing day AND a conference championship game in the same week.

6) Shorten the time off for the postseason. I know it’s historic but no more Army-Navy getting their own week, they play their 13th game with everyone else. That is when the first round of the playoffs occur and make the second round the following week. 2 weeks off is a good reward but 25 days is way too long for any college team.

7) Stop tampering! Actually enforce it NCAA.

8) Don’t let coaches just leave whenever, have a period after the season when AD’s can contact other program coaches or assistants, and if they want to contact them during the season they have to get approval from that school’s AD.

9) Have and enforce an NIL cap, most of these high school kids aren’t worth what they’re being paid, it’s just a bidding war. Players are supposed to get paid for their name, image, and likeness, it’s not supposed to be a contract which is what it’s being treated as. Add criteria, for example, winning a Heisman is worth $1M, high school all American, $250k. I’m all for kids getting paid for their name, image, and likeness but let’s actually make it that, not a pay for play contract.

10) Have an independent consulting firm that hires, trains, and oversees all officials and make officials face the media after the game. No conferences protecting their best teams and officials being protected after they alter games.

[spacefrog13x]

All good ideas but a few of them would require either a congressional anti-trust exemption or a collective bargaining agreement.

[rsbgduck]

I agree with most of what you proposed. Especially the officials being ran by a single entity and held accountable. I would like to keep the conference championship games but don’t see it happening. I also think every conference should play 10 conference games with 3 OOC games 2 P4 and 1 G5

[buckmarkduck]

1- NIL can’t legally have a cap. They can try, but if the players take them to court, they will lose. No sports league has a cap on NIL.

The schools need to pay the players, and make them sign a 1-2 year contract. Tired of players quitting on teams mid year, or before playoffs and bowl games. A contract would stop that. Then allow one portal without sitting out, but after that it goes back to a one year of sitting out. Unless a head coach leaves or the school wants them to leave, once the contract is up.

Agree on 5 years of eligibility no RS.

12 game season for everyone, no conference title game. Top 4 teams get home field throughout the playoff until the title game. Do like the NFL, and re seed after the first round depending on the winners. Only the BIG and SEC are guaranteed a top 4 spot for the top team from both conferences. No guarantee for anyone else.

[rockthief]

good stuff which is A+ compared to this year's failure

[Duck07]

1- NIL can’t legally have a cap. They can try, but if the players take them to court, they will lose. No sports league has a cap on NIL.

The schools need to pay the players, and make them sign a 1-2 year contract. Tired of players quitting on teams mid year, or before playoffs and bowl games. A contract would stop that. Then allow one portal without sitting out, but after that it goes back to a one year of sitting out. Unless a head coach leaves or the school wants them to leave, once the contract is up.

Agree on 5 years of eligibility no RS.

12 game season for everyone, no conference title game. Top 4 teams get home field throughout the playoff until the title game. Do like the NFL, and re seed after the first round depending on the winners. Only the BIG and SEC are guaranteed a top 4 spot for the top team from both conferences. No guarantee for anyone else.

The schools actually are going to have to start paying players so this is something they are trying to figure out the details of. For example, if you get 20 Million for the players, is it for all athletes or just football and then is it spread equally or like Baseball, can you offer partial payments to the less favored recruits/players? It's going to be a fun quagmire to watch unfold and we'll be paying Mullens well for it!

I think the "new" Transfer Portal should occur after Spring Ball/Term and that you can essentially transfer in the summer and before fall camp starts; but while we still have the pretense of student-athlete, they need to fulfill that student portion for the year. This way teams don't have to recruit players to stay for playoffs/bowls outside of players who opt-out for the NFL (I think this is where the Bowl sponsors step-in with NIL...). If they want to mimic the NFL, they have to iron out the schedule side of things and it just seems like the most obvious solution to quite a few of these problems with having so many deadlines for so many different types of events in a short period.

Any team that wants to qualify for the Playoffs needs to play a Conf schedule of 9 games and can only schedule 1 FCS opponent, ie go F yourself SEC and Independents (though I'll grant ND typically has a quality SOS each year)

I'd reduce the Playoff to 8 teams, make it so that 6 highest ranked Conf Champs + 2 At-large are selected and then slotted according to rankings, with home-team hosting until the Final, which will always be held on Jan 1 at the Rose Bowl because this domed stadium stuff is gross. That means you need to start the season sooner, but I think with the proliferation of sponsor-tutes that pre-season "bowl" games between top teams from different conferences would boost ratings and still not change a teams chances at the playoffs since you've made it more about winning your conference. (Making the regular season mean less doesn't work for me as a fan).

[buckmarkduck]

1- NIL can’t legally have a cap. They can try, but if the players take them to court, they will lose. No sports league has a cap on NIL.

The schools need to pay the players, and make them sign a 1-2 year contract. Tired of players quitting on teams mid year, or before playoffs and bowl games. A contract would stop that. Then allow one portal without sitting out, but after that it goes back to a one year of sitting out. Unless a head coach leaves or the school wants them to leave, once the contract is up.

Agree on 5 years of eligibility no RS.

12 game season for everyone, no conference title game. Top 4 teams get home field throughout the playoff until the title game. Do like the NFL, and re seed after the first round depending on the winners. Only the BIG and SEC are guaranteed a top 4 spot for the top team from both conferences. No guarantee for anyone else.

The schools actually are going to have to start paying players so this is something they are trying to figure out the details of. For example, if you get 20 Million for the players, is it for all athletes or just football and then is it spread equally or like Baseball, can you offer partial payments to the less favored recruits/players? It's going to be a fun quagmire to watch unfold and we'll be paying Mullens well for it!

I think the "new" Transfer Portal should occur after Spring Ball/Term and that you can essentially transfer in the summer and before fall camp starts; but while we still have the pretense of student-athlete, they need to fulfill that student portion for the year. This way teams don't have to recruit players to stay for playoffs/bowls outside of players who opt-out for the NFL (I think this is where the Bowl sponsors step-in with NIL...). If they want to mimic the NFL, they have to iron out the schedule side of things and it just seems like the most obvious solution to quite a few of these problems with having so many deadlines for so many different types of events in a short period.

Any team that wants to qualify for the Playoffs needs to play a Conf schedule of 9 games and can only schedule 1 FCS opponent, ie go F yourself SEC and Independents (though I'll grant ND typically has a quality SOS each year)

I'd reduce the Playoff to 8 teams, make it so that 6 highest ranked Conf Champs + 2 At-large are selected and then slotted according to rankings, with home-team hosting until the Final, which will always be held on Jan 1 at the Rose Bowl because this domed stadium stuff is gross. That means you need to start the season sooner, but I think with the proliferation of sponsor-tutes that pre-season "bowl" games between top teams from different conferences would boost ratings and still not change a teams chances at the playoffs since you've made it more about winning your conference. (Making the regular season mean less doesn't work for me as a fan).

As awesome as the rose bowl is, SoCal doesn’t deserve the revenue that would bring them

[wepto]

I actually really like NIL. The SEC isn't dominating the sport anymore.

It's pretty obvious that they were paying players prior to NIL, and that NIL has evened the playing field for the other conferences. As a bonus, the players are getting paid now. I wouldn't change NIL.

The new running clock though sucks. We get less football and more commercials. I'd change that, no more running clock.

12 teams is too many for the playoff. An eight team playoff with 5 champs would be my preference.

[Alan]

i don't think eight teams are enough. too many left out if you have at large teams. which you have to. get rid of conference championship games go to 16 teams, highest seed plays lowest seed, no byes.

change dates of the transfer portal and coaches exit dates, no leaving or talking to other teams until your season is done.

if players are going to get payed as a pro have them under contract to play in post season games and under contract to play "X" amount of season for "X" amount of $$ before they hit the portal. any exemptions for coaching changes can be added to the contract.

i am sure there is more but it is just what comes to mind quickly.

[nogerO]

8 teams is just right. Anymore and these kids are playing 16,17, 18 games in a season. That is just too much to ask. Top eight teams. Highest with a home game, 8-1, 7-2, 6-3, 5-4.

[ICamel]

8 teams is just right. Anymore and these kids are playing 16,17, 18 games in a season. That is just too much to ask. Top eight teams. Highest with a home game, 8-1, 7-2, 6-3, 5-4.

Agree 100%

[buckmarkduck]

Also make the playoffs start the next week after the season ends. Don’t give teams 4-12 any extra rest. And don’t make 1-4 sit around getting rusty for a month.

[StevensTechU]

What's the argument for 5 years of eligibility, no redshirt? That seems like a pretty huge change, as records will all have to be archived and compared only against themselves. I was hoping there would be a 'covid era' that threw things off, but was hoping 2026+ would be like 2019 and before, with only that middle section the anomaly.