Let’s transition from nonsense to common sense. There are workable ways to fix the mess called “today’s major college football.”
In today’s college football, aka Semi-Pro NIL football, the talk of playoff expansion is making people all over, fans, coaches, ADs, sport reporters/analysts go to battle and lose their minds. The college football purists who haven’t brought themselves to the reality that it’s still the college football of old and don’t want to let go of the past need to be shelved.
College football, both old and recent, is long gone once colleges succumb to the pressure of whining sportscasters and families who think that, because college athletic departments make so many millions from football and basketball tournament contracts, these kids need to get paid. Well, once that happened, college football became null and void, turning into a pay-to-play semi-pro league.
Long gone are the days when bowl games mattered and were used to select the national champion. Bowl games are irrelevant; most players opt out of playing in them, and, honestly, unless they were part of the playoff structure, not one would be 50% full. Why they still play them is beyond me.
So we went to a four-team playoff. People embraced that until the committee left out their teams and calls of “this, that, being rigged, etc.” Lo and behold, a twelve-team playoff was created. Now, we’re hearing more about playoff expansion, 16, 24, 32, even the SEC and Big 10 breaking away and forming their own league structure and playing against themselves for a national title.
Photo courtesy College Football News
I somewhat understand that the last team to win a national championship outside of those two leagues was Clemson. The other leagues haven’t been a talking point for the national title in decades, it seems. We’ve even seen them go to DC and get a handle on all this NIL mess. Please! DC can’t even work together for this country, and you think they can figure out this NIL college sports mess? Keep dreaming!
You keep hearing from people, it’s all about money and not the sport anymore. Well, duh, when it costs colleges $40-50 million in payroll to have a competitive shot at having your team make the playoffs, of course, it is about the money. It costs millions to run a top-notch athletic department, and NIL just made it cost stupidly more.
No matter what any of us think and desire, our opinion doesn’t mean squat. The ADs will do what they want, whether it improves or ruins college athletics. But that doesn’t mean we can’t all throw in our two cents.
First off, quit paying freshmen players; they haven’t warranted a damn thing. Around 50% of 4–5-star athletes are busts, and if you look at most starting college football lineups, they consist of 3-star athletes. I say if you want to earn money, become a starter and hold the starting position. Instead, freshmen get a full-ride scholarship, room and board, meal plans, and medical coverage, along with other perks (not cash) in their first year.
Graphic courtesy Honest Game
Second, if an athlete decides to stay, they sign a three-year contract with that college to get paid. An athlete should only be allowed to transfer after their first year, and if they earned their college degree and want to play one more year (if eligible) and earn their master’s. No more than five years should a player be eligible to play.
Third, the payment structure should be as follows. If an athlete is a starter, they should get paid $250,000; a backup, $175,000; and the rest, $100,000. There should be incentives thrown in as well. If their team makes the playoffs, they get a $100,000 bonus, and if they win the national title, they get an additional $150,000 bonus. An athlete earning $500,000 is making a lot of money. Colleges could even include player-award bonuses if they choose to. This structure is fair; the colleges won’t go bankrupt, and honestly, it will make the sports even more competitive because players will have to earn their money and will strive harder to be that starter.
Fourth, after their first year, athletes must pay tuition; they can afford it. Start teaching them fiscal responsibility, and nothing in life comes free. And last, I don’t want to hear about what if the coach leaves or gets fired. Well, in the real world, if your boss quits, gets fired, or retires, are you leaving your job? No, because you have bills to pay. Welcome to the real world and working for a paycheck.
Finally, on the idea of college playoff expansion, forget about what the SEC and Big 10 want. I have come up with a middle-ground compromise: 20 teams, which would allow the college football playoffs to be completed in five weeks. To get there, eliminate the conference championship games; they are no longer relevant. The Army-Navy game can be played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with the Heisman Trophy ceremony that evening. The first three weekends in December will host the first three weeks of the playoffs, with the winners of the four major conferences receiving the top seeds. The committee will select the remaining sixteen at-large teams.
Photo courtesy Eleven Warriors
Teams ranked one through twelve will have a first-round bye, and teams thirteen through twenty will play the first weekend. Thirteen through sixteen will host a playoff game with twenty going to thirteen, nineteen going to fourteen, eighteen going to fifteen, and sixteen hosting seventeen.
The second playoff week will have the first four seeds hosting the winners of the first weekend playoffs, with the one seed hosting the lowest-ranked team and so forth. Teams five through eight will host a playoff game of the teams ranked nine through twelve. In the third week of the playoffs, the highest-ranked four teams will host a playoff game to see which teams will go to the final four. The final four and championship games should be rotated between these bowl sites: Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Cotton Bowl. These sites are covered, and weather shouldn’t play a factor in the outcome of the games.
The television schedule would feature two playoff games on Friday evening, one starting at 7:00 p.m. and the other at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The other playoff games would be played on Saturday for the first two weeks of the playoffs. The third weekend in December would have one game on Friday night and three on Saturday. The Final Four would be played on New Year’s Day. The Championship game will still be played on the following Monday night after New Year’s Day.
The team rankings shouldn’t be released until week seven of the regular season and should be selected by the college playoff committee. The committee should be comprised of past football coaches (college and professional). There shouldn’t be any more pre-season rankings.
Yes, fans, there are workable ways to fix the mess we call “College Football Today.”
