Turning the page to 2021

2020 is in the books.  Hope at the beginning of the year you weren't doing markings in pen, because there was a lot of erasing going on.  I'm so thankful we got some college football this year with the pandemic going on, but saying that I hope that we never go through this again.  

So here we turn the page to 2021 and (unless things change) go ahead and write in your bracket Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.  Really why wouldn't you?  

The playoff is something we all wanted.  We clamored for it.  We were told that it would only be 4 because it would make the regular season meaningless if we had more.  Didn't want to make another March Madness and something similar to college basketball.  

Well, Bill Hancock, you've done that.  For 127 schools the regular season IS MEANINGLESS!  Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State have dominated the 4 spots.  ESPN talkers on GameDay and the rankings show don't talk anything really but those teams, and the playoff.  Sometimes you'll get a little love for the Sooners, the Ducks or Trojans, but not for great amount of time.  It all comes back to those teams.

Now dynasties happen; look at the Yankees and Patriots.  Sports need a villain.  They make them more fun to root against.  Look what happened to Golden State.  Those 3 schools listed above are becoming college footballs villains.

I've documented what I would do if I was the college football czar.  The process may need to be expedited and amended too.  

There may need to be some changes to roster sizes, allowed number of walkons.  The size of the staffs.  Alabama isn't playing by the same rules that Iowa State is.  Texas was never playing by the same rules of that Nebraska was, and definitely not the same as Northwestern.  

When you start a season teams should be able to have the same chances as every team.  The NFL plays by the same rules across the board.  College football, as I have mentioned that the Knight Commission said, can be governed different than that of the rest of the college sports.  It's about time that changes need to be made.

College Football Fix - 80 MAP

 

How to Bring Back EA Sports NCAA Football!

Every July I would take a day off in the middle to play the new college football game that was released every year. That hasn't happened since 2013.

I've owned every version of the game since Bill Walsh College Football. From SEGA to PS1, PS2, XBOX, and XBOX 1. I wish I had them on PS4 or now Stadia also. But EA Sports hasn't made any since the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, and its something college football fans all over the place are ready for it to return. Especially after the NIL laws have passed through most states and the NCAA.

How long could it take to build it? I have a plan that could speed it up.

Build it on Madden Engine -- The Madden Engine is pretty fun, it could use some tweaks on the sliders but for the most part its pretty good. They are high quality graphics and game play. Remove the Face of the Franchise mode and add in the Career Mode and Dynasty Mode with the features it had before but add in the Playoffs. The stadiums they had on 2013 are mostly all the same with few updates. It shouldn't take as much effort to create more of the missing stadiums.

Dummy Rosters -- When the game comes out it usually has rosters filled in with players that would be very similar to that of who's on the team. Stats, abilities and profile that make you think that Clemson QB #16 would be Trevor Lawrence except for the name. When you buy the game it should come out with dummy rosters that make it look like the real players. This would avoid any likeness that came out of the Ed O'Bannon Case.

Roster Load -- On previous systems with systems connected to the internet there was roster sharing that was allowed. Users would download updated rosters from users that spent time updating names and filling them out to what the actual teams are. QB #16 would now be Trevor Lawrence when users turned on the game. The roster loads would be free from users. If I were EA I would keep out the roster share portion of the game. As a replacement I would have a file that would be available for purchase (or tied to a bundle) that would be able to be loaded to the game with the rosters already filled out. Tie a cost of $20 to this file and generate some money. Most users I know of this game would easily pass over the money.

Opt Out / Opt In -- Send an opt out/opt in letter to all players that are on the rosters to be able to include the players and their likeness on the previous mentioned roster load. Along with this would come some form of compensation depending on the number of people that opt in and how many files would be sold. That is about 70 players per roster. Since players can now benefit, who wouldn't buy in to this?

Athlete Offer -- Along with the Opt In option to pay the college players for use of their likeness, send each user a copy of the game, this would be a $60 dollar value for each player. Most games now are downloaded to a platform or played via stream but still purchased. They all don't need to be sent a actual package, but could rather be sent a code to download the game.

Payment -- Now how to pay the players. The athletes on average would be in the game for about 4 years. Each player would get an account that would keep accumulating money for each year of the game. Most game players move on to the new version the July it comes out. For players that leave for the pros or graduate they would be able to receive their check for compensation after that July. This would allow the accounts a chance to accumulate some interest and bank as much as possible rather than that of smaller chunks of money. More interest accumulated = more available for image and likeness.

The Numbers -- EA sold 500,000 copies of NCAA 13 and 1 million copies of NCAA 14. I'll run the numbers on the low end. Not a bad little check players could receive, along with a free copy each year of the game they are "In The Game"

EA Sports, what are you waiting for?

Realignment | Scheduling | Post Season | Video Game

College Football Fix : The PostSeason

In the last post, I looked at the schedule for how I would fix college football. Now on to crown a National Champion and the post season.

After week 14 8 Region Champions will be crowned, setting up what will be the 8 team National Championship Tournament. An Elite 8 if you want to call it that and copy from March Madness. Using an RPI type system to rank the schools will be placed into an 8 team bracket with the top 4 seeds hosting the lower 4 on home campuses. These would take place 2 weeks after week 14. Winners then move on to the Semifinals. Where I would make changes from what is currently set up, is that the semifinals are ALWAYS the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.

I know the other bowls would throw a tizzy, and maybe a few have a right too, but there is no greater setting in college football than the Rose Bowl at sunset on New Year’s Day. I love the Big Ten/Pac 12 tradition there, but we are moving the sport on to the next century. The Sugar Bowl then follows the Rose with the other semifinal on New Year’s Day. Similar to what is in the CFP, as teams move on, the higher seed would get the selection of which semifinal they would prefer to play in.

Below is an example of what a playoff from this year could've looked like.

The Championship game then will be played roughly 2 weeks after Jan 1 on a Monday Night. NFL Playoffs are going on then, and TV executives will not want to have all that competition on the weekend. Sites will be rotated amongst the latest and greatest NFL Stadiums. Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Tempe, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis and Atlanta. These stadiums, and cities have what it takes to host Super Bowls can easily set up for National Championship Games. The inclusion of Minneapolis and Indianapolis give the northern cities with great set ups the chance too. Football is not just a southern sport.

A champion then is crowned. But what about the other schools and some of the bowl traditions? Not forgetting you in the setup. With 13 regular season games, there will be no .500 teams, 7-6 is bowl eligible, 6-7 is not. But with 80 schools and 8 already gone to the playoffs, there is not a need for all those bowls. 19 Bowl games for the top 36 schools.

Bowls now are already struggling to pack people in, and the playoff is taking a lot of the luster off. Look at the Sugar Bowl this past season with Baylor and Georgia. The top half of the Super Dome was empty. This is a New Years 6 game! And with the creation of so many games and the attempt to sell them to major conferences, the match-ups are becoming nothing to write home about. So we are eliminating bowls and only 36 teams available.

The selection changes too. No more politicking back stage and all the wooing and reps with this many fans. The process will be something akin to a fantasy football draft. Bowls will be ticketed off into half tiers, with the more prestigious ones get the first pick. From the same similar RPI ranking, the bowls will be given a pool of schools to select from. As schools are picked, another will take its place.

The Bowls, in their respective tiers, I would keep are the following.

Tier 1 : Cotton, Peach, Fiesta, Orange, Citrus, Outback

Tier 2 : Las Vegas, Alamo, Holiday, Gator, Insight/Cheez-It, Music City, Belk/Charlotte

Tier 3 : Sun, Camping World, Houston, Wash DC/Military, San Fran/RedBox, Pinstripe

An example of the Bowl Draft would be :
Pick 1-Cotton, Pick 2-Peach, Pick 3- Fiesta, Pick 4-Cotton, Pick 5-Peach, Pick 6-Fiesta
Pick 7- Orange, Pick 8- Citrus, Pick 9- Outback, Pick 10- Orange, Pick 11- Citrus, Pick 12- Outback

I would also televise this live. Again, no back room deals. The bowls wouldn’t see the final rankings till the start of the selection process, and they would get 2 minutes to make their choice. 

After each half tier would be done selecting, a ten minute “trade” time frame would be allowed, with a bowl looking to trade, would be moved back in selection process the following year. This would be TV GOLD.

Bowls then would be played from Dec 26 – Jan 1. On Jan 1, the semifinals would be joined by 2 of the tier 1 games and a tier 2 game.

Post season is enhanced, adds some new flavor to it than just the bowl tie-ins and match-ups are better for the fans.

The remaining group of 50 then could fill out the other bowl games, and or create their own FCS type playoff.

Realignment | Scheduling | Post Season | Video Game

College Football Fix : Schedule

In Part 1 of what i would do if I was college football czar I created eight 10 team regions consisting of (arguably) the 80 most deserving programs currently in FBS. Now on to Part 2. The schedule

First off, who doesn’t love college football. Years ago we went from 11 regular season games to 12. Now, I’m going to be moving the regular season games to 13 games. Football, we are told, is getting safer. It is the money driver for all these universities, so why not add another game. Most schools right now get 8 home games, but with this update all schools will have 7 home games, and I’ll get into the breakdown soon.

All schools in each region will play each other, 9 games. 4 home / 5 road in year 1, 5 home / 4 road in year 2. This will be able to crown one true region champion. All regions will have the same tie breakers so that we all know who the region champion is. Not something like one conference having one set of tiebreakers and another having something completely different.

So with 9 games down, there are 4 left to go. Gone will be the days of cupcakes for one conference and harder schedules for others. This will be a more conforming schedule for all.

The first game, regions will be matched up with another region for 10 years at a time. So a school will play each school from another region. These games will be set out for 10 years. (etc. Midwest & Great Lakes)

The next game, 2 regions will be matched up with 2 other regions (etc Midwest/Great Lakes & Atlantic/South East), and the opponents would be selected based on the previous years finish. In year one a Midwest team would play an Atlantic team of similar finish, the next the Midwest team matched up with a South East team. This would happen for 10 years. Schools will not be allowed duplicate opponents over this 10 year stretch. This will allow 10 new opponents over a 10 year time frame. The location would flip from home and away, it would be 5 home and 5 away in the 10 year time frame.

The next game will be a match up against a school from the other set of 4 regions, for a Midwest team it would be vs Gulf Shores, Southwest, Mountain and Pacific. Like the previous game it will be determined from previous years finish and also over the 10 year time frame will be 10 different opponents and it would be 5 home and 5 away in the 10 year time frame.

12 games so far against 12 power 80 teams.

The 13th game on the schedule will be a home game vs the remaining group of 50 school or FCS school. I would schedule this game as the first game of the year as the token “Cupcake” game. It will also be a payday for those schools that didn’t make it into the Power 80.

With all that determined, here are some examples of what schedules would look like (see image)

The dates (using 2019 calendar as example) would look like this

Wk 1 : 8/31

Wk 2 : 9/7

Wk 3 : 9/14

Wk 4 : 9/21

Wk 5 : 9/28

Wk 6 : 10/5

Wk 7 : 10/12

Wk 8 : 10/19

Wk 9 : 10/26

Wk 10 : 11/2

Wk 11 : 11/9

Wk 12 : 11/16

Wk 13 : 11/23

Wk 14 : 11/30

After these 13 games, 8 region champions will be determined. You know have your expanded playoff up to 8.

Realignment | Scheduling | Post Season | Video Game

College Football Fix : Realignment

If you look at the sport, and the history of college football, it is a regional sport. The Big Ten footprint is the Midwest, the Pacific is the Pac-10, SWC the state of Texas. The ACC and SEC hold their footprints. Rivalries were created, icons, and partnerships In the past 15-20 years though things have got kind of wacky.

Missouri is in the SEC, the Big Ten made questionable moves with Rutgers and Maryland, and Notre Dame still is somewhat independent. Rivalries were destroyed in Texas/Texas A&M and Kansas/Mizzou all for the sake of little arguments and big tv money. In that now teams rarely play due to the size of conferences. In the SEC, Alabama rarely plays Georgia AND Florida. Alabama and Georgia have only played 8 times since 2000. 3 have been either the SEC Title game of CFP. The Tide and Gators only played Florida 9 times, and 4 were in SEC Title games. That type of scheduling does not make a conference.

What I’m doing in my first move as college football czar, is going to be something to spit at in the face of history but also maybe try to recreate some of it.

I’ve tried to create a 4 part super conference with 16 teams before and yet I run into the scenario above I mentioned with Alabama-Florida/Georgia. Why even be a conference if you don’t play. And well even the NFL has the Cleveland Browns and MLB has the smaller market teams.

I have selected 80 teams, and separated them out to eight 10 team regional conferences. These schools are all close where fans can afford to drive to each game. It keeps some rivalries intact and also brings others back together. The Big Ten schools loose some of their trophy games, but to be fair too many have trophy games, and are corporate feed.

There are maybe some arguments that these aren’t the top 80, but they are really close to it.

There are 50 remaining could keep the conference model or split off into something similar to this. Though the MAC is something perfect for a 12 team conference IMO.

I know SEC and B1G homers would holler that they shouldn’t be split up. But some regionalization needs to be brought back to this sport.

Realignment | Scheduling | Post Season | Video Game

My BCS Fix

8 teams – 8 Conf Champions. NO At-Larges allowed. If a school is not the conference champion. You will not be in the playoff. Notre Dame must join a conference. That way you know how to get in. No politicking…win the games and you get in.

Qualifying Conferences:
ACC
Big East
Big XII
Big Ten
Pac-10
SEC

The next 2 teams would be the Non BCS conferences. How the 5 conferences /army/navy would determine would need to be figured out yet, but give TCU’s & Boise’s a shot.

Have the Regular season ending on Thanksgiving weekend. Teams don’t need 2 bye weeks. Championship games on the 1st Saturday of December. Teams all have the same layoff.

The 8 teams play 4 games on New Year’s Day:
ROSE BOWL – Big Ten vs Pac-10
ORANGE BOWL – ACC vs Selection
SUGAR BOWL – SEC vs Selection
COTTON BOWL – BIG XII vs Selection

The selections would be taken in order of who’s already slotted team is ranked lowest in a new RPI similar poll. IE – If the Sugar has the #1 team, they get the last selection.

The winners would then play in Tempe/Fiesta Bowl on the weekend after Jan 1st. Those winners playing Monday Night in Tempe on Martin Luther King Day.

Schools don’t go back to school till after MLK day usually. They don’t have to worry about scheduling and travel then.