In reaction to yesterday’s news about the new Big 12-SEC postseason game, Paul Myerberg indulges in some romantic thinking.
This is a crisis moment for college football. It’s also a look-in-the-mirror moment for those who dictate the game’s ebb and flow: either the power-brokers – a Mike Slive, a Jim Delany, a Larry Scott, a Bob Bowlsby – can cater to their constituents, like a politician aiming for reelection, or they can do what’s best for the game itself.
What’s best for college football is equality. Don’t be scared of that word: it doesn’t mean socialism, and it doesn’t necessarily mean parity. It means that deserving teams get what they deserve; it means that regardless of the size of your stadium, your career winning percentage, your TV contract or the name on the front of your jersey, you get a seat at the table.
The new system, when in place two years down the road, should ensure that each of every program in the F.B.S. can play for the national championship. It must, for the sake of college football itself. Anything less would be a continuation of our current, flawed system.
First of all, there’s a real danger of getting way ahead of ourselves with this. All I feel confident about saying right now is congratulations to the two conferences for pulling off a power play: the Big 12 nailed the ACC badly and Slive has himself a nice bargaining chip to toss in when Delany’s constituents figure out what they really want besides Rose Bowl Forevah! Besides that, who knows. It’s too early to call this one item a game-changer.
That all being said, in response to Myerberg’s dream, sorry, not gonna happen. Or at least not in the way he envisions. There are too many wheels in motion, too many forces in play for a 120 or so-school FBS to survive. Things like increased scholarship payments, multi-year scholarships and the end of AQ status for the postseason each on their own may not seem like much, but together they all point towards a sea change in D-1.
A separation between the NCAA haves and have-nots is coming. The only question for some is on which side of the divide they’re going to fall. Jim Delany has never been fond of sharing. It’s ironic that the new postseason may turn out to be the vehicle that gets him his wish.
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UPDATE: Yep.
Get The Picture 
I’m not sure we all agree on what ‘deserve’ really means either. Does an undefeated team with a joke of a schedule ‘deserve’ to be in the championship game over a one-loss team with a harrowing schedule? I know this is obviously not the first time this has been asked…I know I’m not breaking ground here, but I do think that this article referenced here reflects a pretty fundamental difference among fans’ opinions, even rational fans that pull for the same team. What does deserve really mean? Is it based on who has the best team or who has to be rewarded by being thrown a bone?
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I would prefer to eliminate many of these wannabe D1 teams. Should be reduced to about 70-80 D1 teams total making 8 conferences with a 10 team playoff or something to that effect since everyone seems to think we must have a playoff. Right now the conferences are getting way to large all in the name of big TV contracts and the product is getting diluted.
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64 teams. 4 16 team conferences each with 2 divisions. The first round of playoffs will be the conference championship games (8 teams). Everybody else in the FBS will be in a new classification above I-AA but below the 64. That’s where we are going.
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I would like to see a set up of 8 conferences of 10 teams. Every conference plays a 9 game conference schedule so you have a true conference champion. Then you have an 8 team playoff of conference champs played the week after the season ends. The semi finals are new years day and the championship a week later.
A second layer I would create – now that I am King of the world – would be to force the 80 have’s to play the 40 have nots very year. Every 4 years have nots with a winning record against haves can replace conference teams with an overall sub .500 record during the same period.
Continue success earns and keeps a seat at the table while continued mediocrity gets you relegated to the second tier.
I would also like a 13 game schedule, but that’s just because I would love to have more college football in general.
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Different and inclusive thought. Someone will pick it apart, but different thought is just what the situation needs now. It can force fans to consider differing options if they are sincere in a fair playoff quest.
Nah. Gores too many oxe’s icons (that part of the legs that act as cushions for swinging cojones).
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Well if those boys want to hug the Rosebowl and call it theirs, looks like the next NCs will alternate between Dallas and Norleens. Fuck’em.
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Hey, while we’re at it, let’s implement a 53 man roster and a draft, and let’s make sure the power programs are equally distributed among all the leagues. We’ll flip a coin to see who among Florida or Georgia, Alabama or LSU ends up in the CFB-AFC West or CFB-NFC North.
There is no equality in the game. There isn’t even equality in the NFL, with all of its rules.
A conference champion tournament is going to kill this sport. The more I see and hear the direction people outside the commissioners want to take this, the less I like it.
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CFB…racing to the edge of oblivion when the slow saunter soaking-in the majestic view was just fine.
NFL lite in 3….2….1….
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Imagine there’s no recruiting,
it’s easy if you try,
a high school draft below us,
run by the NFL guy.
Imagine all the people,
cheering for all the players, yoo-hoo!
Imagine there’s no conference,
it isn’t hard to do,
nothing to play or win for,
and no fight songs too.
Imagine all the people,
watching the game in peace, yoo-hoo!
You may say they are dreamers
but they’re not the only ones
they hope some day you’ll join them,
and the schools will be as one.
Imagine no wins and losses,
I wonder if you can,
no need for keeping score,
a brotherhood of fans.
Imagine all the coaches,
sharing all the players, yoo-hoo!
You may say they are dreamers…
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I weep no tears for the ACC in general or FSU and GaTech in particular. Both programs made their own beds when they turned their back on the SEC. They turn out to be beds of lumpy coals.
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Don’t like football history and tradition very much do you, Mike? Both those schools carry a lot of that on their backs every game they play. GT is our rival and has been for many years. I hit below the belt when describing their play today, but never assume that I don’t respect them and their right to the table before you ever wore your first pair of jorts. Same goes for your nemesis, FSU.
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