FanPost

If I Were God-Emperor of the NCAA: Fixing the 10-game schedule

I rolled out of bed this morning to see that the Big Ten announced the 10th game for every team in the season that won't happen. All they did was make the conference's biggest problem, unbalanced schedules, even worse.

So I decided to take the idea of having 10 conference games and rearrange the FBS to eliminate unbalanced schedules, resurrecting the Southwest Conference and Big East in the process.

BEHOLD!

New Conferences

Link to a larger version of the image

Every conference would play 10 games, there would be no divisions, and the two highest-ranked teams would go to the conference championship game. This is how the Big 12 does it, now, but it'll be less stupid if everybody has to conform to the same standard. Could also add a 13th regular-season game while limiting individual players to 12 games apiece.

Now, bowl games. The Rose Bowl is obviously the B1G champion vs the Pac-11 champion and the Orange Bowl would always be ACC vs Big East. The highest ranked champion from the Big Eight, SWC, and SEC gets either the Cotton or Sugar Bowl, whichever is most geographically advantageous. Their opponent would be the second highest ranked champion of the three. The remaining P7 champ would play in the other bowl vs the highest ranked G5 champ.

sugar/cotton

I could also be convinced to work the Fiesta and Peach Bowls into the rotation for the Big Eight/SWC/SEC

The champions of these 4 bowls would be seeded into the existing 4-team playoff. In the end, this system essentially creates a 16-team playoff.

There are many factors that make this system superior:

  • No more competitively unbalanced schedules.
  • No more unbalanced home/away schedules.
  • No more non-B1G/Pac teams in the Rose Bowl.
  • The Big Ten will once again consist entirely of AAU schools.
  • Players on the team that wins the championship would only play one more game than they do now.
  • Nebraska would finally be back in a conference where they could finish in the top 5. Whether this is a good thing or not is debatable.
  • G5 teams actually have a (very small) chance of winning a national championship.
  • Notre Dame would have to accept the fact that they aren't special anymore.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

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