Greg's Plan For College Football

1) Every team plays a ten game regular season schedule.

2) Every team plays two to five postseason games.

3) Sixteen teams make the playoffs and play for the championship.

4) All other teams play two extra "ladder" games.

5) The regular season takes place from September through November. Teams have eleven or twelve weekends to play their ten regular season games.

6) The typical conference would consist of two six team divisions (like the Big 12). Each conference would hold a conference championship game between the winner of the two divisions.

7) Conference championships are played the last weekend in November.

8) No games are played the first or second weekend in December. This allows football players to have time to focus on school at the end of the semester.

9) All "ladder" games are played the last two weekends in December.

10) Each team has one home and one road "ladder" game.

11) Opponents in "ladder" games are determined in the following way. All teams that don't make the playoffs are ranked. Each team plays two teams near themselves in the rankings. No two teams from the same conference play each other. No two teams that played this or last season play each other.

12) The "ladder" games serve several purposes. They allow everybody to have at least a twelve game regular season. They help in more accurately determining the relative strength of the conferences. They take the place of bowl games to some extent. Each team can plan on having a home, year end, fund raising, and recruiting game.

13) Since teams are near each other in the rankings, the quality of these games should be better than those non-conference games we typically see at the beginning of the year.

14) All conferences get at least one team in the sixteen team playoff. Some conferences get two. Which conferences get two is determined by the results of the previous two to four years of "ladder" games plus the results of the previous year's playoffs.

15) Because there are about 120 teams that play for the championship, there would be ten or eleven conferences. That means five or six conferences would get two teams in the playoffs.

16) If a conference gets one team in the playoffs, the winner of the conference's championship game goes. If a conference gets two teams in the playoffs, both teams playing in the conference title game go.

17) All but sixteen teams would be done with football on the last weekend of the year.

18) The playoff would take place the first five weeks of the year.

19) Each team making the playoffs would get at least two playoff games. A loss eliminates the team from getting first or second place. However, teams still compete for third through fifth place after their first loss.

20) To win the championship, a team has to win four straight times.

21) In week one of the playoffs, all sixteen teams play in eight games (in the 1st bracket). The losers of these games go into a single elimination bracket to compete for fifth place (the 3rd bracket). All games are played at the stadium of the higher seed.

22) In week two of the playoffs, eight teams remain in the 1st bracket and play four games. The losers of these four games go into a single elimination bracket to compete for third and fourth place (the 2nd bracket). There are also four games played in the 3rd bracket. Losers in the 3rd bracket are eliminated. A total of eight games are played. All games are played at the stadium of the higher seed.

23) In week three of the playoffs, there are two games in the 1st bracket, two games in the 2nd bracket, and two games in the 3rd bracket. All losers this weekend are eliminated. The two games in the 1st bracket are played at a neutral sites. All other games are played at the stadium of the higher seed.

24) In week four of the playoffs, only the championship games of the 2nd and 3rd brackets are played. The games are played at neutral sites. Third through fifth place is determined this weekend.

25) In week five of the playoffs, the overall (1st bracket) champion is determined at a neutral site.

26) If a conference places two teams in the top five, they get two teams in next year's playoffs no matter the results of the ladder games.

27) Brackets are seeded by relative rankings of teams at the time the teams in the brackets are determined.