My College Football Plan

(I posted this before but here's a fresh writeup.)

I wish college football was structured like this:

1)  10 regular season games.  These games take place from the last weekend of August to the 2nd or 3rd weekend of November.  Schools would have 11 or 12 weeks to play these games.  No games would be held the weekend before Thanksgiving.  (In 2013, games would be held from August 31st to November 16th.)

2)  Conferences of 16 teams would get an auto bid to the playoffs.  These conferences would have two 8 team divisions and would play 7 (or 8) conference games.  Each of these conferences would have a conference championship game.  Conferences of less than 16 teams could get an auto bid as well if they were paired another conference of less than 16 teams and the two conferences played a championship game to determine who made the playoffs.  So, conference sizes would typically be either 16, 8, or 9 teams.

3)  Conference championship games would take place the last weekend in November, Thanksgiving weekend, and no other games would take place that weekend.  This would allow college football to "own" Thanksgiving weekend.  It'd be the biggest sport during that holiday.  (In 2013, championship games would be held November 27th to November 30th.)

4)   On the Wednesday after championship weekend, the 16 playoff teams are announced and seeded.  Each conference championship game winner makes the playoffs and at large teams fill out the rest of the spots.

5)  Also on the Wednesday after championship weekend, each remaining team in the nation is ranked and put into groups of 3 by rank.  Two teams from the same conference and two teams that played each other in the current year could not be in the same group.  So, for example, the top group would be the top 3 ranked teams, the next group would be the next 3 ranked teams, etc.

6)  The teams in each group from 5) would play each other round robin during December in what I call "ladder games".  Each school would get one home and one away ladder game.  These would replace bowl games.  They would be a school's special game for the year.  These ladder games would also be a chance for teams within a conference to root for each other.  For example, there would be several SEC vs BIG12 match ups.  Which conference is the best?  These games would help decide that.  (In 2013, the ladder games would be held December 14th to December 31st).

7)  The playoffs would take place during 4 weekends in January.  (For the 2013 season this would happen January 4th to January 25th.)  Because of the ladder games in 6), playoff teams would have a month plus off from games to heal up and get ready for the playoffs.

Good things about this plan/organization:

1)  More meaningful games.  It reduces the number of OOC games (often against mediocre opponents) to 2 or 3.  Also, the championship games and the ladder games are all quality/meaningful games between teams of nearly equal rank.

2)  College football would absolutely own Thanksgiving weekend.  The championship games would be a huge four day sporting event during a time when many people have days off from work/school.  These games would be worth a ton of TV money.

3)  The regular season is still meaningful.  Teams are playing for a spot in the conference championship game/possible inclusion in the playoff.  They are also playing for a better ranking for their ladder games.  A better ladder ranking would result in a better team coming to town to play in the home ladder game.

4)  The ladder games replace the bowl games.  The attendance at many of the bowl games is a joke.  And some teams that go to the lesser bowls lose money?  The ladder games are a good deal for every team.  They are a special game for every single team that doesn't make the playoffs.

5)  The ladder games are a chance for real conference versus conference competition.  Fans will tune in to root for other teams in their school's conference.  It's a chance for conference pride/bragging rights to be put in the balance.  The games would be great.  All of December would have extremely entertaining games to watch while we waited for the playoffs to start.  The ladder games would bring in more TV money than the bowl games or meaningless OOC games to start the season.

6)  The 16 team playoff (really almost a 32 team playoff because of the conference championship games) would be a huge sporting event that would rival the Superbowl in fan interest.  The playoffs would be worth so much TV money.  It'd be like the college basketball tournament times 10.

7)  Teams would play a reasonable number of games.  Most teams would play 12 games.  A very small number of teams could play 11 games (if a team somehow made the playoffs without playing in a conference championship game and lost their first round game).  A few teams would play 13 games (conference championship losers that didn't make the playoffs or teams that won only one playoff game).  A very small number of teams would play 14 or 15 games (teams that went far in the playoffs).  However, teams that make the playoff would have a month plus off from games before the playoffs started.  This would help reduce injuries/the strain of playing more than 12 games.

8)  A 16 team playoff would allow for sixteen 16 team conferences at DI.  That's 256 teams.  It's enough for every team to have a chance to earn a spot in the playoffs on the field.  That's about twice the number of D1 teams we currently have.

9)  The college football season would have the several distinct periods of time that help create fan interest.  OOC games get fans ready for the conference schedule.  The conference schedule determines the teams in the conference championship games.  The ladder games help determine the conference ratings/relative strengths.  The playoffs determine an overall champion (and also help determine conference ratings/relative strengths).  During December and the ladder games fans/media can talk about the playoffs and there is a whole month to build that up/hype it.

The ideas above should be implemented today.  They are awesome and I'm not just saying that.

The Big 12 is Stupid

This is what the Big 12 should do and if it doesn't, it is stupid.

1. Let Missouri go. They don't want to be in the Big 12.
2. Grab the following schools: West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, Tulane.
3. Bribe Arkansas with whatever money is necessary to pry them away from the SEC. Give them $30 or $40 million. Lock them into the conference for 10 years. That's only $3 or $4 million a year.
4. Bundle every school's Tier 3 rights into a set of regional TV networks. So, for example, something like this: A network for all Texas schools. A network for the Oklahoma schools, Kansas schools, Arkansas and Iowa State. A network for West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Tulane. These networks would have both regional college and high school sports programming. The revenue from these networks would go into the conference "pot" and these networks would make a ton of money.
5. Go to unequal revenue sharing of conference money. The most important teams get shares of 3. The next tier get shares of 2. And the last tier gets shares of 1 (sorry Iowa State). In the scenario described above, the 3's would be Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The 1's would be Iowa State and Tulane. Everybody else would be 2's. This could be adjusted as need be. And, if Iowa State didn't like this, they could go find another conference.
6. Have a conference championship game in football. I don't care if Texas doesn't want one. It makes a lot of money and it's a big event. If a school wants to win the national title, win the games that are on the schedule. The winner of the Big 12 championship game would almost always have to be considered for the national title game.
7. Go to a "pod" based system for scheduling in football and other sports. So, for example, the four pods could be (West Virginia, Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati), (Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Arkansas), (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, TCU), and (Texas, Baylor, Houston, Tulane). In football, all the teams in a pod would play each other each year. Each pod would play one other pod each year on a rotating basis. So, for example, Texas would play conference games against Baylor, Houston, and Tulane every year and they would play conference games against the teams in the other pods once every 3 years.
8. The pod scheduling system described above would result in 7 conference football games each year. That leaves 5 non-conference games for each team. That would allow teams to schedule their "natural rivals" every year. So, for example, Texas could schedule Oklahoma and Texas A&M every year for a non-conference game (if Texas and Oklahoma were not playing a conference game).
9. The pod system described above would allow the Big 12 to schedule aggressively outside of conference and the Big 12 should make a commitment to do just that. Imagine Notre Dame signing a contract to play 4 Big 12 teams a year for 8 years, each team in the conference gets a shot at Notre Dame at home and on the road during that time.
10. Also, under the pod system, the far-flung teams would always have 3 conference games with nearby opponents. So, if these far-flung teams scheduled nearby schools for their 5 non-conference games, they would have 8 nearby opponents every year (and 2 of the remaining 4 games would be at home). That would be very good for both the athletes, other students, and fans.
11. Also, under the pod system, the two divisions of the Big 12 would be different each year. Special names could be given to the different divisions. So, if Texas' pod was playing Oklahoma's pod, that division could be called "Rivals Division" or "Red River Division" or something and the other division in that scenario could be called the "Riverboat Division" or something.
12. The conference should drop the Big 12 name. The Big 16 is an option. However, I would go for a name that didn't include the number of schools in the conference (in case the Big 12 wanted to do something crazy like go to 20 teams). A lot of good names are already taken (like Conference USA and the Mid-America Conference). I'll leave the list of possible names for this conference as an exercise for the reader.

The above conference would be awesome and it would make a ton of money. It should happen tomorrow (if not sooner). If it doesn't, the Big 12 is stupid.

My Big 12 Plan

With Texas A&M leaving, the Big 12 needs to do something. I think the Big 12 needs to:

1. Expand to two eight team divisions
   
2. Expand into new, large media markets
   
3. Expand into more states
   
4. Create a Big 12 network and forbid schools from having individual networks (like Texas' new network and if Texas doesn't like this they can leave the conference)
   
5. Expand in a way that makes geographic sense (travel between conference schools should be reasonable)
   
6. Expand in a way that makes economic sense.
   

Without A&M, the Big 12 would have 9 teams. To get to 16, 7 teams would have to be added.

The top two targets for expansion should be two SEC schools, LSU and Arkansas. The addition of these two schools would greatly improve the conference and make complete geographic and media market sense. However, luring the two away from the SEC might prove to be impossible.

The next two targets for expansion should be two PAC 12 teams, Arizona and Arizona State. These teams only make geographic sense when the rest of the plan is known. These two schools would give the Big 12 the state of Arizona. However, again, it might prove difficult to get them to leave the PAC 12.

The Big 12 should add TCU and Houston. This would give the Big 12 teams in the DFW and Houston markets. It seems likely both teams would welcome a move to the Big 12. These two schools would make great travel and geographic sense. The only downside to these schools is that they don't add more states to the Big 12's state footprint.

BYU, Colorado State, and New Mexico should be added to increase the Big 12's state footprint. These schools help make the Arizona schools' travel requirements more reasonable and they add three states to the Big 12. New Mexico is not a great football school and New Mexico is not a big media market, but that's not the point. A conference full of tough teams is not ideal. Every conference needs its Baylor's and the Big 12 at the end of expansion needs to make geographic sense. It would seem likely that these three schools would be open to joining a sixteen team Big 12.

Iowa State should be dropped from the Big 12. It doesn't make geographic sense.

So, here is the "dream" Big 12

East Division:

1. Arkansas
   
2. Baylor
   
3. Houston
   
4. Kansas
   
5. Kansas State
   
6. LSU
   
7. Missouri
   
8. TCU
   

West Division:

1. Arizona
   
2. Arizona State
   
3. BYU
   
4. Colorado State
   
5. New Mexico
   
6. Oklahoma
   
7. Oklahoma State
   
8. Texas Tech
   

The above conference would seem to be able to attract a large TV contract for a conference TV channel plus football TV broadcast rights. This money should be distributed unevenly to the conference teams. Teams that are in bigger media markets should get more money than teams in small markets. Also, teams that are new to the conference should receive more money initially in order to attract these teams to the conference.

Teams would play a seven game conference schedule. That would allow each team to play five non-conference games (which seems ideal). Also, there would be a conference championship game. This would bring in yet more TV money.

It's unlikely that the above lineup of schools could be assembled. However, the conference should strive to form a sixteen team conference built with the above ideas in mind.

UTSA Football Predictions

I'm looking forward to watching UTSA's new football program this year. My buddies and I even bought season tickets. Here are my game by game predictions:

1. Sat, Sept 3 vs Northeastern State (big win)
   
2. Sat, Sept 10 vs McMurry (win)
   
3. Sat, Sept 17 @ Southern Utah (loss)
   
4. Sat, Sept 24 vs Bacone College (really big win)
   
5. Sat, Oct 1 @ Sam Houston State (big loss)
   
6. Sat, Oct 8 vs South Alabama (loss)
   
7. Sat, Oct 15 @ UC Davis (loss)
   
8. Sat, Oct 29 vs Georgia State (win)
   
9. Sat, Nov 12 @ McNeese State (big loss)
   
10. Sat, Nov 19 vs Minot State University (really, really big win)
    

So, I'm predicting a 5 and 5 finish for the Roadrunners in their first season.

In addition, UTSA is scheduled to play Baylor in 2017, 2018, and 2019. That will be three wins.

College Football Realignment

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1091537

The above link is an interesting look at the possible college football realignment. A possible outcome is four super conferences with the eventual national champion coming from one of those conferences and a de facto playoff to decide who that is. It will be fun to watch what happens. Schools from smaller conferences won't be happy about being locked out of the national title game. Also, if a school makes the wrong move, they might regret it for a long time. = )

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.

Three Reasons Texas Tech Cannot Win the College Football National Title

1. Texas Tech versus Oklahoma on November 22nd, 2008 is not being played at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
2. The Big 12 Championship game on December 6th, 2008 is not being played at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
3. The National Championship Game on January 8th, 2009 is not being played at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

That is all.

UTSA's Football Play

When UTSA gets its football team in 5 to 10 years, this is a play we'll run a lot:

http://sports.espn.com/

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Consider these two stories side by side:

Flynt, 59, making comeback with Sul Ross State University

UTSA moves closer to adding football

I'm an alumni of UTSA and a current grad school student. In light of the above seemingly unrelated stories, I can't help but believe that in three years I'll be suiting up for the Roadrunners. It's inevitable.

The only question remaining is how long will the University of Texas at Austin dodge a currently undefeated and very mighty, mighty UTSA Roadrunner football program? I suspect it'll be 25 years before UT plays UTSA.

Here are my predictions about the UTSA program:

1. We will beat UT 100-0 every single time.
2. UT quarterbacks will cry after each and every game played against UTSA.
3. Bevo will make some good BBQ.
4. UTSA wins a national title before UT does it again.
5. Major Applewhite will edit his own Wikipedia article so that it says he attended and played for UTSA instead of UT.
6. UT fans will forget Texas A&M exists.
7. The mayor of Austin, Leslie Cochran will try to trade UT for UTSA. The mayor of San Antonio, Chuck Norris, will decline.
8. After UT's first loss to UTSA, Bobby Layne will spin around in his grave with such alacrity that the entire cemetery he's in will burn to the ground (tombstones and all).
9. Due to the shock of it all, Ricky Williams' mental facilities will be radically changed so that he begins to think clearly.
10. The quality of UT cheerleaders will take a dive. They will start to look like this.
11. UTSA will get all the overachievers that usually go to Texas Tech and Tech will be forced to start playing players made entirely out of sand and tumbleweeds.
12. ESPN will stop showing UTSA games because UTSA never loses and people are bored of seeing it.
13. UTSA will become "America's Team".
14. UTSA will have to change its mascot to something more awesome and widespread, something like hydrogen.
15. Bear Bryant will come out of retirement to coach UTSA. His ghost will call plays from UTSA's sidelines for two or three hundred years.
16. UTSA will never kick an extra point or convert a two point conversion (trying not to run up the score will be a constant point of concern for UTSA coaches).
17. UTSA professors will genetically engineer a human sized roadrunner mascot to entertain the crowd with crazy and amazing antics.
18. Heisman trophies will fill the UTSA Sombria. A second Sombria will be built nearby.
19. UTSA will occasionally play two or three games per week.
20. Roadrunner fans will tear down opposing teams' goalposts on the road after every single road game and bring them back to UTSA and make a huge pile that will be visible from the surface of the moon.
21. UTSA will heavily recruit all areas of the planet Earth.
22. UTSA will play some games blindfolded just to increase the challenge of it all.
23. UTSA's marching band will be 5,000 strong.
24. Nevil Shed will smile for a week or two.
25. UTSA's football program will make so much money that all parking on campus will become valet parking.
26. UTSA's football stadium will hold 300,000 people.
27. All UTSA kickers will weigh 250 pounds and play middle linebacker in addition to punting and place kicking.
28. Entire teams will feign death to avoid playing UTSA.
29. Each year, UTSA's schedule will consist of teams the NCAA force to play UTSA.
30. UTSA will play the winner of the Super Bowl each year to determine the overall champion of football.
31. UTSA players will be covered with nerf-like material in an effort to prevent injuries to opposing players.
32. A UTSA free safety will be the first college player to weigh over 1,000 pounds.
33. Early in the program, a UTSA player will put a hit on a UTEP player that causes the UTEP player's skeleton to leave his body.
34. NBC will drop Notre Dame for UTSA.
35. UTSA football jerseys will outsell all other sporting apparel for all other teams in all other sports combined for all time.
36. The UTSA scoreboard on UTSA's side will be able to display four digit scores.
37. The UTSA football fight song will be the somewhat mellow Praise You by Fatboy Slim.
38. UTSA touchdowns will cure chickenpox.
39. No UTSA football player will ever suffer an injury more serious than a stubbed toe in a game.
40. No UTSA player will ever be arrested for any reason ever.
41. The President will meet with the UTSA team before every season just to get it out of the way.
42. The College Football Hall of Fame will be moved to Boerne just to make it closer to the home of college football, UTSA.
43. The UTSA mascot will beat up all other mascots during games.
44. Time Warner cable will add a UTSA football channel that will show UTSA football games on tape year round. It will get the best ratings of any channel ever. A second, similar channel will be added three years later.
45. Jerry Jones will try to buy UTSA's football team.
46. John Madden will be a season ticket holder and even he will be amazed.
47. Sometimes UTSA's stadium will get too loud and neighbors will call the police to complain about the noise.
48. The now defunct Southwest Conference will posthumously award UTSA ten conference championships.
49. UTSA quarterbacks will all be so good they'll be called halfdollarbacks.
50. We'll run a 1-2-3-4-1 defense. Nobody will ever be able to get past the first 1.
51. Sometimes we'll let other teams score out of pity.
52. The Spurs will watch UTSA practices in order to learn how sports are done right.
53. UTSA running backs will be able to fly, literally (don't ask me how).
    
54. UTSA cheerleaders will be as smart as they are beautiful. None of this.
55. Footage of UTSA football games will be considered a national treasure by all countries in the world.
56. Fireworks will go off after every UTSA score. More fireworks factories will have to be built.
57. The Wile E. Coyote will become very, very depressed and eventually commit suicide.
58. UTSA offensive success will be measured in miles per game.
59. So many players will want to play for UTSA that players will only play with UTSA until they score one touchdown. Then, they'll have to either move onto another sport at UTSA or transfer to another school. Nobody will transfer. Our other men's sports programs become as awesome as our football program.
60. Sometimes it rains on UTSA football games. Nobody cares.
61. UTSA players will wear knuckle pads in addition to shoulder pads. They hit that hard.
    
62. Once UTSA starts playing football, people in Texas will like football even more.
63. Sometimes UTSA will let the marching band suit up against particularly pathetic teams, teams like Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Rutgers.
64. For the first ten years of the program, the smallest margin of victory for UTSA will be 45 points.
65. UTSA will play for the national title in the first year of the program.
66. UTSA's football program will be so successful that Congress will make America's space program a branch of UTSA's football program. Five years later humans will be living on every planet in the solar system.
67. Sometimes UTSA will only send 14 players to road games. This is 3 more players than are actually needed to get a victory.
68. UTSA's offensive line won't block people. It will pound people into the ground.
69. UTSA's running game will resemble the running of the bulls in Pamplona.
70. Our air attack will look like this.
71. Coach after coach will be fired after their team loses to UTSA.
72. UTSA's play book will have two plays, one for offense and one for defense. These two plays will both be unstoppable.
73. UTSA's red zone will be 100 yards long.
74. They will make movies about UTSA footbal, two or fifty-three a year.
75. UTSA will eschew grass and artificial turf for the stadium's playing surface. UTSA will play on concrete.
76. All UTSA football players will go on to have successful careers in whatever field they choose.
77. UTSA will look good in their uniforms (maybe too good).
78. UTSA pep rallies will prove unnecessary.
79. "I told you so!" will become UTSA's battle cry.
80. UTSA will be an honorary member of every conference.
81. Other teams will adopt UTSA's fight song and mascot in an effort to duplicate UTSA's success.
82. UTSA will give up just two points its first season when a UTSA running back gets confused and runs the wrong way and is tackled for a safety. That running back never sees the light of day ever again.
83. Roadrunners in the wild will stand a little taller secure in the knowledge of UTSA's success.
84. Roadrunners will be fast.
85. The press box at Roadrunner stadium will be able to accommodate 1,500 people.
86. Tailgating at Roadrunner stadium will go on 24/7/365 (366 in leap years).
87. After about 350 years of Roadrunner football, all other teams will give up and stop playing football.
88. Roadrunner football will be penalty free for its first 3 years of existence. The first penalty will be an unsportsmanlike penalty called on our halfdollarback for being too awesome.
89. Roadrunner players will play without helmets because they aren't needed. Roadrunners are too tough for helmets.
90. Sometimes people will tire of talking about Roadrunner football for two or three minutes at a time.
91. UTSA football coaches will win seven Nobel Prizes in the first 100 years of Roadrunner football.
92. Eventually, the NCAA will allow opposing players to carry weapons in games against the Roadrunners to make things more fair.
93. A blog post of 100 Roadrunner football predictions will become the longest blog post in the history of mankind. This post will break all sorts of things.
94. UTSA Roadrunners can tackle using their pinky finger only.
    
95. UTSA football players will run laps around 1604 before home games in order to warm up.
96. UTSA football will be under constant investigation for NCAA violations but none will ever be found.
97. UTSA players won't take steroids. Steroids would just hinder their development.
98. The roadrunner will become the national bird of the United States.
99. Roadrunner stadium will have large comfortable leather seats.
100. Earl Campbell will throw out the first pitch at the first UTSA football game. Only later will he realize that isn't done before football games.
     

There. I did it. The first ever UTSA football smack talk. That felt good. Woot!