Yes, this will be column 8,412,338 on how to fix College Football, because whether you want to admit it or not, the game is broken.And its all about money and equality--or the lack of it.
We started thinking about this the other day when our alma mater (Georgia Southern) was officially named a member of the Sun Belt Conference and took the leap from 1-AA where we were a perennial title contender, to D-1, where we'll never be one.
Really, that's the crux of the problem here.
College Football has become a game of "Have's" and "Have Not's". And to be totally honest, Division 1 Football SHOULD be broken into 2, or even 3 categories.
If you are still reading this; you probably are asking "Why?"
The thought came to me on Tuesday when an Atlanta area Sports Talk Radio host was making completely uninformed commentary on Georgia Southern's jump. In his world view, you are D-1 "Big Boy" football or you don't exist.
And that's the problem in a nutshell.
The blanket just doesn't fit. It has never fit and it never WILL fit.
It bothered me because I want my school to be able to compete for a "National Title", but now, moving to Division 1, they never will.
They can't. They won't be allowed. And they don't have the talent. Georgia Southern could play Alabama or Ohio State or Georgia or USC 100 times and never beat any of them.
Not once. Not ever.
And that's just wrong. If you are a Division 1 school that can only afford a recruiting budget of $2 million a year, how can you compete against a school that pays their coach that much?
How can you compete against a school with a $10+ million a year recruiting budget?
You can't. You will never get the same athlete's, same coaches or have the same facilities.
Ever.
That's why we say College Football should be broken back up.
The Cartel (BCS Schools) control everything. If you aren't one of them now, you will NEVER be one of them. The nature of the system prevents it.
So let them go it alone. Let them play "Big Boy" Football. Let them be DIVISION 1.
Why not have the 40 or so schools with $10+ million budgets and 70,000-plus seat stadiums and $100 million athletic associations play against each other all the time?
Those schools will and will continue to make briefcases full of money because of that. And even some of those 40 or so schools lose some money trying to keep up.
For a smaller D-1 school, there's no way to make any money.
None.
For Georgia Southern, their travel budget just tripled. There athletic budget, the same. Sure, the students agreed to a $75 person increase in their student fees to subsidize it, but that ain't gonna be enough. For a school with 20,000 students. That's $1.5 million. Add in alumni donations etc and no, you still will never be Georgia.
That's why we want to propose a change. A fairly radical change considering College Football doesn't like such things.
But it needs to be done to give the smaller "Big" schools a chance. A way to compete. A way to have their own title.
Here's our proposal:
Make it a "Sub-NFL" type of thing. 4 Conferences with 10 teams each, top 2 in each go to a playoff and a title. ESPN would pay Billions for it. (Well, actually cable and satellite subscribers would---but that's another story)
It's what the general, unknowledgeable public wants anyway right?
Then take the rest of Division 1 and make them a subset. Take your Sun Belts, your Conference USA's, your MAC's and other conferences and let them play under the old system. Or if you want, the old "Corrupt" bowl system.
But the two groups need to be separate.
And it's for the reason's above. And I'm talking about some surprises. Take your Kentucky's out of the SEC, take your Wake Forests out of the ACC and your Northwestern's out of the Big 10.
Because they'll never win the BCS or whatever they are going to soon call it title.
Ever.
Why should anyone in the Sun Belt have to try and go 12-0, win their conference, win a conference championship game and then pray they MIGHT get invited to a playoff game? And then get killed in said game?
I'm sorry Troy, Central Michigan, Colorado State, North Texas and others, none of you will get to the current College Football playoff....ever.
It's not like this level of football would be totally left out of the TV Money, they wouldn't. Where there used to "1" Sports Network (ESPN), now there are 4 of them. And they need programming.
No, none of these schools would not draw the ratings of a Ohio St/Alabama game, but they wouldn't have to.Think about this:
College Football in many ways is mirroring the current business climate. CEO's and mega-corporations are making money and getting paid in obscene amounts, but the worker's aren't seeing it.
And the workers will never see it.
We know full well, this will never happen. The NCAA should make it happen if for no other reason than to restore some integrity on some level. But the "Cat" is already out of the bag.
The NCAA doesn't control the College Football playoff system now, and it's out-of-control. Someone needs to reign it back in. Someone needs to make it fair to all.
And that's why they should adopt our system. Really it's quite simple:
Division 1(FBS)---The ESPN league (The Top 40)
Division 1A--The FOX Sports league (The next 82)
Division 1AA-(FCS)---The NBC Sports Net League (Stays as is)
Division 2------The CBS Sports Net League (Stays as is)
Because we like video to cap our stories--our thoughts in song form:
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