Because this was so last second, you’ve been awarded a single action item that will be accomplished immediately without litigation or bureaucratic red tape. What do you do to “save” the sport?
Because this was so last second, you’ve been awarded a single action item that will be accomplished immediately without litigation or bureaucratic red tape. What do you do to “save” the sport?
I’d enact a set of changes which would end up making NCAA football look like the NFL, but with relegation.
Recind NCAA governance of college football, form a football only league.
Enforce two primary conferences at the championship level, with a max size of 20-ish teams per conference. Only teams in these two conferences may compete in the end of year 8-12 team championship playoff.
The bottom two teams from each championship conference get relegated at the end of the year, and the top two teams from the non-championship conferences are promoted.
Promote interconference play at the league level during the regular season to get a better idea of strength of schedule. Require teams who want to maintain rivalry games with teams from other conferences to use their non-conference game weeks.
Make the money side of the game more standardized, with profit sharing from championship conference teams with those in other conferences. Protect a promoted team from being relegated for 1-2 years to encourage roster and program building.
This way we can still have a hundred bowl games, and teams with less money or organizational motivation to maintain championship level programs can still play meaningful games in competitive conferences.
I can almost guarantee that the promotion and relegation bowls will be more interesting than the national championship.