FanPost

Should The NCAA Follow British Football?? Part 1

The Big Ten's recent expansion has everyone guessing how this will create a chain reaction of conference movements similar to the last Big Ten expansion with Nebraska. I have a proposition that I feel could solve the problem of money, competitive imbalance, and create a finished product that the fans and players would love. With that said, this will NEVER happen. There are too many traditions, bowl tie-ins, regional stigma, and over all fear of change to ever make this happen. However, it would be AWESOME. Warning: this is a long post and it will have multiple parts.

As you can guess from the title of this post, I think the NCAA should copy the English Football League System. If you want all of details regarding the system, CLICK HERE. The short and sweet version is: there are multiple levels within a league(1-4 and 1 being the best), at the end of the season the bottom three teams from Level 1 get demoted to Level 2, and the top three teams from Level 2 get promoted to Level 1. The same goes for Level 2 and Level 3. The same also goes for Levels 3 and 4. The best part is: the top team from each Level is the champion of that Level, the remaining spots for promotion are figured out in a PLAYOFF! That is right! That means within college football there would be multiple playoffs going on at the end of the year, multiple champions, and tons of change and excitement! Amazing, right? The Brits are really on to something. Multiple playoffs mean lots-o-$$$. Promotions and demotions (relegation if speak British English) mean you have competitive balance within each Level making a better product for fans, a goal for the lower tiered teams, and TONS of incentive to get better and see match-ups you could never dream of.

To really put this into perspective let's go to an imaginary place where people aren't afraid of: change, possibly losing a little bit of money (in the short term at least), and doing something Revolutionary. A place where the NCAA and University presidents decide they want to do what is best for the players and the fans. A place where a single school *cough* Notre Dame *cough* doesn't hold more power than some conferences. We are going to the world of "Spartanski". It is February 2011, Auburn was just crowned National Champion. Cam Newton will be the #1 pick in a few months and Michigan State just finished getting beaten like a Junior Varsity squad against a very NFL looking Alabama in the Capital One Bowl. After more complaining about the BCS system, a decision is made to copy the English Football League System (EFLS). This changes everything for NCAA football. It eliminates traditional conferences and bowl tie-ins, the football world is brand new. A BCS style rating system (similar to what will be used to determine the top 4 teams for the upcoming playoff structure) will be used to rank all FBS teams. Once all teams have been ranked, FBS teams are broken into three levels: Level 1 (the top 40 teams in the nation), Level 2 (teams 41-80), Level 3 (teams 81-below).

I broke out the FBS using Mike Hugueni's (from Rivals) rankings (NOTE: I chose his not because I think he is the best but because he is one of the few that ranks 120+ teams). You can see his final 2010 rankings HERE. Below is what the new Spartanski College Football Structure looks like prior to the 2011 season. Please ignore my poor formatting.

2010 Final Rankings
2011 Pre-Season Levels

LEVEL 1

1

Auburn

2

Oregon

3

TCU

4

Stanford

5

Ohio State

6

Boise State

7

Oklahoma

8

LSU

9

Oklahoma State

10

Alabama

11

Wisconsin

12

Arkansas

13

Michigan State

14

Virginia Tech

15

Missouri

16

Florida State

17

Nevada

18

Utah

19

Texas A&M

20

Miss State

21

Nebraska

22

NC State

23

South Carolina

24

UCF

25

San Diego St

26

Air Force

27

Iowa

28

Notre Dame

29

Northern Illinois

30

Maryland

31

West Virginia

32

USC

33

Tulsa

34

North Carolina

35

Florida

36

Connecticut

37

Pitt

38

Arizona

39

USF

40

Illinois

2010 Final Rankings
2011 Pre-Season Levels

LEVEL 2

41

Penn State

42

Michigan

43

Navy

44

Texas Tech

45

Miami

46

Baylor

47

Hawaii

48

Syracuse

49

Kansas State

50

Northwestern

51

Georgia

52

Boston College

53

Washington

54

Miami of Ohio

55

Louisville

56

Georgia Tech

57

Southern Miss

58

Arizona State

59

BYU

60

Clemson

61

Oregon State

62

Tennessee

63

Kentucky

64

Army

65

SMU

66

Fresno St

67

Cal

68

Iowa State

69

Texas

70

FIU

71

Troy

72

Ohio

73

Temple

74

Toledo

75

East Carolina

76

UCLA

77

Colorado

78

Cincinnati

79

Ole Miss

80

Houston

2010 Final Rankings
2011 Pre-Season Levels

LEVEL 3

81

UTEP

82

Louisiana Tech

83

Marshall

84

Indiana

85

Purdue

86

Tulane

87

Rutgers

88

Virginia Tech

89

Idaho

90

Minnesota

91

Middle Tenn

92

Western Mich

93

Rice

94

Kent State

95

Louisiana Monroe

96

Washington State

97

UAB

98

Arkansas State

99

Duke

100

Utah State

101

Kansas

102

Ball State

103

Florida Atlantic

104

Central Mich

105

Wake Forest

106

Wyoming

107

North Texas

108

Colorado State

109

Louisiana Lafayette

110

Vanderbilt

111

UNLV

112

Bowling Green

113

Western Kent

114

New Mexico State

115

Eastern Mich

116

Akron

117

Buffalo

118

New Mexico

119

Memphis

120

San Jose St

Notable missing teams from Level 1 are traditional powerhouses: Penn St, Michigan, Miami and Texas. Surprising Level 1 teams are: USF, Tulsa, UConn, Arizona, Northern Illinois, and UCF.

For the 2011 football season the teams will follow a scheduling structure the below:

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

Week 1

L3 Team

L2 Team

L1 Team

Week 2

L3 Team

L2 Team

L1 Team

Week 3

L2 Team

L1 Team

L3 Team

Week 4

L2 Team

L1 Team

L3 Team

Week 5

L1 Team

L3 Team

L2 Team

Week 6

L1 Team

L3 Team

L2 Team

Week 7

L1 Team

L2 Team

L3 Team

Week 8

L1 Team

BYE

L3 Team

Week 9

BYE

L2 Team

L3 Team

Week 10

L1 Team

L2 Team

L3 Team

Week 11

L1 Team

L2 Team

BYE

Week 12

L1 Team

L2 Team

L3 Team

Week 13

L1 Team

L2 Team

L3 Team

Teams will sprinkle bye weeks in the second half of the year. In terms of which teams each school schedules I will leave that up to University AD's (I think they will keep it honest due to the inclusion of strength of schedule in the BCS style formula used to determine rankings). This will also likely preserve rivalries that have always existed.

This ends Part 1. Part 2 will discuss the 2011 Season outcomes and the post season solution that will excite all fans and rival March Madness for basketball.

This is a FanPost, written by a member of the TOC community. It does not represent the official positions of The Only Colors, Inc.--largely because we have no official positions.