Had an interesting convo with a friend of mine today, he said a good way to add parity in the sport would be to have a Premier League format for CFB. This would set apart, for the first year, the previous years' top 30 teams and leave the rest of CFB in a separate division. Each year, the bottom five teams in the PL would be replaced with the top 5 teams in the regular division. The PL would only play against teams in the PL and the teams in the regular division would play an only conference or P5 schedule. The PL and the regular division would have their own playoffs of 4,8, or 16 teams. I think this would add much needed parity to CFB and help add meaning to the rest of the P5 teams with basically 0 shot at ever reaching the playoff.
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There have been lots of articles suggesting this very idea, including partnering D1 and D2 conferences, such as SEC>OVC or B1G>OVC.
And there's likelihood of the top 65 leaving right now. But this is America. People don't like losing in their investment. Which is why, 25 yrs later, MLS is still a no on pro/rel. Boosters want to see a return in their investment, and expect it from the likes of Auburn to Tennessee to Ohio State.
I agree that people don't like losing money on investments, but another big reason Mls is a no on pro-rel because it's a logistical nightmare to institute pro-rel in a country the size of the US compared to European countries when the initial set-up wasn't specifically designed to accommodate or facilitate that.
That's a point, but Brazil has promotion/relegation and it's only a bit smaller than the continental US...so it can be done. The biggest country on earth (Russia) also uses pro/rel.
It's the spread/distribution of the population centers and the fact that those associations were intended to do pro-rel. E.g. most of brazil and russia are sparsely inhabited. Not that the teams can't be far apart, but that they're often much much closer together with multiple staple clubs in major population centers, which is a key difference between an association structure and a franchise structure. Franchise owners have a cow if you try to expand into their "area" (see angelos with the nats).
And just look at the way MLS does player contracts and team expansion. It's too centralized and monolithic to adopt pro-rel without major major reconstruction
Totally agree, and that's part of what makes the US market so unique. We aren't built on a neighborhood mentality, more like a regional or even national market. Europe is fine with 10 teams in London, or 4 in Madrid.
NY and LA are the only 2 major metro centers where more than 1 team is accepted.
The biggest downside for this is the bowl season. There's just too much money, as of right now.
However, to play along, I've had a go at this before, with some ideas.
8 loosely geographically based conferences
2 tiers per conference
9 teams in upper tier, 7 or 8 in lower tier
As teams enter FBS, they go into nearest conference
Regular Season
12 game season
Upper Tier
8 conference games
4 non-conference games
3 non-conference games must be upper tier
Lower Tier
6 or 7 conference games
5 or 6 non-conference games
no more than 1 Div 2 or lower game
Post Season
Top 2 teams from each conference play in conference championship game
Tier 1
Conference champions advance to 8 team playoff
16 bowls
Tier 2
16 bowls
End of Season
Tier 1
Bottom 2 teams from each conference are relegated into lower tier
Tier 2
Top 2 teams are promoted to upper tier with a 1 year grace period on relegation
Postseason
Playoff Structure
7 games Bowls assigned numbers 1-7 to cycle playoff games
Rose Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
Orange Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Cotton Bowl
Liberty Bowl
Peach Bowl
1. Quarterfinals played to start Bowl Season
2. All Tier 2 bowls played
3. Semifinals played New Years Weekend
4. All Tier 1 bowls played
5. Finals played after Tier 1 games finish
For instance, I have VT in the "Mid Atlantic Conference" if we were to finish #1 in the conference, we'd go to the playoffs.
If we finished #2, we'd go to the #2 bowl for the Mid Atlantic, #3, etc. I'd think of have bowl pairings done as a random draw, where all 8 #2's go into a pot and get drawn as pairs.
If we finished #8 or #9, we'd still get a bowl, but then be relegated the following year.
The Bowls are a bigger reason for the NCAA to change. There is a reason the NCAA and its members make more money from the basketball tournament then football bowls generate. The money gets put in the pockets of bowl committee executives and then additional dollars are wasted in cities that don't even support college football. You can still hold a post-season tournament, have home games on campuses, split the proceeds more evenly than normal.
The biggest challenge to any change to this format is the conference alignments and rules associated. Good luck getting agreement from say Vanderbilt to be at immediate risk of losing SEC TV/Network money if they were to be relegated.
I'd be down for it but somehow feel VT would become the forever in that promoted then relegated window and it would be a cycle of agony. Would also make getting into the top tier ever harder with recruiting cycles taking time to develop and sometimes one bad recruiting cycle and a poorly timed rebuild and down you go.
If you aren't in the top tier then how do you recruit 4* players?
I think this method would widen the haves and have nots. I would find it hard to believe that the 5 new teams in the top conference would compete, and the ones that move down would have a huge advantage in talent.
Pro sports dont have recruiting to deal with so they can improve their talent much more easily.
This has been kicked around, written about, had beers drank over, and considered for some time. The biggest problem is that we cannot handle change. It doesn't sit well with some people. Heck, some people still think Nebraska and Oklahoma are playing on Black Friday for a spot in the BCS Championship area.
While it makes sense for one sport, that has been doing it for a long time, that doesn't always mean it translates to another sport that has been around for a long time.