The one exciting thing to me about Professional Futbol is the fact that those who do not make the cut do not get to keep playing with the big boys. Apparently a writer at Sports Nation is just as bored as the rest of us sport fans right now and he did 15 years worth of simulations on this subject involving college football. Interesting to note that we never got relegated even in some of our down years, and loluva only did once in all of their down years which is a travesty! Also noteworthy is that we made an 8 game playoff 4 times. I know this would never happen with 10-15 year out scheduling, sponsorship deals, network deals, etc. but think it would be an awesome practice to have to keep programs at their best. Thoughts?
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/6/6/15724156/college-footb...
Comments
This is a concept that probably won't work in a country as large as the USA. It's a valid model in most European countries as they are much smaller, so it's possible to not really have to travel over land any more than a few hours (some of the larger countries such as Spain and Italy have regional lower divisions).
Imagine if you're a professional team with a small budget in the Northeast, and your rivals are mostly in the midwest and western states...the travel costs alone would bankrupt your franchise.
In no way is this the only factor, but it is a major one based on the size of your budget.
I think it's a non-starter for "amateur" sports like college football or basketball.
While I love Bill's idea for relegation, I'm not sure how it could work with his plan to scrap divisions in favor of Pods/protected rivalries.
He acknowledges this conflict and says "we'll figure it out." But I think those two are mutually exclusive. The closest you could get would be conference level relegation (assuming an established P4/5).
While you're on the site, check out Bill's other ideas as College Football Commissioner.
I still do this in NCAA14. Dropping a last place LOLUVA to Fun Belt never gets old.
The biggest issue here has nothing to do with conferences or whether it could work with teams, it's that relegation system is a market based economic model while NCAA is a monopolistic, amateur non-profit model that seeks to stabilize economic factors for its member institutions. These two systems are so monumentally different that it is virtually impossible to consider beyond shits and giggles.
Interesting read though.
^ This. Emailed Bitter when I saw it linked in his article. Fun stuff to think about.
Fernley is right, though, we'd have to have all the conference working together for the sport instead of against each other for themselves.
I have been a big fan of the relegation system in futbol. It adds another layer of pressure/competitiveness to the sport as teams are not only fighting for the various titles (Champions league cup, Premier league cup, La Liga, etc.) but they are also fighting for a spot to play , like you said, "the big boys."
I actually think if any league that this would work, NCAA would be the most smoothly transitioned as there are already exiting lower divisions (D-II, D-III, etc.) The only issue I see is:
1. In college, losing doesn't necessarily grant you a higher pick/better draft class as it does in the NFL. Relegation would heavily favor major programs and smaller ones would just fizzle out to lower leagues.
The MLB is also another, potential coandidate where a relegation system could work, but I see the same issue as college, where deeper pockets would dominate. However, that doesn't necessarily mean a better team. (Leicester City proved it)
At the end of the day, I love seeing teams fight for their right to play in the big stage. It makes the games mean alot more and would give winning big cups like World Series, CFB CHampionship, etc. mean ALOT more (than they already do)
So am I seeing this right and UVa is not listed as relegated?
Yeah, how does that happen?