Abolish Conferences in College Football
Imagine this. The Philadelphia Eagles just wrapped up a respectable 11-6 campaign and sit atop their division. However only one of their wins was against the NFC North (the preseason rankings had this as the best division) and the Dallas Cowboys who finished 10-7 had TWO wins against the NFC North (didn't you hear? The preseason rankings had this as the best conference). Roger Goodell makes the executive decision to strip the Eagles of their playoff berth and give it to the Cowboys (and rightfully so. They have two wins against the NFC North which was ranked as the toughest conference in the preseason). Oh and lets not forget about the fact that the Cowboys scheduled half their games against Illinois high school programs (they won two games against the NFC North so they deserved some cupcakes).
Sounds ludicrous doesn't it? So why do we accept situations like this as the norm in college football? Plus this doesn't even take into account the disparities in tv contracts where each conference needs to independently negotiate deals. Deals which inevitably lead to the rich getting richer, entrenching the "top" programs at the top. Why do we even pretend that these teams who are allegedly competing for the same goal are on an even remotely level playing field? I'm not naive to the fact that money is power, just befuddled as to how nobody is attempting to even give the illusion of parity in college football.
These things used to actually mean something
So back to conferences. Why do we even have them in the first place? They used to actually be pretty cool. You played a set schedule against geographically similar schools and at the end of the year you could determine a conference champion based on wins and losses and simple tiebreakers. It actually meant something to win a conference championship and winning one was the mark of a successful season regardless of whether your team made the national championship.
Now obviously even back then there was still a parity issue. Ohio State always has and always will have (assuming the powers that be don't get a hold of my rant) infinitely more resources than Northwestern to field a competitive football team. Not saying this isn't a concern, but when these intra-conference parity issues are compounded with inter-conference parity issues then things become even messier. Northwestern by nature of being part of the Big Ten may not have the resources and clout of Ohio State but they are still in a much better position than say the New Mexico Lobos in the lowly Mountain West. So now New Mexico is not only at a financial disadvantage, but they're locked into a schedule playing against teams that everyone agrees are inferior, essentially giving them zero path to achieving glory.
Now wait a minute, didn't you just say that the mark of a successful season was just winning your conference? Why should New Mexico even try to compare themselves to Ohio State? Because the Ohio States of the world blew up this model. The SEC and B1G have created an oligarchy where if you're a member you get to feast on shares of monster tv deals while everyone else gets crumbs and is relegated to the CW Network (sorry Wazzu). It's eat or get eaten so these smaller schools need to follow the money and are leaving established conferences for greener? pastures. Now CFB fans are rewarded with historic rivalries such as Cal vs. Virginia in the ACC or Northern Illinois vs. UTEP in the Mountain West.
Join me for next weeks blog post where I rank my top ten favorite mountains in Illinois.
Okay Mr. Sportstalk Ox, what do you want them to do about it?
Divisions not conferences. Lets go back to the NFL example from the beginning. How does the NFL create parity? First, TV negotiations come from the top and teams get an equal share. Second, divisions exist but are purely just ways to group teams and set schedules. The idea of each division having a separate commissioner is stupid in the NFL and it's equally stupid in college football. And third, a win is a win is a win. Doesn't matter who you play or whether the out of touch old farts submitting their AP ballots like your brand. If you wanna make the playoffs then win your games.
Obviously there's other intricacies such as salary caps, talent acquisition, tweaks to the transfer portal, etc that would need to be worked out as well. I'm not going to pretend to be smart enough to solve all that but what I can say with 100% confidence is that college football in its current state is seriously flawed. If we want teams to be competing for the same goal of a CFP championship then there need to be mechanisms in place to maintain parity and fair competition between FBS schools and frankly there's too many teams to achieve this.
With 136 total FBS schools we need a clean break into at least two separate leagues with at least two separate national championships they compete for. Will we ever see that? Absolutely not. SEC + B1G love being able to lord over the peasants and all the New Mexicos of the world love playing dress-up and pretending they're actual CFP contenders. All the while fans lap up the shit content off the floor like dogs (It's me, I'm fans).
-ox