How to change the landscape of college football.

[BootsCostMoney]

If you really wanted to change college football and take it back to a better place, you’d do like the Ivy League does and get rid of athletic scholarships. Student first, Athlete second.

Sure, schools with little to no scruples about who they let in would still be good, but it would just expose which schools are really willing to lower their academic standards. When it’s not just for “athletes” but for persons that have to be treated like the rest of the student body now.

It’s a hard fix though, cause most schools don’t give a flip about grades or their student body makeup anymore.

 

[gtphd]

1. Scholarships are 1, 2, 3, or 4 years guaranteed. If you offer 4 years, that player hits your cap for 4 years and is on scholarship for 4 years even if the player is academically ineligible, quits on his own, transfers, goes pro, etc. Why this helps: A 3.5* guy might get a 1 year offer from Alabama but a 4 year offer from BC and could choose BC for that reason. It would also eliminate oversigning. Also no signing period. A player could sign a contract at 6 years old if offered.

2. Set minimum graduation rates. If you don’t graduate enough, lose scholarships.

3. Separate P5 into its own division. P5 can only play other P5 schools. Eliminate the cupcakes.

4. Make the P5 the P4 and the playoff is only conference champions.

5. Doesn’t really belong, but personal pet peeve: ban extra points. All tries after a TD must be for 2 points.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

So, I’ve been thinking about how big of a difference there is in college football from one program to the next. You have your blue bloods, then your mid level, and then the bottom feeders. Blue bloods are constantly in the top 10, while the mid level schools will make the top 25 some and can end up having big years when the stars align. The bottom feeders are just that, bottom feeders. I will say, you could argue there is a level between the blue bloods and the mid level, those are teams who make the top 25 consistently but can’t teally compete with the blue bloods on a consistent basis. The question now becomes, how does college football become more competitive and even across the board? (Which I don’t think will happen) however I’d like to see some ideas on what could be done.

I personally know people who don’t watch college football anymore because it’s just not as fun and competitive as the NFL across the board. My brother in law (Bama fan) doesn’t even watch all Bama games because it’s not fun for them to beat up on everyone to him. The sad thing is, this could be changed with a few new rules imo, but probably will never happen.

So, here we go. First I’d like to see a cap on the size of support staff, this is huge imo and majorly divides the levels listed above. I’d say 15 or so is an amount that is fair. All schools might not be able to do that, but it levels it out some. I’d also like to see “investigators” in different regions who can randomly stop by schools (and would) that can make sure programs don’t have extra staff coaching in practice, making sure kids are going to class ect. These “investigators” would also make sure that money is not given to recruits from these programs, might not completely work but would possibly scare some programs a little with the possibility of a BIG pentalty.

Second, I’d like to see a cap on funds that can be spent per year for each program as far as recruiting, facilities, ect. There is such a major difference In facilities that also divide the levels listed above. Now, I’m not saying all should be made equally, but when a school spends 10 million compared to 3 million of another school, they should make it somewhere in the middle. I would say for big projects there could be exceptions.

Third, and the most important, there should not only be a gpa requirement (which there is) but a requirement for graduation rate. 80 percent should be the minimum or you would get penalized. It’s sad, imo some are more worried about the success of the football programs over the success of the student athletes outside of football.

Fourth, and this would definitely not happen, but would MAJORLY even things out. Have a point system in recruiting, stars would count as points, and you couldn’t go over your allowed amount of points, or average star ranking since you might not always sign 25. Let’s say 3.4 or 3.5 is the limit of star ranking.

What would y’all like to see?

I like all of that but would just limit the number of 4 and 5 star recruits a coach can sign.

None of this will happen though. College football will continue to die a slow death as people tire of the same 2-3 teams in the CFP every year.

 

[heyhellowhatsup]

The problem with the CFP is that even a lot of the traditional blue bloods haven’t made appearances. Instead, it’s been all Bama, Clemson, OU, Ohio State, UGA, FSU, etc... The only team that has had a legit chance outside of those is Oregon (let’s be real everyone knew UW would lose).

Where’s Texas? Where’s USC? Where’s Michigan? Where’s LSU? Tennessee? Etc, etc.

The biggest reason to go to 8 teams is not to eliminate controversy, but rather to keep more fanbases engaged.

 

[tech_wreck47]

The problem with the CFP is that even a lot of the traditional blue bloods haven’t made appearances. Instead, it’s been all Bama, Clemson, OU, Ohio State, UGA, FSU, etc... The only team that has had a legit chance outside of those is Oregon (let’s be real everyone knew UW would lose).

Where’s Texas? Where’s USC? Where’s Michigan? Where’s LSU? Tennessee? Etc, etc.

The biggest reason to go to 8 teams is not to eliminate controversy, but rather to keep more fanbases engaged.

I want a 13 team play off, skip the conference championships. Winner of each division makes the playoffs, with 3 at large. Top 3 teams get byes,
go by some metric system to determine the teams that get byes if head to head does not apply. Or you could just send the top 2 teams from each conference no matter what side they come from.

 

[WreckinGT]

So a few more points on this.

1. We aint the NFL and do not want to be. The NFL is boring
2. College football is about tradition, not a sanitized socialism broken down world
3. As a Tech fan, you understand your place and love those shiny years, 1990, 2009, 2014
4. Not to get political here, but much of what is suggested will limit how many of the kids, from let's say low means to enable them to get into college and have a chance for the next level and maybe even a degree. I truly believe that college football has been the greatest success story of integration in America.

For point number 1 I couldn’t disagree more. I watched three games last Saturday between good teams and their hated rivals. None of the three were even competitive. I probably spent more time reading my iPad than actually watching the games. Come Sunday, I am actually somewhat engaged watching teams I don’t even care about. It’s just more fun for me to watch competitive football than watch Alabama to see if they win by 30 or 50.

More than likely we are looking at Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma in the playoffs. Three repeats from last season and Notre Dame who really doesn’t have a prayer of winning the thing. We will likely get another Alabama/Clemson final with Alabama winning easily. The whole scenario is just boring and played out at this point. I would honestly rather go back to the old bowl system then keep watching this repeat year after year.

 

[Vespidae]

The issue at D1 is the concentration of money, merchandising, and talent (coaching and players) into an increasingly small number of schools. If you want to level the field, you should ...

1. Implement revenue sharing across conferences so that there is a reasonably similar share of spend per player to compete at D1.
2. Change the recruiting process such that kids get selected by schools (say, 2-3) and there is a process of letting lesser performing programs having an opportunity to get or offer grants to 4-5 star talent. (If this is truly about the kids and education, they should be DELIGHTED to get a full ride from any university.)
3. No more transferability. If you give up your grant, it's over.
4. Coaches who change schools must sit out two years. The escalation in coaching salaries has to stop.
5. Cap the size of the support staff and the budget. Base metrics on the average college, not the top 8 P5 programs.
6. Reduce weight and size. This will help with concussion issues and 325 lb lineman.

A lot of this may happen when ESPN can no longer afford the tv rights. As streaming takes over, money may be the motivator to do a lot of this. Or rather, the lack of it.

 

[Oakland]

Make Alabama play in the NFL. Seriously we're stuck with Alabama winning or in the running for the National Championship for the next 15 years. No wonder many younger fans are turned off by college football. I like the idea of a cap on football staff members and spending as a whole. Some schools will never see the light of day with the factories always winning. Maybe we do need to consider a super division in college football and it wouldn't bother me if GT was not part of it.

 

[stingem103]

I don't think many of us would be that upset with the current landscape of college football if it was not for a team in our own state being where they are right now. I do agree that Alabama has been too far above everybody else for a while now....its bad for the game in general IMO to have a talent monopolies. The difference between them and other elite programs is pretty large at times and some sort of limit would help the game in general....we still need to do things to improve our program no matter what but I would imagine things will change soon regardless due to the various factors.

Most folks who are not Alabama fans are sick of it. Its not fun for the average fan to watch blowouts when top 5 or 10 teams play like we have seen recently.

 

[4shotB]

Make Alabama play in the NFL. Seriously we're stuck with Alabama winning or in the running for the National Championship for the next 15 years.

I think you underestimate the power of the coach. Bama was in a similar position at one time under the Bear. As was Oklahoma under Switzer and Nebraska under Osborne. FSU under Bowden. These schools all stumbled when the coaches left, even though they had all the same advantages throughout the ups and downs. People assumed these schools were juggernauts that could not be derailed but this kind of leadership does not grow on trees.

As an aside, who in their right mind would follow Saban at Bama? I know there will be guys lined up around the block wanting that gig (and its paycheck) but that is NOT a recipe for success imo. That's why I think Dabo would stay put where he is upon Saban leaving. He is THE GUY at Clemson, but at Bama he is the guy who followed THE GUY.

 

[year_of_the_swarm]

Georgia Linebackers/Alabama Linebackers
6'4'' 245 / 6'2'' 245
6'3'' 245 / 6'4'' 244
6'3'' 240 / 6'3'' 266
6'2'' 235 / 6'3'' 235

Georgia DL / Alabama DL
6'4'' 300/6'5'' 286
6'5'' 300/6'4'' 295
6'4'' 285/6'7'' 316

Dallas Cowboys Linebackers
6'4'' 255
6'1'' 245
6'2'' 245
6'2'' 245

Dallas Cowboys DL
6'3'' 265
6'4'' 290
6'1'' 318
6'6'' 270

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Georgia Linebackers/Alabama Linebackers
6'4'' 245 / 6'2'' 245
6'3'' 245 / 6'4'' 244
6'3'' 240 / 6'3'' 266
6'2'' 235 / 6'3'' 235

Georgia DL / Alabama DL
6'4'' 300/6'5'' 286
6'5'' 300/6'4'' 295
6'4'' 285/6'7'' 316

Dallas Cowboys Linebackers
6'4'' 255
6'1'' 245
6'2'' 245
6'2'' 245

Dallas Cowboys DL
6'3'' 265
6'4'' 290
6'1'' 318
6'6'' 270

FINAL SCORE: DAL 52 Alabama/Mutts 3

 

[HurricaneJacket]

If we're going to have a playoff, access must run through the conference championships. Win and you're in. Either with a 6 team playoff (P5 champs and ND or G5 champ depending on who has the highest rank) or 8 team (P5 champs, best or 2 best G5 champs, and 1/2 at large).

This is the only way to break the stranglehold of a few teams on access to the playoffs. Sure most of the winners would be the current set of champions, but you open access to the rest of the P5 and allow more teams to truthfully recruit that they have a path to the playoffs, and once you're there, well anything can happen.

 

[GTonTop88]

They need to do something. A few schools are separating themselves by a large margin from the rest.

Alabama separated themselves years ago consistently being a top 5 team. Next was Ohio State, then Clemson and now Uga.

Alabama is still on another level because they have been at it a lot longer but the other 3 are trying to reach the consistency that Bama has and seem to be right there.

 

[JorgeJonas]

Alternatively, all caps on spending (including on players) could be removed, which would be more ethical and promote competition.

 

[crl85]

Put all the schools whose academic success is contingent upon football dollars in a category of their own.

This is most of the sec, Ohio state, Clemson , FSU and 4 or 5 big 12 schools. Let them play in a 15-20 team league. These schools will never alter their priorities.

Let the other 100 or so D1 schools play college football the way it’s meant to be played.

 

[ibeattetris]

I think there should be a total cap on staff. Someone posted a picture of the GT v Clemson pregame and the number of khaki pants compared to ours was astounding. Alabama at one point had multiple ex head coaches on staff just to analyze film.

I liked the idea mentioned earlier in limiting the number of signees per 4 year period.

If we are talking *big* ideas. Enforcing cross conference play would help determine conference strength better and hopefully make team comparisons better. Just as a quick example, if you have 8 conference games you must play 2 teams assigned from other P5 conferences. You balance the cross play across the conferences. The other two games could be your choice. So for us, the UGA game would become one of our "electives". With everyone playing tougher schedules overall, I believe you could then make the claim that all conference champs deserve a chance at the playoffs. Bring in the best G5 and a couple at large and let them play it out on the field.