If I Were in Charge Of.....College Football

It's time for another enjoyable installment of "If I Were in Charge Of".  This week we look at college football.  Growing up in the south, Saturdays in the fall was a given, watching college football.  As I've gotten older I've got to see games in person.  College football, like college basketball, has some good things but also have some things that would be beneficial to work on.  So if I were in charge of college football.....

*Have a playoff.  Out of all the changes in the various sports, this is one of the easiest calls to make.  It looks like the powers that be agree with me (finally) and are looking to implement some kind of playoff in a few years.  Their model would be 4 teams.  My model would be more in line with nearly every other system in college football (1-AA, D-2, D-3, NAIA).  I would have a 16 team playoff.  The conference champions from the power conferences would get an automatic bid and there would be at large bids as well.  The games would be played in early December until the "Championship Game which would then be played on New Years Day.  For those who don't make the playoff, there will still be bowl games around but the championship will be decided on the field not by computers and voters deciding who will be in the title game.

*Cut and cap power conferences.  One of the sad things that has come around in recent years is conference realignment.  If I were in charge, some of that would be rectified.  Missouri & Texas A&M (and also Nebraska) back to the Big 12.  West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, back to the Big East.  I would put a cap on power conferences having 12 teams.  That way each conference can still have a championship game but old rivalries can be kept.  Out of all the changes I would make, this is the biggest pipe dream of them all but it would be cool.  Tradition in some ways doesn't mean anything anymore in college football but it'd be cool to get back to it.

*For student athletes, half of all sales of their jerseys would go into a scholarship fund to help them pay for expenses outside of their athletic scholarship.  Schools are making money off them, it would be nice if they could get something in return to help out with expenses since they can't get a job otherwise (this could be applied to all college athletes).

*The championship game will be televised on broadcast television, period.  The last several years ESPN has shown the national title game on their network.  While I like ESPN, they're not broadcast TV.  All championship games (regardless of sport) should be on broadcast TV.  One should be able to watch it and not have to pay to watch it.

*Unless it's an instate school, teams from power conferences cannot play schools that aren't in the same division (i.e. 1-A school playing a 1-AA or D-2).  If there is going to be an emphasis on the regular season matters, can't have Alabama playing Georgia Southern.

Well that's this week's installment.  What do you think?  Leave your suggestions of what you'd change and be sure to check out all the other installments of this series.