College football 2020 offseason thread

You're making sense, so naturally it has no place in college athletics. The latest round of conference roulette was all about football, but you also end up with flights from Lubbock to Morgantown for volleyball and tennis. Now, a regional approach to the Olympic sports is something the colleges should look at whenever it all ends. But like I said at the start of this post, it makes sense, so it has no place in college athletics.

 

When I was an SID in the Sun Belt Conference, we had conference games in Miami and Denver. Totally made sense.

 

Yes, the world has changed since 1932. Or even since 2002. But most state high school associations don't let big city schools beat up on little rural schools just because they're closer to each other, so why should Division 1 football be any different?

It wasn't until television audience size (and therefore advertising revenues) outweighed the need of regional affiliations that conferences started to get wonky. The ACC and SEC are both offshoots of the original Southern Conference (and Georgia Tech/South Carolina have flip-flopped over time), which is why they shared the same basic footprint for decades, with one being considered a "football conference except for Kentucky" and the other a "basketball conference except for Clemson."

Based on their student enrollment, Central Florida and South Florida logically ought to be in a football conference with Florida, Florida State and Miami but they add no additional TV eyeballs. With all respect to @Neutral Corner, UAB's got the same issue in a state dominated by Auburn/Alabama. Perhaps some of the commenters on this thread will eventually be correct -- the loss of revenues for consecutive football and basketball seasons will cause wholesale changes to the current structure and only the strong (and stupid) survive.

But sticking Ohio State in with a bunch of MAC schools just because they share the same mailing address is ludicrous. The Akrons and Kents are a third or a fourth of the size of OSU.

 

That .... is ... incredible.

 

The people who put those together are the Sarah Coopers of sports media!

 

I get sticking within your conference, but the "close proximity" argument is BS. There are 2 ways to get to a road game, bus or plane. If you have to get on a plane, it makes no difference if the flight is 1 hour, 2 hours, 3, 4, etc. So what difference does it make if USC flies to South Bend or Pullman. Not much. Or to Dallas to play Alabama. From L.A., Dallas is only 300 miles farther than Seattle.

But I really feel everything should be canceled until 2021 and see where we are. I think football (NFL and CFB) is going to be a Covid disaster. Baseball has been a disaster. The bubble system for NBA and NHL seems to be working OK. They wanted to finish the seasons. They should do it and not start up again. A bubble system for is not feasible for football. Not having fans is a ridiculous concept.

 

Well, they're going to play until events force them to shut down. I agree that it would be far more sensible to pull the plug and keep living people safe, but there are a lot of university athletic departments which can't keep on without those football dollars. My school is playing, and has the best talent it has ever fielded, so I'm torn about losing the season. I'll follow them until the string runs out, but I consider this season to be doomed before it even starts.

 

The SEC dunks on the Big Ten and Pac-12 again.

SEC coronavirus protocols: Conference increasing cardiac evaluations, adding additional COVID-19 test

 

If you're gonna do it, that's the way to do it. ACC, you're on the clock. (I think the Big 12 previously indicated an intent to test for cardiac issues.)

 

A completely stupid idea came to me during my Saturday afternoon nap based partly on @ChrisLong's comment that air travel makes "nearness" relative. We can't really have relegation in our professional sports because of the difference in stadium size/metro areas between major leagues and the minors (baseball and hockey, for starters).

But what about one for college football (and perhaps college basketball) that partially steals from the UEFA/major European Soccer League model?

Take the top four teams from each Power 5 conference, plus the top four teams from G5 to form two 12-team conferences called the National Championship Conference (Pac-12, Big 12, Big 10/Notre Dame and the Boise States in the "West"; ACC, SEC and other G5 teams in the "East"). Play a round-robin and match up the winners for the Bowl Championship in Indianapolis, and second place for the Rose, third for the Sugar, fourth for the Fiesta, fifth for the Orange, sixth for the Cotton, etc.

So what to do with the teams left out of the Favored 24? Have them continue to play for their conference championships. For example, the remaining 12 SEC schools play a round-robin to determine the SEC champ, which then challenges the lowest-finishing SEC team in the National Championship Conference to a winner move up match, to be played the week before the Peach in Atlanta. The same with the other P5 conferences and G5 schools, each having the opportunity to "bump" their way into the NCC.

You've still got conference affiliations but a "super conference" with supposedly the best 24 teams rotating based on relative strength. Each conference keeps its regular TV deal, plus now you've got 12 NCC games available each week (or with staggered byes) to sell as a separate package.

Would it impact recruiting to be left out of the NCC? Certainly, but it's not like Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia are getting beat by the also rans for the blue chippers now. Is it better for Tennessee, Florida or South Carolina to go 2-9 in the NCC or put an SEC Championship banner on the wall?

It'd never happen, but it's fun to blow the whole thing up right now.