Reblogging here before Pesky Truth dies
For too long, the big boys of college football, the so-called Power 5 Conferences, have had a lock on the TV money and the BCS/Playoff systems. Since they get all of the TV exposure, fame, and money (with which they get the best facilities), they effectively shut out the lesser schools of the top classification of NCAA football from the top recruits, thus perpetuating the cycle.
It is high time for this to get blown up, even though we all know that the Power 5 will never let their cash cow get wrecked. So, in an act of futility, I present The Crawfish Plan for Restoring Sanity and Fairness to College Football.
The first part of my plan involves a complete reorganization of the conferences in the FBS division of college football. I present to y’all 12 conferences, all regional, and each with 10 or 12 teams, thus giving us a championship game in each (more on that later), and with a mix of traditional big boys and smaller schools. Having this mix gives EVERY school a chance to compete for recruits and for championships.
GULF COAST CONFERENCE: Central Florida, Florida International, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Southern Miss, South Alabama, South Florida
ATLANTIC SEABOARD CONFERENCE: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Old Dominion, South Carolina, Wake Forest, Miami, Florida State, Florida Atlantic
DEEP SOUTH CONFERENCE: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Tulane, Troy, Alabama-Birmingham, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY CONFERENCE: Arkansas, Arkansas State, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, Middle Tennessee, Memphis, Vanderbilt
MID ATLANTIC CONFERENCE: Buffalo, Appalachian State, Virginia, VA Tech, Maryland, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Louisville
NORTHEAST CONFERENCE: Navy, Army, Temple, Marshall, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia, Boston College
RUST BELT CONFERENCE: Cincinnati, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Toledo, Ball State, Penn State, Pittsburgh
GREAT LAKES CONFERENCE: Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Ohio State, Akron, Indiana, Illinois
MID AMERICA CONFERENCE: Colorado, Colorado State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa State, Kent State, Bowling Green
FRONTIER CONFERENCE: Wyoming, Air Force, Boise State, Utah, Utah State, Nevada, UNLV, Brigham Young, Arizona, Arizona State, New Mexico, New Mexico State
PACIFIC COAST CONFERENCE: USC, UCLA, San Diego State, San Jose State, Fresno State, California, Stanford, Hawaii, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State
LONE STAR CONFERENCE: Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Baylor, Houston, Texas Tech, North Texas, Rice, Texas-El Paso, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State
Now that we have our conferences, which will all be divided up into 2 divisions each, we will have 12 conference championship games. These twelve games will be the first round of the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS! The top 4 ranked teams winning their conference championships will get a bye in the second round.
The second round of the playoffs will have 8 teams fighting it out in 4 games. These games will occur in 4 traditional bowl games: (current name in parentheses) Tampa (Outback), San Diego (Holiday), Houston (Texas), and Santa Clara (Foster Farms).
The 4 winners will then go against the 4 bye teams in the quarterfinals, and those winners facing off in the semifinals. These 6 games will rotate between 6 more traditional bowl games: Arlington (Cotton), Pasadena (Rose), Miami (Orange), New Orleans (Sugar), Phoenix (Fiesta), and Atlanta (Peach).
The National Championship Game location will be determined by bidding processes.
Yes, this is a complete fantasy. No, it will never happen, but wouldn’t it be nice to cut the BS and give every school a chance to EARN the prize every year?