Change is often sparked by the need or desire to improve. Generally, change can be a good thing. If anything, it is refreshing to get a change of scenery. Our beloved sport of college football can definitely use a number of changes. While it does have its imperfections, we do love college football and Autumn truly is a wonderful time of year. In fact, we may love college football for its imperfections, its chaos and its sometimes absolute absurdity. However, it’s perfectly fine to think about a few things we could definitely change.
Notre Dame’s Struggle For Independence
The biggest part of Notre Dame’s identity (golden domes and Touchdown Jesus aside) is arguably their status as an independent football school. A hundred years ago legendary Michigan football coach Fielding Yost essentially blocked Notre Dame from joining the conference that would go on to become the Big Ten. This is probably the most influential thing to happen to Notre Dame football. In the past 100 years, Notre Dame has blossomed into a national football brand. Similar to the Dallas Cowboys or New York Yankees, just about anywhere in America you’ll see someone repping ND with a ball cap, shirt, etc.
Without scheduling restraints, ND has been able to form and maintain national rivalries with teams on both coasts as well as in the Midwest. ND also enjoys national coverage for all their games. How many schools can offer that to prospective players? Notre Dame’s status as a national brand has helped them sign some of the best talent coming out of high school and more importantly, generate zillions of dollars in revenue for the university. Notre Dame is completely fine with remaining independent at their own peril. They will always be relevant, regardless of how many national titles they win. Notre Dame fans seem content with winning somewhere between eight and eleven games a year as long as they maintain their status as a national brand and elite coaching destination.
It’s time to stop telling the Irish that they need to join a conference, they don’t. Given the gauntlet that they schedule for themselves every year, there’s little reason to believe that if ND wins eleven or twelve games a year that they won’t make the playoff. Hell, it’s a strong possibility that they win out and get in this year. Independence is okay, we as fans of other teams don’t know what is best for ND. But ND sure seems to have it figured out. Keep doin’ that Yoga, Brian Kelly.
Preseason Polls, See ya!
Americans have a fascinating obsession with ranking things. Movies, music, books, presidents, TV shows, you name it, we rank it. It’s only natural that we rank our college football teams before they even play a snap of football. Much like the individual awards come out with preseason watch lists, I think the polls would benefit from a similar format. Give us a list of 35-40 teams that look, on paper, to be potential top-25 teams. Then when the first Sunday in October hits, rank ’em. This way we don’t have to see Texas starting the season ranked only to go out and lose to damn Maryland anymore. Even though that is kinda fun.
The Heisman Trophy
The Heisman is arguably the most prestigious individual award in all of American sports. The way that the trophy is decided is due for an overhaul. I agree with letting the previous winners vote, that can stay. But there is no reason that Stanford can have three runner-ups who were perhaps more deserving players because of how often they play at 10PM on the East Coast. Lamar Jackson and Robert Griffin III proved that you don’t have to be the best player on the best team to win the award.
The award is intended to go to the nation’s most outstanding player. Sometimes that guy is a defensive player. Ndamukong Suh, Jonathan Allen, Tyrann Mathieu. All of these players were absolutely dominant in the years where they had breakout campaigns. I’d love to see the Heisman shift away from a solely-offensive award. I get it, touchdowns are sexy. Chicks dig quarterbacks. I wanna see some more love for running backs, receivers and the guys on defense who dazzle in our ‘biggest hits of the year’ compilations on Youtube every year.
Expand The Playoff
The current format is fine. I think the only two real snubs were Penn State last year and 2014 TCU. However, we eliminate all arguments by expanding the field to eight teams. The five power conferences all receive an automatic bid. Win your conference, you’re in. In addition to the five autobids, throw in three at-large spots and let the committee decide who those three teams are based solely on their body of work. We’ll use last year as an example.
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Penn State
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State
- USC
- Florida State/Michigan/Western Michigan/Oklahoma State/Wisconsin
What we have here is a pretty straightforward format that gives us two weeks of exciting matchups to cap off the year. Furthermore, with the chance to win a national title, less players will be tempted to sit out the postseason to protect their draft status. Collegiate athletics is all about the money. Three weeks of a playoff offers a lot more money than two. As fans, we get more exciting games to watch. The reason it was so hard to pick an eighth team was because of how similar FSU and Michigan performed, aside from FSU getting demolished by Louisville early in the season. Western Michigan was intriguing at 13-0 but didn’t have the resume that screamed, “we belong in the playoff” even with our expanded field. Oklahoma State was also interesting. Without a stupid loss to Central Michigan that never should have happened, they’re a one-loss team and easily my eight-seed in this beautiful hypothetical. Moral of the story? Don’t lose to Central Michigan. It looks bad.
Final Thoughts
College football is a ton of fun the way it is. We don’t need anything drastic such as a relegation system or geographical super-conferences. All I’m arguing is that we could certainly use some changes. While none of these are likely to ever happen (Notre Dame will still get grief for remaining independent) it is fun to think about what could be. College football has changed a lot since Rutgers and Princeton played the first game in 1869 to celebrate a Union Victory over the South. That’s totally true and I didn’t make it up, don’t google it. So who knows? Give it 50 or 60 years, maybe all of my fantasies come true. One thing I do know will be true in the next 50 years, Kirk Ferentz will still be under contract at Iowa.
