File this under “It’ll never happen”, but still fun to think about. Found this on a Nebraska football forum: http://forum.huskermax.com/vbbs/showthread.php?75329-Does-Premier-League-Provide-a-Road-Map-for-CFB. Similar to something I’ve said before too regarding how relegation/promotion could really work for college football, but with a slightly different organization. I’d suggest more geographic regions in the “Upper 5” “Mid 5” and “Lower 5” divisions to promote even better regional proximity, e.g. instead of just “Southeast”, you could have “Gulf coast” and “South atlantic” divisions, promote just the top teams in each subdivision. If you used a single year’s record instead of a rolling 3 year record, you could more easily have a playoff for a “wild card” promotion spot in the “Upper 5” just like the English soccer does with their next highest division and which has become a big deal, though you’d need to deal with geographic disparities that come up and there are drawbacks to using single year records.
I believe the author missed Charlotte, but we’d slot pretty well into the Upper or Mid 5 Southeast.
Anyway, I’ll follow this post with the post by “Husker Mort” (it’s pretty long).
By “Husker Mort”:
Does Premier League Provide a Road Map for CFB?
Professional soccer has been played in England since “The Football League” was formed in 1888. Today, that league is made up of three hierarchical divisions (in descending order: The Championship, League One, and League Two) and two reserve leagues. Each division has 24 teams and the movement between the leagues is what I am most fascinated by as it may hold a key to increasing the top-to-bottom competitiveness of College Football.
The Football League is where most of England’s teams play, but the best programs separated themselves into a super conference (sound familiar?) in 1992 and coined it the “Premier League”. This move was largely driven by a lucrative television deal (ahem) worth $2.2Bn annually and, much like American sports leagues and the NCAA, the Premier League is owned/directed by its member clubs. What separates the league (and the sport) from others is a system of annual promotion and relegation (demotion) that recognizes teams for their performance and allows any club in the spectrum of the league to ascend (or descend) through the ranks of the sport.
The result is a fluid and dynamic league where any team can compete at the pinnacle of the sport if they earn it on the field. Although the league currently stands at 20 teams (it began with 22), a total of 47 clubs have competed for at least one season. (I welcome anyone else’s insight here as I am just a casual fan of soccer and a novice when it comes to their league dynamics.)
Implications for CFB A similar system would alleviate many of the anti-trust concerns about college football and provide a clear path to sustained relevance for any program. Applying this to college football could have some very interesting effects, including:
[ul][li]True Round Robin Scheduling (No Divisions or Championship Games)[/li]
[li]No Patsy “Non-Conference” Games (No Paydays for Mercenaries)[/li]
[li]Every Program (FBS & FCS) Can be Slated into the Hierarchy[/li]
[li]Casual Interest in Top Performing Teams Rises Nationally[/li]
[li]Conferences that wish to remain intact (IVY, HBCU) would become independent conferences.[/li]
[li]Geography is More Emphasized (Chance for New Regional Rivals)[/li]
[li]Quality of Play in “Power 5” is Improved through Promotion/Relegation Process[/li]
[li]Creates Even More Intrigue and Suspense Across the Sport[/li][/ul]
How the concept of promotion/relegation could work in College Football is explored below.
NOTE: This assumes that an 8-team Playoff would be utilized to crown a National Champion, with the winner of each conference automatically qualifying alongside 3 additional at-large teams. Each level could stage their own championship that could have implications on promotion.
“Power 5” Conferences (Premier League):
[table][tr][td]EAST[/td] [td]SOUTHEAST[/td] [td]MIDWEST[/td] [td]CENTRAL[/td] [td]WEST[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Louisville
Miami (FL)
NC State
North Carolina
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest[/td] [td]Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Miss State
Missouri
Ole Miss
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt[/td] [td]Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Notre Dame^
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
Wisconsin[/td] [td]Baylor
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
North Texas^
Oklahoma
Okla State
SMU^
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
Tulsa^
West Virginia
Wyoming^[/td] [td]Arizona
Arizona State
Boise State^
BYU^
California
Colorado
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Utah
Washington
Wash State[/td] [/tr] [/table]
^ Reflects Conference Reassignment
Promotion: None
Relegation: Annual, Bottom Two Teams in Each Conference (Based on Three-Year Rolling Record)
“Upper 5” Conferences (Championship Division):
[table][tr][td]EAST 2[/td] [td]SOUTHEAST 2[/td] [td]MIDWEST 2[/td] [td]CENTRAL 2[/td] [td]WEST 2[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Army^
Buffalo^
Connecticut
East Carolina
UMass^
Florida Atlantic^
Florida Intl^
Navy
Old Dominion^
South Florida
Temple
UCF
Villanova^
Wm & Mary^[/td] [td]Appalachian St.
Chattanooga^
GA Southern
Georgia St
Jacksonville St^
LA-Lafayette
LA-Monroe
McNeese St^
Memphis^
S. Alabama
Southern Miss^
Texas State
Troy
Tulane^[/td] [td]Akron
Ball State
Bowling Green
Central Mich
Cincinnati
Eastern Mich
Kent State
Miami (OH)
Northern IL
Northern Iowa^
Ohio
Purdue^
Toledo
Western Mich[/td] [td]Arkansas St^
Houston^
Louisiana Tech
Marshall
Middle TN
Missouri State^
North Dakota St^
Rice
South Dakota^
South Dak St^
SE Missouri St^
TX San Antonio
UTEP
Western KY[/td] [td]Air Force
Colorado St
Fresno St
Hawaii
Idaho^
Nevada
New Mexico
New Mexico St^
Northern CO^
San Diego^
San Diego St
San José St
UNLV
Utah St[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Promotion: Annual, Top Two Teams (Based on Three-Year Rolling Record)
Relegation: Annual, Bottom Three Teams (Based on Three-Year Rolling Record)
