Reducing Scholarships, Not a Playoff, Is the Answer for College Football

So you're tired of seeing the SEC win all the time?

You're sick of the same old schools getting the best recruits?

You hate that teams like Utah and Boise State go undefeated yet get no love from the pollsters?

You think the fix is a college football playoff system? Here's the real fix for you parity lovers: Reduce the number of football scholarships to 60 per school.

BLASPHEMY, say the Alabama's, USC's, Florida's, and Texas's of the world. Of course they do.

But seriously, do they really need over 100 players? Somebody please explain this to me.

Explain how NFL teams can play 16 regular season games and up to four playoff games with a 53-man roster, 45 which are active, and a college team needs over 100 players.

You've got guys sharing jersey numbers in college football because there are so many. This year at Florida, No. 21 was Major Wright when the Gators were on defense and Emmanuel Moody on offense. At Ohio State, Terrelle Pryor of all people had to share No. 2 in his freshman year with defensive back Malcolm Jenkins.

There is no justification for this; all this is doing is allowing the big boys to stockpile players. Many of them will never see the field. But at least they won't see the field in an opposing uniform.

National Signing Day is on Wednesday. Florida, who is my team, is ranked No. 1 by all the recruiting services. Barring a last minute collapse, they will remain No. 1 after Signing Day. They will bring in 28 new players when football starts again.

Twenty-eight scholarship players in one class is over half an NFL sized roster. Why do they need that many players?

The truth is they don't.

Perhaps the most productive class in Gator history was the 2006 class. It ranked No. 2 by Rivals.com. There were 27 players in that class: Seven became major contributors to the greatest class in SEC history. That's it—seven players. The other 20 were either role players or never even saw the field. There are probably a dozen or so that even a Gator fan would not recognize.

What would have happened if some of those players were playing at a MAC, C-USA or a lesser SEC or ACC school? Where would the talent level of those teams be?

The truth is that you could take guys who never play for Alabama or Florida and field a team that would still beat Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, or any of the "cupcakes" they schedule in September.

If these schools feel they absolutely need that many players, let them use 50 walk-ons. With the scholarships that Florida would not use on football players, they could field a men's soccer or lacrosse team.

The reason they do not have those teams now is because of Title IX. This is a rule that states colleges must have an equal number of men's and women's scholarship athletes. With football taking up so many, it means other sports have to be cut altogether.

The improvements it would make on college football would also be huge. Undefeated seasons would be nearly impossible. There would be many more close games and many more upsets.

It would also raise the level of play. No more would you have a team full of scrubs playing another that can only go three and four deep. You would see the players rated on Rivals Top 100 or ESPN's Top 150 going to schools besides Florida, Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, and USC, too.

Fix this first, then start talking about playoffs.