11 Changes We'd Make Right Now in College Football

“So, if YOU were put in charge what would you do differently?”

It seems like people are always asking this kind of hypothetical leadership question in interviews,  essays and just to get a conversation flowing.

And nobody is safe from this querying…children, adults, voters, taxpayers, seniors and yes, sports enthusiasts.

Indeed, what if this line of questioning was used to formulate an improved approach to something more important than our nation, our state, our schools or our world—yes, what if we utilized it for college football?

The following slideshow goes all hypothetical on you and boldly presents 11 changes we’d make in college football right now.

Think of it as a thesis nailed on both the doors of the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, IN and the BCS command center in Kansas City, MO.

No More BCS

It would be difficult to find an immediate change that would garner more popular support than would completely doing away with the BCS.

Yes, why wait until the 2013 season is finished when some stop-gap, “save us” revisions are meant to be in place; why not just scrap the entire thing right now?

No need to do away with the membership bowls, the idea of a true national championship game or even some of the recent brainstorming thrown around for making the BCS better…just get rid of the BCS itself.

Only when the BCS follows the Bowl Alliance and Bowl Coalition into the sunset of obscurity will college football be able to move fully in the right direction in terms of determining a true champion.

86 the Coaches' Poll

According to the Journal of Business Ethics, the definition of “conflict of interest” is as follows.

“A situation in which a person has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties as, say, a public official, an employee, or a professional.”

And this clearly explains why the Coaches’ Poll needs to immediately stripped of its influential role in college football.

To state it more clearly, how can a poll voted on by college football coaches be utilized to determine who the best teams in college football are and then be further employed to ascertain who plays for the national championship?

It’s a lot like the US Congress voting on their pay structure and benefits, and it’s clearly a conflict of interest that makes the poll itself wholly invalid.

I’m not saying that coaches actually do fill their ballots out to their own team’s advantage, but why present the temptation—and who’s to say, factually, that it’s never happened?

Another interesting angle to the Coaches’ Poll is the fact that during the season the head coach of a major college football team is one of the most overworked and stressed of all those in the workplace.

And so how can a guy be counted on to know what’s going on with 119 other football teams when he is meant to put his heart and soul into his own?

And then, what skew does his playing (and winning or losing to) certain teams that are unique to his schedule have on his voting?

The Coaches’ Poll is fraught with conflict of interest issues that compromise its basic validity and point to its imminent removal.

Move the National Championship Game to Saturday Night

Have you ever asked yourself why people have Super Bowl parties but they don’t have college football National Championship parties?

Seriously, this is the most passionate team spectator sport in the nation, so where’s the party when the big enchilada is about to be served up?

Well, admittedly, Super Bowl parties are well entrenched in our culture and the commercialism of the NFL finale is attractive even to the non-sports fan, but despite this, here’s a simple fix that could get the ball rolling.

Move the game from Tuesday night at 8 PM to Saturday night at 7 PM.

College football is played on Saturday, it’s our day, it’s sacred and it’s traditional in every way.

NFL games are played on Sunday, it’s their day, it’s sacred, it’s traditional and therefore it plays its championship game on that day (i.e. the day you expect to be watching pro football).

It makes sense.

Playing the finale of the college football season (regardless of whether there is a playoff) late on a week night (a school night, a work night, etc.) is ridiculous and does nothing to encourage or facilitate a suitable celebration.

Move the game to Saturday night, where it belongs and let the party with themed napkins and pigskin-shaped platters begin in earnest.

Subdivide the FBS

Even the introduction of a true playoff system may not offer necessary equality to schools who currently call C-USA, the MWC, the MAC, the WAC and the Sun Belt conference home.

Yes, a four- or eight-team playoff still represents the potential for elitism that has marked college football and doomed any realistic championship aspirations for programs in non-BCS conferences.

A somewhat extreme fix to the issue is subdividing the current FBS into two separate operating entities.

First, you’d have the current BCS conferences in FBS-I (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC) who would compete for a championship (via a playoff and without a BCS) at their own level.

And next you’d have the FBS-II which would consist of the C-USA, MWC, MAC, WAC and Sun Belt conferences who would then compete for a national championship at a separate level.

Play would still exist between the two levels with the imposition of a limit of one non-conference game per team for FBS-I teams with potential FBS-II opponents.

Realistically, no matter how you slice it, this would enable programs that go undefeated in a “smaller” non-BCS conference to have a fair shake at winning a real national championship.

16 Team Playoff Using Bowls

It’s fairly obvious that in order to declare a true national champion on an annual basis some sort of playoff system needs to be used moving forward.

The four-team (or plus-one) scheme currently being kicked around by BCS folks in reality may be nothing more than an attempt for the BCS to survive while a true fix is delayed for another five to 10 years.

Regardless of how you determine which teams will participate and how many (eight or 16 should be the minimum), a playoff system that gets rid of the BCS yet includes the major historical bowls seems best suited to finally transform college football to a sport with a real champion.

One option would be to play the first two rounds (16 teams to eight teams and then eight teams to four) at the home field of the higher-ranked (or most winning) opponent with the final four and championship being played out in rotation in the Rose, Sugar and Orange Bowls.

Though no system, regardless of how fairly devised, would represent perfection, any attempt would produce a more viable title holder than the current system or any revision thereof.

Get Rid of the Rest of the Bowl Games

In yet another instance where popular support would be easy to garner…let’s get rid of a huge chunk of the current bowl games that are played as a spectacle rather than as a contest with real consequences.

It’s no wonder with 35 bowl games that attendance is down, viewership has dropped and interest has slid like a nudist camp with a buttered slip and slide.

One option would be to retain a precious few of the long standing bowl games in a playoff scheme with another alternative being using the bowl games as sort of a “NIT” consolation for teams that don’t make the actual playoffs.

Regardless, going 6-6 should never earn a team (in any sport) a postseason opportunity, and in the case of college football, it mocks the very foundation of what is arguably the best team sport in the USA.

No More Lame Duck Coaches

Another aspect of the college football postseason that is wholly unsatisfactory is the large amount of coaching turnover that takes place between the last regular season game and the bowl game.

And this is not a reference to guys who have been canned (who in a more sensible scheme wouldn’t even be getting fired if they had made a bowl game), but those who are moving on to bigger and better things.

Whether you move to make it contractually obligatory or if it only becomes a popular movement that makes ditching a job before the final game of the season unacceptable and unethical, head coaches should remain in place until the final whistle.

And this means through the bowl game if there still is one.

There is no doubt that coaching offers no stability to the person whose career is based on the sidelines (and therefore personal interests must be honored), but the rash of coach-less teams in the postseason hurts the sport and should be stopped.

Every Game Available in High Def

In a bit of a whimsical and highly materialistic request…why sell HD televisions and programs if you are not going to offer EVERY college football game in HD?

Seriously, if I purchase the ESPN College Football Game Plan, why do I have choose between seeing these games in low def and other, more media-friendly games in high def?

And why are some games relegated to low def stations while we have to watch Notre Dame, Florida and Texas every weekend in high def?

I hate to admit it, but with the exception of Texas Tech or the end of a close game that is already in progress, I’m likely to choose the high def option 99 percent of the time for my viewing pleasure.

Even if the low def matchup is better.

It’s time to spread the wonder of high definition to all conferences, all teams and all channels and share the promise of crystal clear reception with everyone who celebrates on blessed Saturdays in the football fall.

Attention advertisers: We want HD…insist on it.

Reward High Graduation Rates with Extra Scholarships

Why not put your money where your mouth is with graduation rates and award high performers (perhaps quantified by being named divisional and conference champions of graduation rates) with actual, palpable rewards?

And these rewards could be in the form of extra scholarships or anything that would inherently represent a real, desirable advantage to the program in question.

If we are serious about terms like “student-athlete,” “scholarship” and “graduation rates,” then it’s time to do more than put a chart in a newspaper or hand out some plaques.

Ban Games Against FCS Teams

The current limit of one game against an FCS (formerly Division I-AA) foe per season counting towards bowl eligibility (yes, that’s only six games…yawn) for FBS teams is inadequate in leveling the competitive playing field from a scheduling standpoint.

The truth is there is no fix in college football for Nebraska scheduling non-conference games against Southern Miss, UCLA, Arkansas State and FCS Idaho State in 2012, while Big Ten foe Michigan will take on Alabama, Air Force, UMass (now in the MAC) and Notre Dame.

One way to equalization (which is ultimately impossible, but doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try) is to ban FBS teams from playing FCS opponents.

This isn’t legislating WHO you have to play from a non-conference standpoint in the FBS ranks (play teams from the Sun Belt or the SEC), it just takes away the option of dipping down to the FCS for a game that you have a 97 percent chance of winning.

It could be argued that the strength-of-schedule element in the BCS calculations take care of this, but if a team losses a game to a quality non-conference foe the loss, in reality, is a bigger black mark than a win over a FCS foe.

In the words of my in-laws, “That just ain’t right.”

Make NCAA Sanctions Swift and Painful

The rash of scandals currently rocking the landscape of college football should cause all true enthusiasts to wonder what could be done to eliminate the rising tide of impropriety.

The truth of the matter is, the ugly side of human nature that compels people to break the rules can never be completely squelched, but the knowledge that infractions will come down hard in a rapid fashion certainly can’t hurt.

The NCAA needs to clear its burgeoning file of red tape and take a long hard look at its rules book, its enforcement polices and its guidelines and timing for sanctioning programs that operate outside of the laws.

Strong simple rules that are logical and have the best interests of the sport and its participants at heart, combined with the immediate, consistent and non-biased application of sanctions needs to be the goal of the body that governs collegiate athletics.