This is an idea that is interesting....

[billybud]

Check this out...very interesting concept...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... e+football

[Eric]

I'm not a huge fan of this idea. If a "little" team has a great crop of seniors so that they win their little division and take the place of one of the big boys, they would be totally overmatched if that crop departed to the NFL or graduated. Think of something like 2008 Tulsa compared to 2009 Tulsa. Or 2008 Ball State compared to 2009 Ball State.

Or I guess if you're going to limit it to conference champions, Central Michigan would get a bump to the big leagues. And now they're without last year's head coach and Dan LeFevour. So it would be ugly if Central Michigan played in the Big 10 this year.

[Brian Roastbeef]

Bah. He clearly manipulated the conferences to make this look more dramatic than it is. If this plan were done, does anybody really believe that SD St would start in the Superconference, but 26-1 over the past two years Boise wouldn't?


I'm also confused that it seems to penalize losses vs. subgroup teams, but not simply playing them. So you can schedule patsies with impunity, as long as you beat them. That would mean that beating Fla. Int, Fla. Atl, Wake, and Army would be more valuable than going 3-1 vs. Cinci, Penn St, Texas, and Alabama...? I could see SoS complaints continuing.

Interesting article either way, though. Good find, billybud.

[Derek]

the "haves" and "have nots".......can we keep the socialism to the guv-mint and out of college football?

I'm tired of hearing about these journalists desire to help the "little" schools.

Sorry billybud, this idea would destroy college football IMO...I've watched Troy play teams like La Tech and it was BORING. I can't imagine these "smaller" schools drawing a big crowd to TV, so why give it to them so that we can be "fair".

[ktffan]

Good grief. Not the first time I've heard this idea. I guess bad ideas never go away, just get recycled.

Univerisities are in the education business, not the sports business. Yes, they make big money in athletics, but it's not their primary focus. They certainly wouldn't want to throw that kind of termoil into their yearly budgets. As opposed to the "perfect" fit he describes it, it couldn't even exist in the sport.

[Jason G]

I think the idea is interesting but don't think it would be popular enough to ever be put in place. I would only be for this if it would create more parity in recruiting. I am not sure that it would. It would definitely create more equality between schools currently in the MAC and those low to mid-level BCS schools but I fear it would create even top-heaviness in the big schools. I think you'd see more guys going to the Floridas, Texases, and Ohio States of the world even if they have limited chance to see the field because they can be fairly certain that those programs would not be relegated. How does a guy feel that signs a LOI with Indiana, gets redshirted their freshman year and the program gets relegated before he has seen the field? You would see recruits trying to avoid that situation like the plague.

Plus, college football needs a little more stability than soccer does just because of what it takes to build a program and the nature of the sport. the only way I could go for something like this would be if the relegating was done every 5 years or more and not after each individual season. That way a successful "small" school could move up and be given a few years to continue to develop the program while being with the "bigger" schools.