The time has come to stop the controversy once and for all. Everyone has a different opinion on what would happen if the best college football teams in the country got together on a Saturday afternoon. Long suffering fans and hard working players deserve the right to find out on an actual field. In the upcoming Rocky VI a computer simulator puts the former champ in the ring against the one currently holding the belt. If Hollywood can script an ending where Balboa climbs in to make this a reality, why not the NCAA?

IT WILL NOT BE EASY

Nothing worthwhile is easy. It takes hard work and a lot of people moving in the same direction towards a common goal. The first step is putting the 119 Division I-A teams on level footing. Currently there are 11 conferences and 4 Independents floating around. Those conferences have anywhere from 8-12 teams with five of them featuring two divisions of six and a conference title game at the end of the season. If this system is going to work, the first order of business is aligning every conference in the same format. This is going to take some convincing, negotiating and downright begging.

IRISH FIGHTING IN THE BIG TEN?

Many have wanted to place Notre Dame into the Big-10 given their rivalry with Michigan, propensity to play several teams from the conference annually and of course their geographic location. Giving up their cushy independent status will be hard enough so my money is on them being very unwilling to join a rugged conference. Enter the Big East. Yes, this bunch gained recognition this season with a trio of undefeated teams crawling up the rankings but top to bottom would be an easier pill to swallow for Notre Dame who loves their regular season success and already participates in the Big East for basketball. Joining them would be the rest of the independents, Army, Navy and Temple. The alignment would be a slightly geographically challenged North/South. The North division features Notre Dame, Connecticut, Rutgers, Army, Navy and Syracuse. The South division is comprised of South Florida, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Temple. This would split up the four teams currently ranked while also retaining the Army/Navy rivalry. Again, this will not be easy.

CALL IT TEN, BUT GIVE THEM TWELVE

I know there are some young people out there wondering why the call it the Big Ten even though eleven teams play in it. You see, there was a time when Penn State was not a member of the conference and the Internet was just a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye. The biggest draw for the Big Ten is the vicinity of the teams, which makes my choice for the twelfth team pretty easy. Iowa State provides a natural rival for Iowa in the new South division. Joining them will be Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Ohio State. The North will consist of Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Penn State. At first blush these divisions feel a little slanted. This is of course up for debate. The important thing is getting 12 teams into every conference.

HEY, DID YOU STEAL A TEAM FROM THE BIG XII?

Glad you noticed. I also created another natural rivalry in the process. Colorado State will leave the Mountain West for the Big XII North. The rest of the conference will stay the same. This is also a good time to mention there will be nothing done to the ACC, Conference USA, MAC or SEC. All of them already have a dozen teams with a championship game in place.

DOES PAC-12 HAVE THE SAME RING TO IT?

Once upon a time there was a conference called the Pac-8. Everyone cringing at the thought of adding two teams to the Pac-10 should remember this. It is a very difficult choice because most of the teams in the vicinity would have a tough time competing. I expect in time their ability to recruit based on being in a high profile conference will lessen the gap. It will be another North/South split. The North division lines up Oregon, Oregon State, California, Stanford, Washington and Washington State. This brings us to the new additions joining Southern Cal, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State in the South division. First is Utah, a consistently solid program going in the right direction. Next is Fresno State who despite suffering through a down year was competitive in losses to two Pac-10 teams earlier this season. They are well coached and should fit in nicely. Many teams including San Diego State or Boise State would also work.

NOW IT GETS TRICKY

Dismantling and realigning conferences is tough business. I already said this would be a trying process. However, for the overall good hopefully a meeting of the minds can take place. The Mountain West, Sun Belt and WAC need to be consolidated into two conferences of 12. Colorado State, Utah and Fresno State have already been shipped off. Because the name of the conference is more geographically appropriate I have kept the Sun Belt with all 8 existing teams remaining in the fold. The Southeast will feature Troy, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Florida Atlantic and Florida International who are all current Sun Belt teams. Louisiana Tech will leave the WAC to join them. The South division is going to be made up of North Texas, Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee. TCU shifts over from the Mountain West along with New Mexico while New Mexico State joins up from the WAC. Quickly we add several in-state rivalries in the new Sun Belt.

WAC-KIER STILL

The Mountain West and WAC conferences will essentially be mixed together to form our final new super conference. The Pacific division will pit former WAC members San Jose State, Hawaii and Nevada while UNLV and San Diego State come over from the Mountain West. The last member is going to be the lone team jumping up into I-A from I-AA and I have selected San Diego because obviously they are one of the top teams available and are natural rivals with San Diego State to boot. UC-Davis or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are also candidates. In the Mountain division the WAC delivers Idaho, Boise State and Utah State while the Mountain West produces BYU, Wyoming and Air Force. Again, regional rivals.

OKAY, WHAT NOW?

As unrealistic as it might be, we have now forced teams into 10 conferences of 12. Six of those are still of the power variety, formerly “BCS” conferences because after all I am rendering the BCS extinct right? The first order of business is to do away with seven game conference schedules where two of your games are against teams from the other division. This system is not equitable and now more than ever will not be fair. The goal is to win your division, just as it is in professional sports. Five games and every other season three of those are at home. That’s just how it crumbles. Two games can still be scheduled, but they will not count for or against a team’s standing in the division. Naturally, each conference will then have a title game at the end of the conference schedule.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING

Ten teams have wound up winning their division and triumphing in their conference championship game. What next? The four “non-BCS” conferences deserve a shot at the title, but perhaps not the same chance as a team already having to deal with superior competition all season long. Therefore, their regional champions will play each other for a chance at joining the other 6 conference winners. The MAC’s best will square off against Conference USA while the new Sun Belt takes on the improved WAC. This leaves 8 champions and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what happens next.

LET THE SEEDING BEGIN

At some point there will need to be a committee formed to figure out how to pit these 8 teams against one another. Controversy will ensue, but there will always be those who complain in life. The MAC/Conf-USA and SB/WAC winners are likely to draw the #7 and #8 seeds providing an advantage to the #1 and #2 seeds. It also provides a reason for teams to schedule tough opponents and impress the committee. For example, Michigan putting Tennessee on the schedule now gives them an opportunity to fight for a higher seed if they are able to win the Big Ten. Losing that game on the other hand does not take them out of the national title picture by any means. Imagine games like LSU-Ohio State, Notre Dame-Texas and USC-Florida being regular occurrences in the first few weeks of the season.

WHEN AND WHERE

Everyone who has proposed a similar 8 team playoff seems to agree that integrating the major bowls is a good idea. I am with them although I do have a slightly different variation. First of all, the national title game needs no bowl affiliation. Create a new name for it the way they did when the AFL-NFL merger took place if you must, but the location can be changed at will. The opening round will revolve around the bowls and be designed to favor the higher seeded team. Rose (Pasadena, California) Fiesta (Phoenix, Arizona) Orange (Miami, Florida) and Sugar (New Orleans, Louisiana) would be your opening round playoff games on January 1 and 2. There is too much pageantry and tradition to have it any other way. Naturally the Rose Bowl loses the Big Ten vs. Pac-10 tradition, but it has been falling by the wayside since the BCS was implemented anyway. The semifinals will be on January 9 and the championship on January 16. Yes, I am extending the season a week for two teams or 1.67% Division I-A. I have also added games for a few teams, mostly big time programs sending a bevy of players to the NFL where they play 16 per regular season. Let’s call a spade a spade. These guys are ready for it.

EXISTING BOWL FALLOUT

The other bowl games would still take place, and even better they would not lose much luster. Plenty of good teams will not qualify for the final 8 and therefore be eligible to compete. Several quality SEC teams, Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Oklahoma, the Big East losers and others would be featured throughout the bowl season. The BCS system already has the major conference champs play in their bowls, only this way there would be a light at the end of the tunnel.

HOW WOULD THIS TURN OUT?

This is where speculation comes in. Realigning all of these conferences can certainly muddy the waters. We have just seen Ohio State beat Michigan, so they win the Big Ten. USC just beat California, so they are the Pac-10 entrant. The Big East is a tough one to call. Perhaps West Virginia would prove too tough for Notre Dame’s defense. Boise State wins the WAC because no one has been able to beat them yet although BYU could pose a challenge. TCU likely gets out of the Sun Belt, but loses to Boise State in the playoff. The other winners are yet to be determined, mostly on the field although the MAC vs. Conference USA would need to be a projection. At the end of the day, you might end up with the following:

#1 Ohio State (Big Ten)

#2 USC (Pac-12)

#3 Florida (SEC)

#4 West Virginia (Big East)

#5 Texas (Big XII)

#6 Boise State (WAC/Sun Belt)

#7 Georgia Tech (ACC)

#8 Ohio (MAC/Conf USA)

Fiesta Bowl: #1 Ohio State vs. #8 Ohio

Rose Bowl: #2 USC vs. #7 Georgia Tech

Sugar Bowl: #3 Florida vs. #6 Boise State

Orange Bowl: #4 West Virginia vs. #5 Texas

The top three seeds are likely to win while the Orange could be a barnburner. I will take West Virginia just to avoid a rematch in the semifinals. Then we would have USC vs. Florida and Ohio State vs. West Virginia in the semifinals. This does two things. First it allows both USC and Florida a chance to win the title on the field. One of them will not have that opportunity. It also forces Ohio State to prove their mettle away from home late in the season, something they never had to do. I would take USC and Ohio State in these games, and while this might be the national title game the end does not always justify the means. Fans would be treated to some great extra games and upsets are always very possible. More than anything, computers are put in the garbage and losses in September no longer take any team out of the mix. With the current system a combination of scheduling, preseason ranking, computer analysis, voter influence and luck put a team in or out of the race. This way teams would be asked to win 5 games in their division and enter into effectively a 20 team playoff starting with the conference championship games. I think everyone prefers that.