New College Football System Needed- My humble proposal

I know ideas like this have been hashed through, but I think it's far past time to completely change how CFB is played. Here is the run down for my proposal:

1. Group of 5 teams get dropped into their own division and they name their own champion.

2. Only 4 conferences must remain in the FBS. My example below shows the ACC, Big 10, SEC, and Pac remain.

3. Each conference has 16 teams divided into 4 pods.

4. Each pod winner is then seeded by a committee and there is a 4 team playoff to determine conference champion.

5. The 4 conference champions are then seeded by a committee and commence a 4 team playoff to determine the national champion.

6. The first weekend of college football will be Labor Day weekend. It will be a conference challenge like they have in basketball (i.e. the ACC-SEC Challenge). There are 32 teams between both conferences, and thus 16 games will be scheduled. So there will be 32 games scheduled the first weekend. ACC vs. SEC and Big 10 vs. Pac 12. These will rotate, so the next year would be ACC vs. Big 10, and SEC vs. Pac 12 and so on.

7. The games would be decided by the two conferences. These matchups wouldn't determine who wins the pod, so it would behoove conferences to lineup power vs. power. i.e .Bama vs. OSU, LSU vs. Michigan, etc. Each game will be home and away. The conferences will decide which are home and away (8 each). The next time they play again in 4 years, the matchups would remain and the home/away would switch.

8. Televise these first week games on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night to ensure prime time coverage since the NFL doesn't start yet.

9. There will be 11 regular season games. 1 is the aforementioned out of conference game, 6 will be your pod games (play each pod mate twice), and then you get matched up with one other pod and play all 4 of those teams. You play a different pod each year and the home and away is swapped. Under this, you will play every team in your conference in 3 years and will have seen every stadium in 6 years.

10. This is a defacto 16 team playoff but with no subjectivity in who makes it. The only subjectivity is the seedings.

Here is my first take on how it would look:



Yes, I know 2 teams get left out. frick Rutgers and TCU, but that's for the conferences to decide.

If we take LAST year's results and make some assumptions, the scenario would look like this:

SEC West Pod- OU
SEC SW Pod- LSU
SEC South Pod- Alabama
SEC SE Pod- Georgia
Seedings: LSU, OU, Georgia, Bama. LSU beats bama, OU beats UGA. LSU plays OU for SEC Championship. LSU beats OU.

Big 10 West Pod- Iowa
Big 10 Central Pod- OSU
Big 10 East Pod- PSU
Big 10 North Pod- Minnesota
Seedings: OSU, Minnesota, PSU, Iowa. OSU beats Iowa, PSU beats Minnesota. OSU beats PSU for the Big 10 Championship.

Pac 12 East Pod- Baylor
Pac 12 Mtn Pod- Utah
Pac 12 NW Pod- Oregon
Pac 12 Cali Pod- USC
Seedings: Oregon, Baylor, USC, Utah. Oregon beats Utah, Baylor beats USC, Oregon beats Baylor for the Pac 12 Championship.

ACC Carolina Pod- Clemson
ACC South Pod- Miami
ACC MW Pod- ND
Acc NE Pod- UVA
Seedings: Clemson, UVA, ND, Miami. Clemson beats Miami, UVA beats ND, Clemson beats UVA for the ACC Championship.

That leaves LSU, Oregon, OSU, and Clemson for the final four. Seedings would likely be LSU, Clemson, OSU, Oregon. LSU beats Oregon. Clemson beats OSU. LSU beats Clemson.


Best things this has to offer:

1. Playing pod opponents twice. I think this is good because it eliminates the chance of fluke games and truly rewards the best. Also, imagine the hype behind a game like the kick six. Imagine Bama won the first game, but the last game of the season determines the pod winner and Auburn would've won by the kick six. The hype of that game would be insane.

2. The conference challenges at the beginning. It would be fun and a great way to start the new season. Plus, ratings would be fantastic.

3. No more bullshite OOC games. Fans get more for the money and the product gets better.

4. This gives teams a chance and basically expands the playoffs to a 16 team playoff without adding games. It takes 15 games total. (11 regular season, 1 conference semifinal, 1 conference championship, 1 final four, and 1 championship.)

5. This removes subjectivity of the fricking committee and removes bullshite "eye test".


INb4: tl:dr.

tl:dr= split 4 major conferences into 4 pods each and have the pod winners do a playoff.