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By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports The conferences in college football are now meaningless. Stanford and Cal in the Atlantic Coast Conference? Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC? The Big Ten is the Big 18? Once upon a time the conferences provided a clarity in that every team played each other and at the end of the season we knew who was the best in that league. No more. While we used to hear complaints about teams' soft non-conference schedules, now we get complaints about soft conference schedules. In any given year Michigan won't have to play Penn State or Alabama won't have to play Georgia, etc. because there are too many teams. I'm aware that eliminating conferences is likely a pipe dream, since the conference commissioners are in charge of the CFP and would never relinquish their power (money). But. nonetheless, here is my proposal to fix college football so that what is happening this year, where several teams perhaps deserving of a playoff bid are left out, will be less likely to happen again. Step One: No more conferences. Again, they are already meaningless...when a conference like the SEC automatically starts the season with nine teams in the Top 25, and then all they do is play each other all year, how do we know that any wins are quality wins? ("We beat five ranked teams!") Yeah, every team in your conference can say that. That doesn't mean they were great wins, does it? Step Two: Fair and equitable schedule for everyone. Below is a way to eliminate conferences and design a schedule that is balanced for competition and sane travel. At the end of each season, we'd have a much better idea who the best twelve (or sixteen, if you'd like) teams are: Creating a fair and equal college football schedule for all 134 FBS teams disregarding conferences and geography while ensuring each team faces a similar strength of schedule (SOS) is an ambitious and complex task. The key is balancing competitive fairness, home/away distribution, and ensuring that no team plays the same opponent twice. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how to approach this problem: Key Goals:
Approach to Creating the Schedule 1. Classifying Teams by Strength (SOS) To ensure similar SOS for all teams, we can categorize the 134 FBS teams into tiers based on their recent performance and competitive level. Here's how the classification could look:
Assigning Matchups (Home and Away) 2. Each team will play 12 games, 6 at home and 6 away. Here's how we'll organize the matchups:
We'll aim for a rotational scheduling format where each team plays 6 home games and 6 away games, ensuring that no team faces the same opponent twice and that the SOS is balanced. Here’s how we can break this down:
Detailed Breakdown of the Process Step 1: Team Pool and Tier Classification
Using the 4-tier system, construct the schedule for each team. Teams in each tier will play most of their games against teams within the same tier, but we’ll mix in matchups from adjacent tiers for variety. Here’s how we could set it up:
Ensure that every team has exactly 6 home games and 6 away games. This can be done by alternating the home and away games for each team, ensuring that each team’s home games are spread across the season. For example:
Once the matchups are made, double-check the following:
Sample Schedule Breakdown for 4 Teams (Simplified) To demonstrate the process, let's simplify it to 4 teams (A, B, C, D), divided into two tiers.
Advanced Considerations
This approach would result in a fair, equal college football schedule where every team faces a similar strength of schedule, with a balance of home and away games, and diverse opponents. Each team would play 12 games, facing a mix of teams from its own tier and adjacent tiers, ensuring equitable competition for all 134 FBS teams.
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