PAC-12/B1G Crossover

I’ve beaten this drum so much but I will continue to do so. The P5 need to sell their rights as a package. Every conference plays 8 conference games and 4 OOC games. The tv partners get to set two of the OOC games on a H/H basis. So, every February the tv partners release the OOC matchups. This year would have been Oregon vs Georgia, the two that just barely missed the playoffs. Ohio State vs LSU. Utah vs TCU. Whatever makes for a great game. 

Then the schools can schedule their other two OOC games in late Feb, schedule is released in early March. This year has shown you don’t need to set up a football game 20 years in advance. A couple of months works just fine. 

Every P5 champ is in the playoffs. Expand to 8 games. 5 champs, 3 at large bids. No auto-bid for a G5, but if they earn it, I’m ok with it BUT they have to play AT LEAST 4 P5 schools. No undefeated G5 with one win over a s**tty Pitt team is deserving of a spot over a two loss Wisconsin who played Ohio State twice and 11 other P5 games (so, I’m am in essence saying, no G5). 

There you go, problem solved. Everyone plays the same schedule. Everyone has a tough OOC. Everyone has a couple of gimmee games. And we all get GREAT matchups early in the year. 

Don’t need to drop a conference game.  Currently, many P5 teams have either 1/4^th or 1/3^rd of their annual inventory scheduled as meaningless games.  The cause of this is pursuit of an undefeated season to position for the playoffs.  Until this changes, number of wins will be the scheduling priority.  Could you imagine a 6A HS team padding a schedule of 2A teams to assure a good playoff position?  It doesn’t happen because division champs go to the playoffs regardless of record.

My solution, all P5 conference champs go to the playoffs.  Any at large team invited should be based on number of P5 wins over win percentage.  This would create a clear incentive to schedule P5 teams (quality inventory of games).  Mid-major schools should have their own playoff.  HSs figured that out long ago, colleges need to do so as well.  To keep some regionally interesting games between P5 and mid-major schools, pre-season games should be allowed for this purpose.  One game a year could be used for this as well as warm up.  With precious few games each year, a single game of poor inventory is about all that is fair to the season ticket holders that currently must pay for so much of that poor inventory.     

I like your thoughts and agree with almost everything you said. However, I think if any fan base should be sympathetic to an excelling G5 program, it would be Utah. You can look back on Utah’s undefeated seasons and find plenty of reasons they shouldn’t have been included in the BCS, among them an overall weak schedule.

I’m not saying G5 should get an auto-bid, but I think putting a lot of additional criteria on their inclusion would essentially keep them out. Letting a committee decide would hopefully allow for exciting, competitive match ups. Or more $$ for the $EC… 😀

That’s a fair point. Hopefully our trajectory continues and we make the playoffs.