It’s college football season again. In the past months, 8 of 12 PAC-12 schools have made plans to exit the conference at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. The Big 10, Big 12, and SEC will grow at the same time. All the moves are motivated by the money the conference football media rights drive to the member schools. There is no concern for the time impact on the other sports.
I’ve made some suggestions in the past to include:
12 Team College Football Playoff
College Football Playoff Revisited
College Football Playoff Expansion
I propose moving all Division 1 college football playoff schools into one united conference and returning to regional conferences for those other sports.
Place the top 16 schools into Tier 1. Tier 2 to 5 will have 16 schools. All tiers higher than five will have 14 schools. With 130 schools, there would be nine tiers, the highest number only having eight teams.
The tiers will be organized by performance, with the best teams in the first tier and the weakest schools in the highest-numbered tier.
Schools in tiers 1 through 5 will play 15 games, one against each other school in their tier. That will be seven home games, seven road games, and one end-of-year neutral site game.
The remaining tiers will play 13 games, one against each other school in their level. That will be six home games, six road games, and one end-of-year game at either a neutral or a campus site.
The highest numbered tier may not have 14 member schools. They will play all other schools in their tier and complete their 13-game schedule against FBS teams.
There will be no playoff games. The team with the best record in Tier 1 will be the champion. Some tiebreakers would need to be created.
The bottom four teams in each tier will be relegated to the next higher-numbered tier, and the top 4 schools from that tier will be promoted.
The season will run from the last Thursday in August to the Saturday 9 days after Thanksgiving. After that Saturday, the bowls will select games from the neutral site schedule.
The neutral site schedule shall be the first and second-ranked teams from the previous year in each tier. Third will play fourth, fifth will play sixth, down to fifteenth playing the sixteenth.
The bowl can select games from any tier, and all schools are eligible. There are typically 40 bowl games, which might include all schools in tiers 1 through 5. Those games not selected for a bowl would play their game in late December at a campus site.
This method will eliminate many rivalry games and make the best schools play only good teams.
Army and Navy are one exception to the standard relegation and promotion process. They will always be in the same tier. If one academy is promoted, the other will be advanced, too. They will only be relegated when both teams are in the bottom 4 of a tier.
New CFP schools would be added to the highest-numbered tier. It may take eight years to get to tier 1.
Any team that wants can be dropped to FBS. Promotion from the next higher numbered tier will fill their slot. If they return to the CFP level, they will start in the highest-numbered tier.
Add and drops would need to be declared before February 1.
I see an active transfer portal as players will move to lower-numbered tiers as they gain experience.
So, who would be in the top 2 tiers: (from the end of 2022 rankings)
Tier 1: Georgia, TCU, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Penn State, Washington, Tulane, Utah, Florida State, USC, Clemson, Kansas State, Oregon, and LSU.
Tier 2: Oregon State, Notre Dame, Troy, Mississippi State, UCLA, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Fresno State, Texas, Duke, UTSA, Air Force, Boise State, Minnesota, Texas Tech, and North Carolina.
Somebody would need to determine how to split up the media revenue.