Let's get right to the point. If I was college football czar, this is how I would split the conferences:
You play each team from your own pod (4 games)
You would play 1 team from each of the other pods on rotation (3 games)
You would have 1 designated crossover team you play each year (1 game)
Then we would have matchup week for the final regular season conference game.
This leaves us with 9 conf games and allows for 3 non-conf games.
Each team would be guaranteed 4 home and 4 away conf games.
For matchup week, we would take the team with the best conf record from each pod and seed them based off of CFP rankings. With highest ranked pod leader playing the lowest ranked, with the other two facing off. The higher ranked team would have the home field advantage. These matchups would allow for rematches. First tie breaker would be head to head, second would be CFP ranking.
For everyone else we would try to matchup a 2nd place pod team with another 2nd place pod team, and so on for 3rd through 5th. We would avoid rematches on these matchups.
Then the conf championship game would be the winners of the pod determined semi-final game. This game would be played at a neutral site with the winner getting an automatic bid to the CFP.
I tried to split the teams into pods both on geography and splitting traditional powerhouses. I also tried to keep traditional rivalries and tried to make some new ones. (i.e Maryland vs Oregon is the UA vs Nike game) (Texas vs Alabama, most money vs best program) (Rutgers vs UCLA, New York vs LA)
Now you may think, that's great but what about the rest of the Power 5 teams?!
To even think about having some conference be close to the same level as the Big 2 then I think we have to form a new conference. I am calling this the Coalition Athletic Conference (CAC).
Since all the traditional powerhouses are in the Big 2 conferences I mostly split this based on geography and keeping rivalries within the same pod.
For this conference the scheduling would need to be slightly different.
You would play everyone in your pod. (3 games)
You would play one team from the other side of the conf (East vs West) (1 game)
You would play each team from one other pod on your side of the conf (4 games)
Example: First year it's each team in Pod 1 and 2 playing each other as well as Pods 3 and 4 against each other, the next year it would be Pods 1 and 3 as well as Pods 2 and 4, next year its Pods 1 and 4 as well as Pods 2 and 3 then we repeat.
Then we have matchup week for the final regular season conference game (1 game).
This leaves us with 9 conf games and 3 non-conf games.
Each team would be guaranteed 4 home and 4 away conf games.
For matchup week we would take the team with the best conf record from the combined pods and have them face off. The higher ranked team in the CFP rankings would have home field.
So for the first year it would be the team with the best conf record (head to head tie breaker, if 3 or more way tie then CFP rankings is tie breaker, if no team ranked in top 25 can request CFP committee to rank the tied teams to break tie) from combined Pods 1 and 2 playing the team with the best conf record from combined Pods 3 and 4. The combination of pods is the same as the pod you are playing each team from. So second year the combined pods would be 1 and 3 as well as 2 and 4. Then third year it would be 1 and 4 as well as 2 and 3.
For the other teams we would matchup 2nd vs 2nd from the combined pods and so on down the line. Since this is against a pod you didn't play in the regular season there is no chance for a rematch.
The conf championship game would be the winner of the East Pods and West Pods finals.
The winner would get an automatic CFP bid.
I really like the matchup weeks for the conferences. This makes the last week of regular season very interesting and dramatic. Also matching up across the board makes the games as closely matched and thus entertaining as possible. This could also give teams fighting for those at large bids one more quality opponent to add as a data point to their CFP rankings.
Now the CFP could still be a 12 team playoff, with only 3 automatic bids the other 9 could be at large bids based on the playoff rankings.
I did all neutral sites so no one college would get the extra revenues of an extra home game. I think that bowl game sites can bid for which round they would like to host.
In this proposal the 3 big conferences all have the same amount of conf games and all have a conf championship game. I like setting the matchups for each round based on the rankings of the available teams as that gives even more impact to the seed which puts even more importance on the regular season. Also hopefully this makes sure our best matchup is in the championship game.
I also really like the bye given to the conf champ and seeding preference and thus site preference to the conf champ over the at large teams for the Elite 8 round. I think this makes the conference championship games even more important.
There you have it. What I think us the most logical resolution to the realignment and playoff madness.
