How To Fix College Football: CFP, NIL, Transfer Portal. 22 Thoughts For 2022, No. 12

[USCGMCK]

How To Fix College Football: CFP, NIL, Transfer Portal. 22 Thoughts For 2022, No. 12

How does college football fix the CFP, transfer portal, and NIL? Here’s a shot in the 22 College Football Thoughts for 2022, No. 12d

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12. Fixing College Football​

There are now 131 schools playing FBS college football, and that means there are 131 different opinions and thoughts on how to make this whole thing work.


The overall college football model isn’t totally broken, but everyone appears ready to try to fix it anyway.


Coaches want transfer windows (good idea), and old school types think paying players is the end of the world as we know it (it’s not), and the big-time football schools and conferences want to trade it all for a little bit more (that’s nothing new).


The SEC wants to dominate the world, but it can’t stand alone – it needs the rest of college football to be good, too.


It might just mean more to that conference, but it doesn’t mean squat to the rest of the nation unless Alabama and (insert randomly-great SEC team here) aren’t able to beat up on the stars from the other leagues when it matters.


Ohio State would love to be bigger and get a larger piece of the world. Michigan still makes more money than just about everyone else. USC is flexing its muscle as it figures out just how amazing it is in the NIL and transfer portal game. And on and on and on as all the big programs have bases who want their respective teams to get even more massive.


All this is happening while the NCAA is melting away. The colleges and conferences finally woke up and realized the NCAA really didn’t have the power it was able to wield.


Some schools and athletic directors are pushing for the idea of a sort of commissioner type who can help direct all the parts, and others want total autonomy to generate revenue in any way they wish.


Some schools and athletic directors want a much bigger College Football Playoff, and others want to somehow distribute the power across the board in some way, and …


It’s a mess because no one’s in charge.


The SEC is sort of in charge. The Big Ten is sort of in charge. ESPN is sort of in charge. The College Football Playoff types are sort of in charge.


There’s a delicate balance going on as everyone tries to figure out how to keep this way-too-loose way of doing things from completely going off the rails.


So let me help.


I have a plan. I’ll take charge. Give me the gig, and here’s how I fix …

College Football Playoff​

Expand it already. 12 teams. Eight get a bye, eight go through a play-in, all Power Five champions are automatically in – and get a bye – top Group of Five champion is in and gets a bye, other six teams are seeded according to the final College Football Playoff rankings.


Play-in games come right after the conference championships and before the bowl season gets started. The eight-team playoff round goes a week later on Smorgasbord Saturday, with all four games in one day in mid-December. The four-team CFP goes like it does now.


Meanwhile, the bowls are a part of these games, and the other bowls go off like normal with their own normal charm and prestige.

Name, Image, and Likeness​

It’s fine. Don’t mess with it or someone will wake up and realize the schools, conferences, and ESPN found a way to get someone else to pay for the labor.


It’s fine. It really is. More than that, it’s going to improve the sport with more players sticking around, and more players actually playing instead of tapping out to get ready for the NFL.


If you get weird over the idea of a college quarterback making money, then Division III football is right there with open arms for you to enjoy. However …

Transfer Portal​

This has to be tweaked. You can’t have unfettered free agency – that’s not fair to anyone. You also can’t manipulate this to screw over the players because of timing, so you have two transfer periods. One is in March for a week just before spring practice kicks in, and one is for a week in mid-July just before fall practices start.

FCS games​

Eliminate them. Every FBS team plays another FBS team with games against FCS teams not counting towards the bowls or the stats. However …


Week 0 should be an exhibition game between just FBS and FCS teams. FBS teams can do whatever they want with them, but they don’t count.


These are the paycheck games, we get them out of the way, and because there’s room for teams with a few losses to get into the expanded College Football Playoff, everyone can afford a big tune-up against another great team.


Oh, there’s more.


Media deals, expansion, player rights, there are a whole slew of other major topics to tackle. I’ll get into those later.


Fixing the other parts is good for now.

 

[kingofnerf]

NCAA football will come back down to planet Earth when Texas and Oklahoma start getting their butts handed to them week in/week out in the SEC.

Until then, we get to watch Bryan Kelly pay his dues at LSU. LSU will be begging Coach O to come back in two years. LOL

Continue to give the scholarships to the kids who want to play AND go to school. Most of the current players using NIL for leverage will probably be busts.

However, I do think being given the chance to earn NIL money on their own with apparel money will motivate many players to play better and make a name for themselves the right way. I hope that's the way it goes for us, at least.

 

[Longhaul]

Wonder if we will reach a salary cap on CF at some point?

 

[gamecock88]

ok with NIL $ to a point. When they're making 6 digits or more that just doesn't seem right. They should probably not get a full scholarship with that type of money. If a company is owned or managed by an alum/booster, it shouldn't be allowed. There needs to be some limit to it. How to manage it now, I don't know. I'm also ok with the portal for 1 time play right away transfers. There needs to be some deadline on when you are eligible to xfr and not have to sit out a year. Otherwise, you xfr after that date or more than once and you sit out a season. There also has to be a limit to the NIL "raise" you get when you transfer. Maybe put a cap on that for transfers. Again I'm not sure how to manage or the current inner workings. Best fix I've heard for years for football is removing the face mask to reduce the ability of the helmet being used as a weapon. Targeting would go way down. This makes too much sense to it would never take hold so I'm not very optimistic with solving these new issues. It is getting messed up as many things do when there's millions of $ involved.

 

[GMB2USC23]

I think it is funny that we believe college football did not figure out how to get someone else to pay for their labor long ago, they just figured out how to make it halfway legal. I think this system works except every team should have to pool the NIL and split it among the team members!