How to Change College Sports and Save Them at the Same Time

With billions of dollars of television money at stake, universities and colleges across the land are changing their allegiances faster than Benedict Arnold in an attempt to stay as close to the cash as possible.

In the last few years we have seen Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College go from the Big East to the ACC; Nebraska move from the Big 12 to the Big 10; Utah and Colorado join the Pac-12 after leaving the Mountain West and Big 12; Texas A&M jump from the Big 12 to the SEC; and Pittsburgh and Syracuse depart the Big East for the ACC.

All of this movement is happening because of the billions of dollars that are generated in college football.  The losers are the other sports - especially college basketball - which are seeing traditional rivals jump through hoops just to stay in the mix to benefit from the football dollars.  Those dollars drive business which is why a school like Syracuse, which is a founding member of the Big East, will play it's most meaningful basketball games (the sport in which it finds the most success) on Tobacco Road instead of Madison Square Garden. 

The solution?  Realignment strictly for football while keeping the old conferences in place for all the other sports.

The key here - and this is the biggest of the many reasons why this plan would fail - is that there are many schools that must realize they are not an elite football school and have no place in this plan.  Take Vanderbilt.  They are a premiere academic institution with a good athletic program that has no business playing with the big boys on the gridiron on Saturday afternoons in the fall.  Those schools are out.  They still can play football but they have no home in what I'm calling Super Division I Football.

This will be home to the schools that actually generate the revenue for college football.  I'm talking Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Boise State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Miami, USC, LSU, Auburn, and Penn State.  I want to create four divisions - based as good as possible on geography - and play a 16-game schedule with a playoff and championship game at the end of the season.

The four divisions of Super Division I Football will be the John McKay (West), Tom Osborne (Midwest), Woody Hayes (North), and Bear Bryant (South).  Each division will have six teams and a school can be bounced out of Super Division I and be plaved back in FBS if a committee made up of representatives from all 24 teams votes to remove and if there is a school that is deemed able to replace the school being dropped.

(For example, if Auburn went on a bad run for the next two years, they could be voted out of Super Division I by a majority vote and if there was a school voted in by majority to replace them.  That school would not necessarily have to fit geographically and the divisions could be realigned to fit georgraphic needs.)

Here is how I would break down the four divisions if we were starting this year:

John McKay Division

Oregon
USC
Boise State
Arizona State
Texas
Stanford

Tom Osborne Division

Nebraska
Baylor
Oklahoma
Notre Dame
Oklahoma State
Texas A&M

Woody Hayes Division

Wisconsin
Ohio State
Michigan
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Arkansas

Bear Bryant Division

Alabama
Auburn
LSU
Florida State
Florida
South Carolina

(Now, we don't expect South Carolina to stick around as a contender forever but they could be voted out and replaced by Georgia in a few years if a majority of the schools vote to make that change.  If the current trouble with the NCAA hurts Ohio State, they could be voted out and replaced with UCLA, which would cause for division realignment.  Still with me?  Excellent!)

As for the schedule, teams will play their division teams twice (home-and-home series) and then two schools from each of the other divsions.  The top two teams from each division will make the playoffs and the seedings will be based on a fan vote from Twitter and Facebook.  The first two rounds will be played at the site of the higher seeded school with the title game being played

It is an end to tradition but look where tradition has got us.  Tradition is dead, it's time we embraced the fact that money drives college football and make the best of it.  It is the best way to maximize college football, both on the field and at the bank.  We would also get a national champion, which is a nice bonus.

The old bowl system would stay in place for the teams not in Super Division I, allowing teams like Georgia and Miami to fight to earn themselves consideration to be included if one of the Super Division I teams were to falter. 

It would also save the current conferences for other sports so that basketball powers like the Big East do not get eliminated.

It's not perfect but it's worth a shot.