College Football Needs 10 Division Relegation/Promotion System

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – College football is broken. It is no secret. The sport, despite being beloved, has more issues now than it ever has. This article will not dive into the issues, rather, this article will explain how to fix those problems.

The fix, believe it or not, is much easier than I am sure you would have ever guessed.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the best professional sporting leagues in the world – the NBA, NFL or the NHL to keep things specific to my American audience. Every team plays the same number of games and every team is ranked based on their record. It is crazy to think that you could operate any other way.

Well, the NCAA does. Teams across the country do not play the same amount of games, Hawaii played 14 regular-season games before beating BYU in their bowl game.

College football recently initiated a College Football Playoff Committee following the inception of the College Football Playoff system in 2014. The Committee, which consists of former players, coaches, and current professors and athletic directors, vote on who they think should be ranked within the top 25 and then determines where they are ranked.

No chance of any bias taking place. Nope. None.

Next, there is the whole conference referee conundrum, I won’t dive into that issue now, it can wait for another time.

You get my point. College Football is flawed.

Fortunately, I have a fix and the fix is simple – create a promotion/relegation system.

In the United States, there are 671 Division one, two, and three football teams. In the state of Utah, there are six college football teams alone.

I am going to focus on the 130 Division 1 FBS football teams in this article.

• The 130 programs would be divided into 10 divisions that each have 13 teams.
• Every team would play every other team within their division.
• Following the regular season, the top team in the division would get a chance to play the worst team in the division ahead of them (consider this game the bowl game).
• Although, the top eight teams from the top division following the regular season would qualify for the playoffs.

That got complicated quickly, so hear me out.

The divisions are listed 1 through 10, with the top division being Division 1 and the bottom division being Division 10.

The top division hosts the best 13 teams in the country, it is the premier division and one that the other 117 football teams strive to be in. The teams in Division 1 are fighting to become the National Champion following seasons end. The top six teams following the regular season will advance to the postseason, a self-explanatory six-team playoff. The worst team in Division 1 would play the best team in Division 2 to determine whether promotion or relegation is necessary.

Divisions 2 through 10, however, have a different system. One team from each conference will have a chance to be promoted or relegated following the regular season. If your team ends up winning its division, they will have a chance to compete for promotion by taking on the worst team from the division above them.

For example, the winner of Division 6 will play the worst team in Division 5 following the conclusion of the season. If the winner of Division 6 beats the worst team from Division 5 then they are promoted, however, if the worst team from Division 5 beats the best team from Division 6 – nothing happens, both teams stay in their respective conference.

This system would alleviate all of college football’s biggest problems.

Every team plays the same amount of games. Every team is ranked based on their record.

If the new system would begin in 2020 here is what the divisions would look like if we went off of the Colley Matrix (a computer poll that takes wins and losses and adjusts for strength of schedule).

Division 1:
1. LSU
2. Ohio St
3. Clemson
4. Georgia
5. Penn St.
6. Notre Dame
7. Oregon
8. Memphis
9. Florida
10. Oklahoma
11. Appalachian St
12. Alabama
13. Navy

Division 2:
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Cincinnati
4. Boise St.
5. Iowa
6. Auburn
7. Utah
8. Michigan
9. Air Force
10. Baylor
11. SMU
12. Florida Atlantic
13. UCF

Division 3:
1. LA Lafayette
2. USC
3. Texas
4. Virginia
5. Texas A&M
6. Washington
7. San Diego St.
8. Louisville
9. Tennessee
10. Hawaii
11. Arizona St.
12. Oklahoma St.
13. California

Division 4:
1. Kansas St.
2. Kentucky
3. Michigan St.
4. Pittsburgh
5. Wake Forest
6. Indiana
7. Temple
8. West Kentucky
9. Iowa St.
10. Marshall
11. Louisiana Tech
12. Miami (OH)
13. Virginia Tech

Division 5:
1. North Carolina
2. Wyoming
3. Utah St
4. BYU
5. Arkansas State
6. Tulane
7. Mississippi St
8. Buffalo
9. Georgia Southern
10. Florida St
11. Boston College
12. Missouri
13. UAB

Division 6:
1. Colorado
2. Kent St
3. Miami (FL)
4. Washington St
5. Georgia St
6. South Carolina
7. Central Michigan
8. Nebraska
9. Southern Mississippi
10. Oregon St
11. Nevada
12. Western Michigan
13. Illinois

Division 7:
1. Liberty
2. Ohio
3. TCU
4. Duke
5. Tulsa
6. Charlotte
7. UCLA
8. West Virginia
9. Syracuse
10. Stanford
11. LA Monroe
12. Toledo
13. South Florida

Division 8:
1. Houston
2. Purdue
3. Mississippi
4. Arizona
5. Eastern Michigan
6. Ball St
7. San Jose St
8. Florida International
9. Maryland
10. Troy
11. Coastal Carolina
12. Northern Illinois
13. Fresno St

Division 9:
1. Texas Tech
2. NC State
3. Army
4. Northwestern
5. Georgia Tech
6. Vanderbilt
7. UNLC
8. Colorado St
9. Middle Tennessee St
10. East Carolina
11. Rutgers
12. Kansas
13. Texas St

Division 10:
1. Arkansas
2. UTSA
3. North Texas
4. Bowling Green
5. Rice
6. New Mexico
7. South Alabama
8. Connecticut
9. New Mexico St
10. Old Dominion
11. UTEP
12. Massachusetts
13. Akron

It is a drastic solution to a broken system. Will this ever happen? Potentially. Will something like this happen anytime soon? No.

The NCAA does not even have a commissioner for crying out loud. They struggle on so many fronts.

They also believe they do not need to change. They sit back, watch the chaos unfold and cash large checks. What a beautiful and corrupt lifestyle.

It would be nice for an Athletic Director or a group of Athletic Director’s to get together and demand change. The chances of that happening are also slim. Nobody wants to put their head on the chopping block over something that does not necessarily affect them. Athletic Directors make good money. Why would they risk losing their job? I certainly wouldn’t.

The bottom line is that the game has progressed to a stage that demands change. College football is nothing like it used to be just 20 years ago. The emergence of social media alone has changed the game drastically. These “student-athletes” are celebrities. Kids aspire to become the next Joe Burrow or Chase Young. You have to make a move if you’re the NCAA, you do not have a choice. What sort of move they make will determine the future of college football and collegiate sports as a whole.