I WANT TO TURN COLLEGE FOOTBALL INTO SOCCER

by Lozo, Why Don't We Get Drunk and Blog?

(Editor's Note: This is a follow up piece to A NCAA FOOTBALL PREDICTION: 3 TEAMS WILL BE 12-0 AT SEASON'S END)

I think college football needs a drastic change to its format. It's utterly ridiculous that a preseason poll voted on by people who aren't well-versed in the game (Michigan? No. 5?) can carry so much weight. You really think coaches have the time to keep tabs on every team in I-A? Somehow I doubt Joe Paterno knows how well Boise State is playing this year.

That's where I come in. I have come up with the system to end all systems. The system college football should adopt immediately.

However there are things about it you are not going to like. Before I reveal my idea, here are things you won't or can't accept about my system.

1. No more conferences: Conferences are stupid. They really are. Look no further than the Big Ten (surprised that's my example?) last year. Michigan and Ohio State flew to the top of the rankings by steam-rolling terrible teams in arguably (I say the ACC is the worst) the worst major conference in the NCAA. In my system, loaded conferences like the SEC don't get punished any more for playing a superior schedule.

2. No matter what your team does, it may have no shot at a national title: And that's just the sad truth. The past can affect you here. But fairly. I'll explain in a bit.

3. Your schedule could be a logistical nightmare: With no conferences in my plan, your travel schedule could get a bit insane. But hey, deal with it.

OK. Having said that. Here is my idea -- college football adopts the style of the English Premier League, where the best teams are playing the best teams and if you aren't up to snuff, you get relegated to a lesser division.

We divide the 120 Division I-A teams into five groups. The first four are groups of 25, the fifth group is the bottom 20. Teams only play other teams in their respective group. In Group 1, the top 4 teams make the playoffs to decide who is the national champion. The bottom five teams in Groups 1-4 are relegated -- dropped to the group below -- and the top five teams in Groups 2-5 all move up one group the following the year.

At year's end, schedules are generated using a randomized computer program, which means if, say, you have Hawaii, Boise State, Boston College and Maryland in the same group, travel could be hectic. But since we'll be generating the schedule randomly after the end of the regular season, you'll have plenty of time to prepare.

What about bowls, you ask? Here's what I'm thinking. You can still attach "bowl" titles to the three playoff games that lead to a national title. Those games will be huge revenue makers, so whoever wants to bid the most to get their name attached to them can do so.

What about teams that don't make the playoffs? Well, nothing changes. They can still accept invites to meaningless bowl games like they did in the past. Those of you who like watching a 6-6 team play a 7-5 team in mid-December will still get your fix, but those games will continue to be meaningless in my college football world, as it will not have any bearing on relegation and promotion.

As I said, if your team is in Group 2 to start the year, you have no shot at winning a national title that year. Sorry. Who is the last team to start the year ranked out of the top 25 to win a national title, anyway? Group 2 teams are simply playing for an opportunity to play for an opportunity to win a national title the following year.

However, the tricky part of this is how do you decide what teams in the inaugural year start in Group 1? What we do is take whatever teams finished in the top 25 of the BCS Standings the previous year and go by that. Groups 2-5 will be decided by an aggregate of computer rankings. Sorry, Florida International. No matter how you slice it, you're in Group 5.

How are ties broken in these groups? With tiebreakers, of course. Let's say Group 1 finishes like this:

1. Rutgers 12-0
2. USC 11-1
3. LSU 11-1
4. Penn State 10-2
5. Louisville 10-2

You've got two teams tied for the final spot. What to do, what to do. What to do is see what each team's record is head-to-head. If they haven't played each other, we go to common opponents. After that, it's whoever has played a schedule with the opponents' highest winning percentage. Since they play in the same group, that's about as fair as it gets.

This whole thing is far-fetched, but can you imagine a season where Penn State can't play FIU, Buffalo and Temple AND its weak Big Ten schedule and have it be considered a national title contender? The top 25 teams in the country playing absolutely nothing but the best AND then having a four-team playoff? It would be the greatest thing ever.

There would be some unfairness early on. Look at this year. Michigan would be a joke in Group 1. But the relegation system would take care of that over time. The system also allows for everyone to have a shot at winning a national title. Maybe not in a given year, but imagine taking a job at a Group 5 school where you know if you build it properly, you could be playing for a national title in four years. Florida International could go 10-2 for the next three years and not even garner a vote under the current system.

There would never be a need for a poll or a computer system ever again.