Ok, possibility number 2. Realignment.
First – Why people like it
Realignment just makes sense to most people. You take all the greats and put them in conferences so that they can beat the lesser teams. This way everyones favorite teams always go to the playoffs because Baylor will never be able to recruit to compete. All the 5 stars will go places where they can play that extra 4 games in a season. Well there are some issues with realigning conferences.
The against that won’t matter until it was attempted
1. Upon realignment, all conferences would have to be able to have a bid into the playoffs.
2. All conferences would end up either having to, or not having a conference championship game (most likely having). This means you would have to have 12 teams per conference, coming to 10 conferences (there are currently 11). To get 8 for an 8 team playoff you would need 15 teams per conferences or to drop 30 schools to the FCS. To get a 12 team (NFL style) you would have to call up 24 FCS teams. None of these are entirely feasible options.
3. If you align conferences based on power there will be hubs of power. Florida, California, and Texas would be key places where multiple conferences would intersect. You would also get craziness that is rare in todays conferences (Louisiana Tech in the WAC)
4. You would also risk some conferences akin to the World Cup group of death if there was partial ranks and partial location.
Problem as to why it will probably never be attempted
1. Believe it or not, more sports exist than football. Realignment for the sake of football would ruin the integrity of the basketball, baseball, gymnatics, etc. structure.
2. Money, money, money.
3. Would you group rivals in the same conference to add to rival race or do you seperate them to sell out?
4. Who chooses to realign? Very few times do you see major changes in big conferences.
My initial thought about realignment was agreeance. I think some changing would still need to take place over time but if you don’t change the alignment of conferences, i think within 5 years the conferences will strengthen themselves. Also, if you realign and have just conference champions play, you have established a world cup style season long playoff in which the regular season might as well be called group play. Without any at large bids, you lose out of conference importance.
If I were the go to man to do a realignment, I would see it happening like this.
8 conferences, of 16 teams each. 2 divisions per conference of 8 teams. Every team plays the 7 teams in their side of the conference and 2 from the other side (on a 2 year rotation of home-home). Then they have 2 out of conference games.
Top team of each division is the best in conference record.
2 team tie, decided by head to head record.
3 teams or more. Go down list until at least one is eliminated and go down until just two are established.
1. Head to head record (3 teams tie and 2 teams beat the third, the third one is eliminated)
2. Divisional conference record
3. The teams records against the next highest divisional opponent will be compared and so on. (4,5,6,7)
4. The records amongst all common conference opponents will be compared.
5. The team(s) that beat the most divisional champions out of conference.
6. If three or more teams are still tied at the end of these 5 steps there will be a season ending shootout. It will be styled like OT in a neutral venue. Instead of beginning on the 25, all drives will start at the 50 yard line. A drawing will choose the order teams play. A coin toss will be used to determine ball. After each shootout session, a 15 minute break will ensue to switch out teams. Winner take all.
If you did it this way, there is no argument whatsoever but I think realignment in any form just creates the world’s largest playoff, and to those who claim this season is a playoff, tell that to the winner of TCU-Boise tonight, they will have won every game in their playoff, and doesnt a team that win every playoff game win the championship.