By Tim Clark / / College Sports, Column
Two

College sports, specifically football, has a laundry list of problems.

NIL.

The portal.

Players’ agents.

Coaches’ agents.

Eligibility.

Court rulings always going against the NCAA.

Lane Kiffin finding spotlights.

The one thing I rarely hear mentioned when talking about the problems of college sports is the massively too big conferences that exist. Too big creates a bunch of problems, and it ranks right at the top of my list.

When the goal is the playoffs and a national title, it certainly would be nice if things were as even as possible for every team. It would also be great for the fans to have as many intersectional games during the first month of the season as possible. It helps get everyone geeked up for the season at hand, while allowing teams to suffer a loss early and still know there is a legitimate chance to win your conference and make the playoffs.

As it stands now, none of that is happening. Strength of schedule within a conference is wildly uneven from year to year. As for intersectional games, the phrase few and far between comes to mind.

Here is what the non conference games look like for the first three weeks this year:

Week One
  • Great- Clemson vs LSU, Louisville vs Ole Miss
  • Decent- Wisconsin vs Notre Dame,  North Carolina vs TCU, Colorado vs Georgia Tech. These three games test the definition of decent.
  • Awful- All other games headlined by Rutgers vs UMass, Minnesota vs Eastern Illinois, and Missouri vs Arkansas Pine-Bluff.
Week Two
  • Great- Oklahoma vs Michigan, Texas vs Ohio State
  • Decent- Arizona St vs Texas A&M, Oregon vs Oklahoma State, Arizona vs BYU, Duke vs Illinois, Tennessee vs Georgia Tech.
  • Awful- All other games headlined by Wisconsin vs Western Illinois, Notre Dame vs Rice, Miami vs Florida A&M.
Week Three
  • Great- None.
  • Decent- Florida State vs Alabama, West Virginia vs Virginia, NC State vs Vanderbilt.
  • Awful- Oregon vs Portland State, USC vs Louisiana, Penn State vs Buffalo, and many more.

Of course, later in the season Notre Dame plays BYU and Miami. Plus, there are a few late season rivalry games such as  South Carolina vs Clemson and Georgia vs Georgia Tech.

Still, the early season schedule certainly doesn’t offer much excitement for fans. The good news is that it will be easy to squeeze in a nap between great games.

Every power conference minus the ACC plays 9 conference games. That leaves three spaces for non conference games. With conferences as large as the power conferences are, you always have the chance of tangling with 3 to 5 heavyweights or semi-heavyweights every season.

The playoff committee refuses to come up with a system that would reward tougher out of conference scheduling. With many coaches’ job security depending on playoff appearances, athletic departments receiving more money for playoff appearances, and roster stability improving with playoff appearances, making playoff appearances seems to be the golden apple these days. Therefore, most athletic directors and coaches are reluctant to schedule difficult out of conference opponents in addition to the potential 3 to 5 tough conference games.

Consequently the fans suffer.

Then there is the bigger issue of schedule imbalance. With 18-20 teams in these unwieldy conferences, it is next to impossible to balance every team’s schedule. In a perfect world, you would play every other team in the conference. That is obviously impossible with 18-20 team conferences.

So, what do you get?

USC playing Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, Washington, and Penn State.

Ohio State playing USC, Oregon, Indiana, and Michigan, not to mention Illinois and Iowa.

Meanwhile…

Penn State plays Washington, Michigan, and USC.

Illinois plays Ohio State, Oregon, and Iowa.

The bottom two are not close to being like the top two.

Indiana, Oregon, and Michigan have schedules somewhere between these polar opposites.

Look, schedules can never be even because teams change from one season to the next. There would be, could be, should be one obvious fix. Go back to smaller regionalized conferences.

Oldsters like me harken back to yesteryear. Newbies hear me out.

  • ACC: Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, NC St, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Virginia Tech, South Carolina
  • Big Ten: Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan St, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern
  • Big East: Penn State, Miami, Florida State, Cincinnati, Louisville, Boston College, Syracuse, West Virginia, Pitt, Rutgers, Notre Dame
  • SEC: Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi St, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Kentucky
  • Big 12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St, Colorado, Utah, BYU
  • Pac 10: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St, San Diego St, Fresno St.
  • SWC: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Baylor, Houston, Arkansas, Arizona, Arizona St.

These are the conferences I mostly grew up watching. Obviously a few tweaks were necessary and a few more could be made, but this would be a return to normalcy.

Seven conferences would fit perfectly into the current playoff system in place. Seven auto bids from conference winners plus a spot for the group of whatever schools. Then there would be four at large bids if the playoff stays at 12 teams. If it increases to 16 then there are 8 at large bids.

Conferences of 10 teams(one has 11 thanks to Notre Dame) allow a true round robin format, making schedules balanced among all member teams. This would also allow for the elimination of the conference championship game because you would get a true champ.

True conference champions. What a concept.

There is no doubt that college football was better when conferences were smaller and more regionalized. Today, conferences are far too bulky and create silly scheduling and travel situations.

West Virginia has no business being in the Big 12, nor does Cincinnati or UCF for that matter. Stanford and Cal are an idiotic fit in the ACC. SMU is a bit of a square peg in the ACC as well. Of course, the four “big boy” programs that joined the already bulky Big Ten in USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. The Trojans travel three time zones on three different occasions and two time zones once. That is worse than an NFL schedule. The other three schools go two and one to those respective time zones.

It makes for some intriguing matchups, but those games could still exist as out of conference games in a regionalized conference setup. It is another example of money mattering more than logic.

The PAC-12 was mismanaged by two separate commissioners, and USC was finally fed up with the deal that lumped them in the same basket as Oregon State and Washington State. The Big Ten deal placed before them made their PAC-12 deal look like pocket change. Suddenly all the cards began to shuffle.

Schools are making more money in these gigantic conferences, but the fans suffer from their idiocy. Schedules always made a difference, but not this big of a difference. Some schools always chickened out of playing tough out of conference games, but not most of the teams.

College football should burst on the scene in September. Instead, you will have no problem scheduling a round of golf or yard work. There are no all day must watches in September. Fans should expect a true conference champion, instead of a championship game having someone sneak in because of scheduling. Just ask the ACC, who had five loss Duke play for a championship last year.

Regionalization has always been good for college sports. It creates natural rivalries rather than contrived rivalries. Penn State would just naturally play Pitt, rather than haggle whether each team really wants to play the game as a non conference game. Nebraska vs Oklahoma, USC vs Stanford, Oregon vs Oregon State would all be played as conference games.

Having a nice, comfortable fit is far better than having something that is too big and unmanageable.

It turns out that size does matter.

Tweet of the Week

This one could be Tweet of the Week and Shiny Penny all rolled into one. Fantastic and fitting.

 


The Weekly Shiny Penny

Pat McAfee is a frat boy who likes to run his mouth. That makes this all the more shiny.

 


A Penny For My Final Thoughts…

How about some baseball banter this week…

  • The American League is an absolute travesty this year. Only five teams have a positive run differential.
  • Baltimore, Texas, and Detroit are tied for the final wildcard spot in the AL. They are all 61-64. At 59-66, Seattle is only two games out. Maybe I buried the Mariners and Blue Jays prematurely. Little did I think 80 wins would get a team in the playoffs.
  • For the second year in a row Ketel Marte has disappeared, putting the Diamondbacks in a bind as they vie for the final NL wildcard spot.
  • At 61-66, the Pirates ship has sunk. In the AL they would be one game out.
  • Since the first week in April, the Pirates have not been able to put together more than 4 wins in a row. They are 11-19 since the all star break. That is how you fall out of contention.
  • Christopher Sanchez won his 16th game as he bids for a 20 win season and the Cy Young. He gave up one run in six innings. The bullpen gave up four runs in three innings. There in lies one of the Phillies problems.
  • Pete Crow-Armstrong should be the MVP, as he already has 30 home runs and 31 stolen bases. He has an astonishing 7.3 WAR. Crow-Armstrong is also the quintessential modern player as he will most likely strike out in about one third of his at bats while putting up tremendous numbers.
  • Kudos to MLB for the Field of Dream game last weekend and the Little League game this weekend.
Just my two cents…