re: The future of NCAA football

Only way to increase parity is to lower the scholarship limits, staff limits, etc. at this point. What has killed the competition is a combination of TV deals and restricted playoffs

How is a school like Colorado for example able to compete against one like Florida? Especially when Colorado is making less than half of what Florida makes every year, so that the facilities difference is simply humongous. You could also pay players on a sliding scale, with set limits like the NFL Draft. That would keep all the best players from going to the same school, because they wouldn't make as much.

And expand the playoffs or get rid of them (not going to happen) if you want the Bowl system to survive.

Yea you aren’t going to have true parity, which is bad and boring anyways. Even the pro leagues don’t have parity with all the drafts and such in place.

It is interesting that since the bcs era began the champs are fairly spread out Bama and LSU are the only ones with more than two, TOSU and Clemson can join with a win this year. ND would add to the teams that have a NC in the BCS/playoff era.

Players quitting has become worse late in the era but when you are winning you don’t have that issue.

If we could get FSU/Da Uand another team to give a shite the acc might be better again. The big ten needs a real threat to TOSU.

Bama really deserves a lot of credit because of their consistence in a league that has won multiple national titles with other members.

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All it takes is the right coach and that changes instantly. The NCAA got rid of unlimited scholarships in the early-80s in the aftermath of Bryant's run at Alabama. Miami, Nebraska, and Penn State dominated that decade for the most part despite there being increased parity with scholarship limitations. Florida State and Nebraska dominated the 90s despite the scholarship limitation. There was a little bit more parity in the sport during the 00s, but the consistently dominant teams were still limited to a select few (USC, Texas, Florida, LSU).

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Yeah I’m less big on the scholarship limits as much as punishing regular season failures.

Scholarship limits will only cause more processing of players. It could help some to spread out talent but has some unintended consequences

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What has changed?

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The championship or bust mentality. Even as recently as the 2000’s getting to a good bowl game was considered a great year.

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All it takes is the right coach and that changes instantly. The NCAA got rid of unlimited scholarships in the early-80s in the aftermath of Bryant's run at Alabama. Miami, Nebraska, and Penn State dominated that decade for the most part despite there being increased parity with scholarship limitations. Florida State and Nebraska dominated the 90s despite the scholarship limitation. There was a little bit more parity in the sport during the 00s, but the consistently dominant teams were still limited to a select few (USC, Texas, Florida, LSU).

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While true, name me a better way to increase parity? Gling to 70 would help.

1) trickle down of recruits

2) with scouting services and the internet almost every decent prospect is identified.

3) combined with some of the rule changes and you have recipe for mutiple upsets every year.

I don't want cfb to be the nfl, but its become increasingly run by a very select few of teams. Certainly in the past it has at times, but now with the playoff, 8 wins is no longer a good season. It's playoffs or bust.

Well expand the playoffs and spread the players out, teams are closer in talent level now and more teams are involved.

To all the “expand the playoffs” folks

You’re probably right but that will do nothing for parity. This isn’t giving more teams a chance to win it, it’s just adding more teams with no chance of winning it to the party. I do find it funny that many of the problems facing CFB right now can be directly or indirectly tied to the playoff and the solution is to expand it...lol

The only way that any level of parity will ever be achieved is reducing the scholarship limit significantly. There is no other way. The elite teams are stacking guys that could start for the next tier deep on their bench. Not only does that improve them, it weakens the competition. CFB is the only sport that gives its best teams nearly exclusive access to the best new players available. It’s exactly opposite of what would need to happen for any level of parity. This is nothing new of course but it’s getting worse actually.

The only thing that can be done, won’t be done. CFB will likely just die a slow death

The playoffs will probably expand but that will not change anything. You could have 16 teams in the playoffs this year and odds are Alabama and Clemson will be playing for the NC.

As someone already mentioned the games are getting boring during the regular season and then add so many useless bowl games. Yes I understand the payout an FCS team takes to get pounded by a P5 team but I do not watch UA games against them anymore. And what value does a bowl game have when you have a 6-6 team playing another 6-6 team.

The issue we are facing is money is the driver and the P5 commissioners are like the head of the 5 families. They control everything and could care less about the product on the field as long as they make as much money as possible.

If the playoffs are expanded it will mean the P5 CCG winner will be a lock. There will be 3 at large with ND probably getting one and an outside chance of a G5 team. But then that will go all the hell when the SEC gets 3 teams in and they will expand once again. But what happens when the P5 lock is not deserving with a 3 loss record but the tie in puts them in anyway? Or are we going to see another B10 move to change the rules to get who they want in? Why even bother to play games if they can pick who will be in their CCG.

If they expand the playoffs should only guarantee a P5 Champ a spot if they finish top 8 in the rankings. It should be the best 8 teams based on rankings and not what conference you play-in. This will give the G5 teams a clearer path to the playoffs. Force ND to join a conference full time so to qualify for the playoffs they need to play in a CCG.

Next get rid of any conference tie-in to bowls. It will provide a little variety and again it will allow for a better match-ups then the crap we are getting now. I mean we just had a 4-5 WF play in a bowl game because of the tie-ins for the ACC. Also cut down on the number of bowl games and make it so a team needs at least 8 wins to get in. I mean we want parity but yet 6-6 season is the mark for many teams so they can go to a bowl game. Success in CFB should not be measured on who finishes with a .500 season record.

Go back to the BCS model for rankings especially if expanded. We just heard them talk about the eye test which enters human bias. The BCS model if I am correct still has been accurate on who gets in the playoff.

Get away from scheduling out games more then 2 years. It looks good on paper now but useless in the long run. We just saw two ranked teams a few weeks ago schedule a game with less then a week and it was a great game. If you stay with a 12 game schedule make every team play 9 conference games with 2 other P5 games on their schedule. Leave one open spot on the schedule for every P5 team. Maybe the beginning of November where they all play a G5 team. This would allow the G5 teams to show what they are capable off late in the season. The FCS no longer gets scheduled.

For the playoffs and expansion the higher seed should get home field advantage. It will definitely make the season have more value. You may get to the CFB playoffs with 1 loss like aTm but doubt you would be happy playing OSU in Columbus with snow. Also would get more fans to attend and generate more money in the community not for some other city or state.

Again it will not matter as long as money is the driver and the P5 commissioners have all the power.

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They're not going to assign a "talent cap" using an arbitrary (and subjective) talent grading system that is run by a private entity(s).

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They already instituted a committee which uses an arbitrary (and subjective) grading system run by profit...

The committee is the big problem. Go to computers and the AP poll. Under the committee, The eye test is bullshite because there’s only 13 sets of eyes to consider, most belonging to people who probably don’t watch a wide variety of college football

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The only way that any level of parity will ever be achieved is reducing the scholarship limit significantly. There is no other way. The elite teams are stacking guys that could start for the next tier deep on their bench. Not only does that improve them, it weakens the competition. CFB is the only sport that gives its best teams nearly exclusive access to the best new players available. It’s exactly opposite of what would need to happen for any level of parity. This is nothing new of course but it’s getting worse actually.

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But every team has the same number of scholarships available to them. The issue will not be solved with reducing scholarships. The coaches are what make the teams successful on and off the field. It is the powerhouse programs that have the deepest pockets to to recruit the top coaches. You want more parity reduce the number of coaches which will also reduce the number on the road recruiting. You could also put a salary cap for all coaches. Coach A is a great recruiter and loves the school he is currently at but a top program offers him double. Not rocket science. Saban and Dabo right now have all the financial support they need to hire whatever staff they want.

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So. Get. Good.

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Yeah, that's easier said than done (and ironic coming from a Bama fan). The system is so stacked in favor of the "Haves" that it's almost impossible for the "Have nots" to break the glass ceiling.