At no point in my life have I ever been worried we wouldn’t have a college football season. But now I am. In fact, my confidence meter on an actual college football season taking place is an incredibly low 40 percent chance we see an actual season.
COVID-19 has been shutting down and postponing leagues all over the world, and while it is a small issue in the grand scheme of things, it is an issue. And the leaders that are in place to help resolve these problems have been missing in action—except for Adam Silver (NBA) and Dana White (UFC). Both Silver and White took advantage of this situation, got a little creative and have, or will, come back stronger than ever. But what about football?
The NFL has kicked the can down the road hoping COVID would just go away and they would not have to deal with it. That backfired. Now the NFL has had to cancel preseason games and players almost didn’t report to camp. How does this affect college football? NCAA president Mark Emmert sat on his hands and waited to see what the NFL did. Well, Mark, the NFL did nothing. And you did nothing.
With college football set to kickoff on August 29th, I’m hesitant to say we see those games actually played. The PAC-12 and Big Ten have already announced they will play a conference only schedule and other leagues are moving to the spring (Ivy league) or postponing their season (MIAA) by three weeks. With two out of the Power Five conferences going to conference only, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Big 12, ACC and SEC go to a similar schedule. A large part of the problem is that the conferences have so much power and act independently – Big Ten followed by PAC-12.
The power of the college football conferences has cost us NCAA Football (the video game), kept fans in the dark ages without a playoff system for decades and now may cost their own schools games. How are we going to get a fair look at teams that should be in the college football playoff when we don’t have uniform schedules?
My fix:
Scheduling – Every conference goes to a conference only schedule. The Big 12 is the smallest power five conference and can still play a nine game schedule, 10 with a championship game, like the other P5 conferences. This allows some uniformity across conferences and the playoff committee, and fans are able to get a fair look at the top four teams in the country without some conferences playing 12 games while others play nine.
Mark Emmert – I haven’t come across many people that are happy with the job Mark Emmert or the NCAA has done in regards to college football. The NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC, etc. all have commissioners and each NCAA sport should have it’s own commissioner that works with the NCAA. Players, coaches and athletic directors all deserve a voice at the NCAA office and it’s long overdue. Players have been getting screwed for too long by the NCAA and it is time to give them representation with the governing body. Name Image Likeness (NIL) is a great start but players should also be involved with decision making. Without fair representations players are left to play by the rules set in place by the NCAA. The players are the prize of every sports league and the NCAA has done very little to help, aid, or listen to it’s players.
Mr. Commissioner – Mack Brown. Coach Brown worked the politics at the University of Texas better than any coach ever has while building a top notch program. A program that many have failed to build before and after him. Brown could serve as the go-between for players, coaches and athletic directors with the NCAA and do so as one of the most respected voices in college football.