Ksquared's New College Football Regular Season/Playoff Scenario - PART I

Okay, I know there are a lot of opinions out there on the topic of a playoff system in college football, but I have a problem with all of them for one simple reason: they are all based on the current college football landscape. There's no way we can figure out this crazy season we call college football using today's normal thought processes. Hence, my playoff system (and yes, it is a playoff system) is based on a whole mess of changes, beginning with the conferences themselves and moving to change the way we see the regular season.

If I had the power, here's what I would do:

1. NEW CONFERENCES
First and foremost, with the way the conferences are broken out, we have too much segregation of "good" and "bad" conferences (BCS vs. Non-BCS). I would lump all of these teams together.

Currently, we have 11 conferences with 1 independent bundle (12 conferences total, technically). Half (6) of these conferences are BCS teams, while half (6) are not for a total of 65 BCS teams and 55 non-BCS teams.

Now, let's make ALL of them BCS teams. This is where it gets a little complicated. Take the 55 non-BCS teams and distribute them as follows:
- ACC gets 8 teams
- Big 12 gets 8 teams
- Big East gets 12 teams
- Big Ten gets 9 teams
- PAC-10 gets 10 teams
- SEC gets 8 teams

If you do the math, EVERY conference has 20 teams.

Now, let's make these conferences more manageable. Create 12 NEW conferences that each have 10 teams, with each conference getting a very similar ratio of the BCS teams and the non-BCS teams (though we do NOT refer to teams this way anymore since all teams are created equal from now on).

What we have just done is even the playing field. I understand that there are many considerations to be figured in with this new system of conferences (size of schools, location of schools, money, recruiting, etc.), but this can be overcome with the right coaching and administrative backing (see Boise State).

In fact, at first glance, it may seem like this new system hurts the non-BCS teams, but in reality, coaches and alumni from the BCS schools would probably be more upset, as they can no longer play the "Big Conference-Big Money-Big TV exposure" card on the recruiting trail and will now have to seriously compete against "smaller" schools.

Let's look at an example of two of the new conferences (I will publish ALL of Ksquared's new conferences later):

Ksquared's MSC (Middle South Conference)
Alabama
Auburn
Vanderbilt
Tennessee
Kentucky
TCU
North Texas
Tulane
Louisiana Tech
Southern Methodist

Ksquared's GCC (Gulf Coast Conference)
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Florida
South Florida
UTEP
Rice
Houston
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe

At this point, I can already sense the skepticism, but just hold your horses...It will all begin to become clear how this system is beneficial in the long run as the new breakdown continues. Stay tuned for the next new element, scheduling.

Part II will go over the new regular season schedule with these new conferences in play.