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The title of this post doesn’t mean I am going to pontificate on my addiction to college football, but rather I have figured out a way to solve the controversy that annually seems to plague the NCAA Football Championship: I am proposing that we eliminate the National Championship from college football.

My solution is simple. Drop the Championship game and crown conference champs. Conferences are manageable. Instead of figuring out a fair system to accommodate 119 teams, why not do ourselves a favor and limit it to figure out how to satisfy 10-14 (there’s some fun in varying conference sizes). Scheduling works similarly to how it works now where each team plays everyone in their division, division foes play each other in title game. Champion crowned. We all move on with our lives.

There’s a few ways to go about this. You can keep the bowls and call them conference challenges or what they are, exhibition games. Or you could add a game to the regular season and then have the conference championship games happen around the holidays. Personally, I would prefer the latter.

The season would shake out pretty simply: Play everyone in your division, fill remaining games with non-conference mix of lower tier teams and elite teams. Without the pressure of having to go 12-0 for the year, you can schedule some solid programs with the intent of making your team better for conference games. Not to mention you could do conference challenges where say, based on the previous year’s finish, the SEC and ACC play each other in a series of games (Flor vs Vtech, BC vs. Bama, Duke vs Kentucky, etc). This will give conferences bragging rights over one another. So You still achieve everything in the current system except we put the emphasis on in conference rivalries and have a system that produces a champion on the field.

I’ve gone around and done a mock schedule for the Florida Gators (Benny and Caroline are alums) and Texas Longhorns (for Saneel and Christian) so you can see how this would shake out. I am ignoring home and away and put the actual opponent this year in parentheses.

Florida
USC (Charleston Southern)
Utah (Troy)
Tennessee
Kentucky
LSU
Arkansas
Miss St
Georgia
Vanderbilt
South Carolina
Florida International
Florida St
Buffalo (extra game)

Texas (who would be considered a third place finisher in this system)
Georgia Tech (Louisiana-Monroe)
Wyoming
Texas Tech
UTEP (same due to geography)
Colorado
Oklahoma
Missouri
Oklahoma St
BYU (Central Florida)
Baylor
Kansas
Texas A&M
Rice (extra game)

I dunno about you, but both those seem much more appealing to me. And for teams like Notre Dame, Navy, and Army, they can join a conference or they can just play a schedule that does not end with a title game. I would prefer they join conferences since there will be some open spots, but I can’t make them.

It seems unamerican to propose a season that works like the English Premier League or other European sports, but don’t forget that not long ago baseball would simply pair up the regular season winners of the American League against the regular season winners of the National League.

I would love to hear feedback on this especially counterarguments that don’t have anything to do with money. Essentially, if this was how it had been done for years, what would the fans be complaining about? Well… ya know… aside from there not being a clear champion…

As if that wasn’t enough to get you making a run to the comments section, here’s some predictions! Please note I wrote these before the season started. I have no way to prove this, but don’t worry because these will all be wrong.

ACC: Clemson over G Tech in the title game. Longshot prediction: BC returns to the ACC title game (complete homer pick, but BC is always underrated and ACC is a pretty even conference)

Big 12: Texas over Mizzou. Longshot: Baylor takes advantage of a rebuilding South and home date with Texas to squeak into the title game by way of tiebreaker with Texas, loses to Nebraska.

Big East: Cincinnati. Longshot: Greg Paulus gives ‘Cuse enough that they make a run at the Big East Championship.

Big Ten: Penn St. Longshot: Purdue bounces back in shocking fashion to take advantage of a favorable schedule and win the Big Ten.

MAC: Bowling Green over Western Michigan. Longshot: Buffalo repeats

Conf USA: I have no idea… Tulsa over UAB?

Mountain West: TCU. Longshot: MWC sends 2 teams to BCS bowl games (note: longshot to happen because of current system, should happen if it weren’t for current setup)

Pac 10: USC. Longshot: Stanford puts their minds to it and finishes top 3 in Pac 10

SEC: Florida over LSU. Longshot: Ol’ Miss beats Florida in title game but Florida still plays in championship game (see how flawed this system is?)

Sunbelt: Troy. Longshot: North Texas makes a bowl game.

WAC: Boise St. Longshot: The NCAA finally enforces its turf color rule and BSU gets a green field.

Independents: Notre Dame goes 8-4 despite a weak schedule, Navy drives everyone nuts with the triple option and gets to a bowl game, Army is… well… Army. Longshot: They form their own conference consisting of 3 teams.

National Championship: Texas over Florida. Longshot: Penn St over USC.