If you were the king of college football ...

GAINESVILLE -- This blog will explode with news, notes, podcasts, audio interviews, etc. in a few days.

Southeastern Conference Media Days is next week, beginning on Wednesday and ending on Friday. Florida coach Urban Meyer addresses the media on Thursday. Here's a complete schedule of SEC Media Days. I'm excited about the trip to Hoover and I know you guys, the loyal readers of this blog, are ready for the unofficial start of the college football season.

With all that said, we still have a few more days of summer remaining. That means we still have a few more days to daydream about our favorite sport, college football. Here's a blog post that everyone who visits this blog can enjoy. If you were the king of college football for one day, what would you change about the game?

Before we begin, there are a few stipulations we need to address:

• You can't wish for the demise of any football team but you can, if you so choose, change anything you want about a current team. For example, if you want the head coach of your favorite team fired, then so be it. You're god for a day.
• You can't ban players from competition. For example, Florida fans cannot declare Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder ineligible.
• You can change as many things as you like. For example, if you want Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to wear a pink tutu on the sidelines while he coaches, then a pink tutu Kiffin shall wear. But you don't have to stop there. You can change anything and everything as many times as you like. If you want to change Florida's uniforms AND make Kiffin wear a pink tutu, just say the word.
• You have to keep the field of play fair and balanced. This means you can't reduce Miami's number of scholarships to 10 and increase Florida's number of scholarship players to 130. Also, you can't force Miami to play with only six defenders, or something silly like that.
• No trading players. 

OK, with the rules out of the way, I'll begin. If I were the king of college football for one day, here's what I would do.

1. Overtime in college football as we now know it is gone forever. Starting today, college football will conduct overtime just like the NFL.
2. No more Football Bowl Subdivision. Back to Division I-A.
3. The BCS is history. Beginning today, the college football national championship will be determined by a 32-team playoff. If a team wins its conference championship game, then that team is in the tournament. All other at-large bids will be determined by a committee of three people: me, the President of the United States of America and Phil Steele. I have veto power.
4. All conferences must determine their league champion by playing a conference championship game.
5. No more independents. Hey, Notre Dame. You're in the new Great Lakes Conference. Army goes to the Big East. Navy is now in the Mid-Atlantic Conference. (We'll get to the conferences a little later.)
6. Conference USA, so long.
7. Atlantic Coast Conference, gone. 
8. Sun Belt, bye-bye.
9. Western Athletic Conference, adios.
10. Mountain West Conference, no more.
11. The Ivy League is now in Division I-A.
12. The maximum number of scholarships allowed per football team in Division I-A is now and forever reduced from 85 to 55.
13. The maximum number of regular season games a team can play is 10.
14. All non-conference games must be against other Division I-A teams.
15. The Associated Press football poll will be the only ranking system recognized by me, the king of college football.
16. The first AP poll will be released after the fifth week of the regular season.
17. The new AP poll will consist of 50 teams.
18. A ratings percentage index will be created to help me, the President and Phil Steele determine the 20 at-large bids to the national championship tournament. 
19. Now to conference realignments. The first thing I would do is revamp the entire landscape of college football.  Florida and Texas would have their own conferences.
20. • Southeastern Conference (14 teams, rotates in one team from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Georgia Tech, Georgia, South Carolina, Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee
      Western Division: Mississippi, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Memphis, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Louisiana State
    • Sunshine State Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 10 teams, rotates in three teams from opposite division)
      Northern Division: Florida, Florida State, Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, Jacksonville University
      Southern Division: Miami, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, South Florida, Central Florida
    • Mid-Atlantic Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 12 teams, rotates in two teams from opposite division)
      Southern Division: Duke, N.C. State, North Carolina, Wake Forest, East Carolina, Louisville
      Northern Division: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Richmond, Maryland, Navy, Kentucky
    • Big East (14 teams, rotates in one team from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Boston College, Rutgers, Delaware, Delaware State, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
      Western Division: Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple, West Virginia, Marshall, Syracuse, Army
    • Great Lakes Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 14 teams, rotates in one team from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Buffalo, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue, Miami (Ohio), Youngstown State
      Western Division: Northwestern, Illinois, Southern Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota
    • Great Plains Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 12 teams, rotates in two teams from opposite division)
      Northern Division: Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Western Kentucky
      Southern Division: Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Arkansas State
    • Texas Athletic Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 12 teams, rotates in two teams from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Texas, Houston, Texas Southern, Texas A&M, Rice, Prairie View A&M
      Western Division: Baylor, Texas Tech, UTEP, Texas Christian, SMU, North Texas
    • Dixie Athletic Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 14 teams, rotates in one team from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Tuskegee, South Alabama, Troy, UAB, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Chattanooga
      Western Division: Middle Tennessee State, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Grambling State, Southern University, Jackson State
    • Mid-American Conference (12 teams, rotates in two teams from opposite division)
      Eastern Division: Cincinnati, Akron, Ohio, Bowling Green, Kent State, Ball State
      Western Division: Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Northern Iowa
    • Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (NEW CONFERENCE, 16 teams, no rotating schedule)
      Eastern Division: Colorado, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico State, Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
      Western Division: Utah, BYU, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Nevada
    • Pacific Conference (12 teams, rotates in two teams from opposite division)
      Northern Division: Boise State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, California
      Southern Division: Arizona, Arizona State, Hawaii, USC, Stanford, UCLA
    • Ivy League (eight teams, each team plays all four opponents from the opposite division)
      Southern Division: Yale, Penn, Columbia, Princeton
      Northern Division: Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth

As you can see, Division I-A would be completely changed under my sovereign rule. As it stands right now, the Football Bowl Subdivision includes 120 teams. My new Division I-A has been expanded to 150 teams. The 30 new additions: Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, Jacksonville University, Richmond, Delaware, Delaware State, Massachusetts, Youngstown State, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Tuskegee, South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern, Southern Illinois, Montana, Grambling State, Southern University, Jackson State, Chattanooga, Northern Iowa and Rhode Island.

My changes to Division I-A pay respect to college football's natural rivalries. Conferences were determined by geographical proximity and football tradition. The reduction of scholarships will level the playing field and reduce expenses.

Oregon can only have three uniforms.

No artificial turf. Sorry, Boise State.

Florida must play Georgia and Tennessee every year.

Notre Dame must play USC and Boston College every year.

Texas must play Oklahoma and Arkansas every year.

Boise State must play Idaho every year.

Penn State must play Ohio State and Michigan every year.

Auburn must play Troy every year.

Army, Air Force and Navy must play each other every year. That means Air Force's schedule is pretty much set in stone forever.

Army must play Texas A&M every year.

Colorado must play Nebraska every year.

Miami must play Virginia Tech every year.

Florida State must play Alabama and South Alabama every year.

Hawaii must play BYU every year.

Louisiana State must rotate one of the following teams into its schedule every year: Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana Tech.

Georgia Tech must Georgia Southern every year.

Houston must play Tulane every year.

UAB must play Memphis every year.

Cincinnati must play Louisville every year.

South Alabama must play Louisiana State and Southern Miss every year.

Northern Iowa must play Iowa and Iowa State every year.

Missouri must play Illinois every year. 

-jo-

Comments

[Smarry]

Very nice article thanks for the posting...........

___________________
Smarry
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[gators love getting raped in jail]

gators suck [EDITED]

[Adam S.]

jo, I hope you're watching Gatti vs. Ward III on HBO right now - wow - best fight ever?

1) To your overtime thing - no way! Love NCAA overtime!
2) Agree, FBS is garbage, like D I-A much better.
4) Agree, MUST have a conference championship game. That is why the Big 10 is a joke!
5) Agree, no more independents.
14) Great as well.
15) Not sure about only using the AP, but I do like the AP poll.
16) Should def. be released later into the season like you said.

[Goody]

Keep the language under control, fellas. I don't want to spend my day deleting posts.

-jo-

[emilio]

Not your biggest fan, matter of fact, the exact oppisite, but i got to admit ... i like the way you think and for once (and probably the last time) I agree with you

[Sarasota 'cane]

I love it! Especially the conference shake-up's and the playoff system.

[Goody]

Emilio,

Thanks for the open mind. We're always working to get better here at Gator Clause.

-jo-

[DeVontae Brooks]

Jo,

I don't know how you do it or think of all of this stuff, but I have to admit I am very impressed and I like your new format. It had to take you a long time to do this, but your the best blogger I follow for a reason. I'll try to add a little to the ideas a little later.

D. Brooks

[Borrinnng]

It would be nice to get Florida to play out of conference and yes leave the state to play the games instead of coming up with lame excuses as to why they cant do it

[Nate]

i hate the gators and usually criticize a lotta the stuff you write, but this is a really really good post. i have to disagree with your overtimes idea. nothing beats games like 2007 alabama-georgia, LSU-kentucky, LSU-arkansas, (freaking) boise state-oklahoma, and 2008 miami-virginia. NFL overtime sucks. It would reestablish the possibility of ties. LOVE the sunshine state conference idea. That would have miami and florida playing eachother at like the perfect frequency. the only thing is that miami and florida state would have to play eachother every year. That should be a stipulation. also, the playoff would be the top 8 teams at the end of the year, and 12 is the magic number for games in a season. Those are really the only changes i'd make to yours...i think. i might just do one. either way you gained some respect from me with this. Especially calling out the non-conference subject instead of hiding behind florida state like most gator fans. you gotta admit, fiu, troy and charleston southern are gonna be boring to watch.