If I had the power to change things – UPDATED VERSION!

I did this post over nine years ago. Crazy, right? I went over some of the things I would do if I was put in control of college football. So maybe it’s about time to see how I did and then look at a few more things I would do. Let’s fucking go with this potential bullshit!

1. In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. OK they still haven’t changed this and they have made it worse by going to the 2-point shootout after the second overtime period. That is so ridiculous. Either take out the gimmick (which reminds me of the penalty shootout at the end of regular season hockey games which also drives me nuts) or make it so teams can tie after two overtime periods like in the CFL. College football had the greatest overtime format and they have somehow been overtaken by the NFL who, for all the good they do with rule changes, spent years fucking up their overtime games and basically stumbled upon rules changes thanks to the Bills and…well, I don’t want to talk about it.
2. Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. They listened! THEY LISTENED! Kind of. I had proposed doing it in the final five minutes of each half or even in the second and fourth quarter only. They do it all game now. Which is good? Problem is, some of that saved time has gone to more ad breaks. That is not so good. All in all, we will call this a push but it definitely leads into my next point that I had made…
3. Three-hour TV windows are dumb. This is still the case. And it’s done even more than it was back then. ESPN does it a few times a year with their evening games by pushing them to 6:00 and 9:00 so that the late SEC game isn’t TOO late. Now the ACC Network also does this one week, usually Week 2. They have so many games for their teams that they have to do this. At least they are smart enough to start at 11:00 and this past season, moved to three hour, fifteen minute windows for some of the games. That’s a perfect compromise. Expect other conference networks to potentially try this with conferences becoming bloated.
4. Can we stop with the games against FCS schools outside of the first month? No, it seems like they can’t. The SEC has dialed it back a bit. Only about half their teams (if that) play those games during the penultimate weekend of the regular season. But now we have the ACC doing it now. Stop it. Please. Play them in October. November should be for the biggest games, not Western Illinois (no offense to the Leathernecks) going to Georgia to get their asses handed to them for three-quarters of a mil.
5. Start Division 4 right now. I think I need to tweak this idea since a fuck-ton of realignment has happened in nine years. I am going to change this into football becoming its own special college sport and not totally following conference alignments in the rest of the sports. Don’t get me wrong, some of the realignments have been good but many have been weird, head-scratching, money-hungry or just plain dumb. So let football have their own conference alignments and allow the rest of the sports to go back to having the Southwest Conference or the Metro Conference or maybe other, better, more geographically sensible conferences since even in basketball, going halfway across the United States for a Tuesday night conference game is beyond ridiculous.
6. Is it time about time that CIS teams move south so to speak? At the time, I used Simon Fraser being in D-II as a starting point. Now, SFU doesn’t even have a football team thanks to their athletic department being a complete dumpster fire (not to mention much of the administration). Rogers still has their NHL contract for another few years (and there seems to be a bit of regret on their end which I mentioned would happen) so any CIS football, especially OUA, won’t be shown on their network any time soon. Maybe TSN can step up a bit with TSN+. Putting even one game a week (to start) on the streaming platform would be a good beginning to get eyeballs back on university football in this country. So, do I still think CIS teams should join the NCAA? Not nearly as much as I used to but some programs (I’m looking at you, York) need to seriously think about whether continuing having a football program is worth it.
7. Let us all be able to get the ESPNs, FOX Sports 1, etc. Yeah not even close. The amount of games available to us up here is still the same, if not a bit less now. Peacock has joined the fray and we cannot get those games up here. Still can’t get any of the FOX, FS1 or, now, FS2 games up here in Canada. I’ve always said (and I will continue to say it) that the death of cable (which still will happen regardless of all these streaming services teaming up in a way) will partially come down to not giving the customers what they want to see, especially if they are willing to pay for it. I had mentioned years ago that I would pay a few hundred bucks a season if I could have access to have every FBS game on TV. Every one. I don’t care about news or movies or TV shows or much else. Those I can watch when I want on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime or some other streaming service if I really want to. But college football is the one thing I would want all of and should have the ability to get but I have the god damn audacity to be Canadian. What a dick I am. So yeah, this should still happen.
8. Do not put out the CFP poll until the bowl games are being selected. Because The Committee is filled with people who know college football but struggle with logic, you get situations like you got this past season. It easily (and I mean FUCKING EASILY) could have been rectified if when they had dropped Florida State to #5 after Week 13, they kept them there after Week 14, even though they knew one of Michigan and Ohio State was going to lose. Sure it wouldn’t have been that well received but then they wouldn’t have looked like complete assholes when they dropped them in the final poll to destroy their national championship hopes. If they wait until just as the bowl games and playoff seedings are being selected, then there’s not nearly as much of a problem. Debate all you want but at least you don’t compare it to previous weeks’ polls which make The Committee look like fucking idiots.

Alright, that was the list nine long years ago. I was in my 30s. And, looking at my body, a lot fitter. I hate the fact that injuries can happen due to nothing but air and movement these days. Other than what I see in the mirror, a lot has changed in college football as well since then. So I guess I have to come up with a few more things I would change. Here we go.

1. Someone other than the NCAA has to put forth strict NIL rules and regulations. This feels like a no-brainer. When NIL started, it was great. Great stories of these players getting some nice deals and some players even sharing the wealth with their teammates. Awesome. Then, to the shock of absolutely no one, things got out of hand. Quickly. Now players are making hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is fine) but it has nothing to do with their name, image or likeness. All it has to do with a booster (or group of boosters) ponying up a bunch of money to buy a player’s loyalty (for at least a year). Isn’t this the same kind of shit SMU got the death penalty for? There has to be rules to all this and keeping boosters out of the player payment business would be first and foremost on that agenda. Start there, draft something up, tell all the teams they will abide by it or there will be penalties. Keep going against the rules, you will give up the one thing they all covet: money. If a program is fined millions of dollars, they will think twice of allowing some of these boosters, who think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like, from digging their claws into some of their roster.
2. Football players (if not players in other sports) should be able to drop down to a part-time course load during the season. Playing college sports is not easy. You have to organize your time. I remember when I was a university athlete. I couldn’t get things right. I found it too difficult to commit to a sport AND a full-time course load. I am sure other athletes feel the same way. And the way college athletics are going, these students don’t need to finish their degrees before they leave school. They should be able to finish when they can. This may also push some student-athletes to be in more difficult programs. I mean there can only be so many communications jobs out there, right?
3. Targeting HAS to be figured out. Does anyone really know what targeting is? Hell, the officials struggle to figure it out so I am not surprised everyone else is perplexed by it. Most of it seems to centre around hitting a player with the crown of your helmet. And yes, it’s dangerous. I still remember getting speared in practice in high school by a guy who had never been on special teams before. It knocked the wind out me something fierce. It’s a player safety issue and has to be taken seriously. Splitting the penalty into Targeting 1 and Targeting 2 penalties is a good start in my opinion. Targeting 2 can be reserved for the egregious penalties where the player deserves to be ejected. And hell, throw a 20-yard penalty on to it instead of a 15. Hopefully that helps a bit. Targeting 1 can still be 15 yards but the player stays in the game. The coaches and players may understand this better and we can see how it goes for a few years before looking into it again and adjusting it where need be.
4. If there are going to be more superconferences (and less conferences in FBS in general) it’s time all conferences go to nine conference games. A few years back I would have railed against this idea but I didn’t realize that conferences might hit the 20-team mark in the next few years. Give it a decade and there is no way there will be nine conferences like there are now. At least one, if not multiple, conferences will cease to exist. With upwards of 18 teams at this point, putting an extra conference game makes all the sense in the world. Many Power Five teams can still have their one FCS non-conference game (which gives some FCS teams a much needed infusion of cash), along with a Group of Five non-conference game. Add a P5 non-conference game and there you go. See how easy that is? Do I have to figure everything out for you guys?

Are there other things needed to “fix” college football? Of course. It feels like college football is barreling down (in one of those Japanese bullet trains) towards no return. Where it will look not a whole lot different than the minor league of the NFL. It kind of is already but in 2030 I have a feeling we will look at even just before COVID and say “college football wasn’t like that, was it?”

The combine is occurring and I am glad to see some players saying “Fuck that noise.” If scouts can’t figure things out from the absolute avalanche of game film on these guys then they should find another line of work. No, instead we have to do drills that, as much as some want to say otherwise, don’t mean a whole lot compared to how they play the game. Tom fucking Brady just ran the 40 faster at 46 years old than he did when he was at the Combine. If that doesn’t tell you that the Combine is just basically Scouting Bonerfest, I don’t know what will.

Anyway, the UFL is coming up at the end of the month and I am less than mildly interested. I’ll watch but I won’t be really watching. Now, this European League of Football…if I could get that it would be interesting. It looks like if you had MACtion in Germany. I love it. Anyway, everyone have a great week.

Guess who’s back…

Back again. Bossman’s back. Tell a friend (who likes football).

That’s right I have finally decided to return to the ol’ blogosphere (do they still call it that). I’ve been off for about four months and it feels like it has been four years. Are things better for me? Meh. I guess. Now I feel I need a distraction again to keep me sane so it’s back to this thing. Not like much has happened in the football world since I was gone AW SHIT TOM BRADY DIDN’T RETIRE. Sometimes the offseason is much more entertaining than the actual season. But I digress.

I figured I would return by doing a little bit of research. I know what you’re thinking: when has this jagoff ever really delved into researching stuff? Well I have…every so often. OK not enough. Maybe this is part of my metamorphosis into a newer, better Bossman. Or, I just have a bit of time on my hands. Oh yeah, the research! I am going to research….me! More specifically my blog.

You see, over the years I have made demands or requests or said things I would like to see change about college football or the NFL. I don’t know how often I have followed up on those but I am going to venture a guess and say almost never. So I am rectifying that by going back into the vault to see some of the things I’ve said and update on what has happened with them. In some cases, quite a bit. In others, nothing at all. So strap in and let’s go on a journey…or more like one of those car trips where everything looks the same and you crave any new scenery or you’re going to veer off the road and crash into the guardrail.

August 13, 2013: I think it’s high time for them (Tulane) to move out of the Superdome and into a smaller stadium considering they wouldn’t be able to fill a Texas high school football stadium these days. First off, some Texas high school football stadiums are big. Like 10-20,000 seats big. And they damn near fill them! Insane. But anyway, this was my first, let’s call it request on this blog. And it worked! I don’t want to take credit for this but I am going to take credit for this. Tulane moved into on-campus Yulman Stadium one year after this comment. And they arguably get more fans in a stadium that, by all accounts, looks quite nice.

November 24, 2013: I still believe they need to cut down on the individual bowl tie-ins as there could be some somewhat unwatchable matchups come December that could be avoided with better flexibility. At the Power Five level, this has not changed and we could argue it has got a bit worse. At the Group of Five level, we now see a bit more flexibility with bowl bids. Some bowls just pick out of the G-5 conferences as a whole. And other bowls get a choice of two or three conferences. So it’s slightly better but really I was hoping there would be more at-large bids. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear.

October 15, 2014: I would say it makes the most sense to put all the ESPNU games, for example, on one channel throughout the day. Bell (and, presumably, Rogers) doesn’t think that way for some odd reason. And they still don’t. I don’t get it. It seems so easy but obviously someone in programming suffers from temporary brain damage when they are figuring out the schedule. IT’S THE SAME FUCKING THING FOR LIKE THIRTEEN WEEKS EVERY YEAR!

February 17, 2015: In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. Instead, the NCAA decided “Fuck it” and changed OT completely after the second overtime. That nine-overtime debacle between Illinois and Penn State should be proof that the new method is garbage. Should have listened to me guys. Even starting overtime from the 30 could have changed things radically since not many college kickers can routinely hit 47-yard field goals.

February 17, 2015: Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. Why they haven’t dealt with this I don’t know. There is no need for the clock to stop after a first down in the first or third quarters. You could make the argument that other than the final five minutes of either half you don’t need to either and I would be fine with that too. Shave about ten minutes off the average game? Sounds like a win for the college game if you ask me.

February 17, 2015: Three-hour TV windows are dumb. I was on a roll this day (although, to be fair, the whole point of this blog post was changed I’d make). And yes, whoever thinks these make sense are morons. I’m looking at you, ESPN, since you are the only ones that do it. Well, that isn’t entirely true. The ACC Network, for one week early on in the season every year now, does the same thing. It’s stupid. Just stop it.

July 6, 2015: TSN and Sportsnet both would be smart to stop the regional channel horseshit and make one channel a full news channel (a la Headline Sports way back in the day). This hasn’t happened and probably never will. Whether it should now is a matter of debate. I don’t know how many viewers Sportscentre and Sports Central get but it can’t be nearly as many as there were back in 2015. So to have a full sports news channel would still make sense but they would both have to restructure the way there channels operate (and, in Sportsnet’s case, talk to the NHL about the archaic blackout policy).

November 19, 2015: However, in my opinion, pretty much all FBS vs. FCS games should be in September (or August if the season starts then). I have softened my stance a bit on this. Buy games are necessary for FCS teams and I understand that. I still am not a fan of seeing these games in November but having them in October would be fine as well. With more conferences going to a 9-game conference schedule, I have a feeling there will be less of these games in November but we shall see.

August 4, 2017: Let’s be honest here: Conference USA is a hodge-podge bag of crap. If they were smart they would start talks with the Sun Belt to “create” two new conferences with more of a geographical natured to them. Oh this is one of my favourite blog posts of all-time. The amount of flack I got for this from Conference USA fans was hilarious. But look what happened. The conference is on the brink of disaster now because they did nothing, thinking they were even remotely special. Fucking dumb. So let them die. Many of the teams left for greener pastures and the rest…well, sorry for your damn luck.

November 20, 2018: I look forward, though, to balanced divisions in 2020, which I believe is the year the Atlantic Schooners begin play. Oh Bossman, what were you thinking? Forget adding a tenth team: almost every year it seems like one of the current nine CFL teams is in some sense of financial peril.

January 20, 2020: I agree there should be a holiday after the Super Bowl. Hasn’t even been discussed in the U.S. so no chance of it happening here yet. At least my plea for Daylight Savings Time to end might come to fruition!

August 3, 2020: If a division winner has a worse record than a Wild Card team, they should get the #5 seed and not the #4. I have said this in previous seasons when there were only two Wild Card teams but it goes the same now with three. You shouldn’t be rewarded for winning a shitty division with a bad record. You already get into the playoffs. That’s your reward. Same the other way as a really good Wild Card team shouldn’t be punished for having the audacity to be in a division with one of the best teams in the league. It’s dumb. And won’t be changed. Dumb owners and dumb Commissioner Gingerhammer.

December 17, 2020: I will say it again for the millionth time: why bother with the conference affiliation towards either CBS or FOX? It doesn’t matter anymore. Well look at that! They are finally getting rid of the completely archaic NFC-to-FOX and AFC-to-CBS way of broadcasting NFL games. It will now be a bit of a free-for-all which, honestly, is much better. You want the best games, at the best times, with the best available crew. Many times that didn’t happen in the past because of how things were done. Not anymore!

August 11, 2021: I still believe every team should have one road, one home and one neutral-site game during the preseason but that’s a conversation I’ve had many times before that no one wants to listen to. Naw, much better to have regular season games in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Baghdad, rural Kazakhstan and the Maldives. And no bye week afterwards ya pussies!

Every time I did a post on if I ran the bowl games. Look, my plan would work. Or the various plans I’ve had over the years. Cut a few bowls and make it a 7-win minimum to be bowl-eligible for sure. Give as many games a national spotlight (which they almost do but they could be better at it). Put a few more games on non-ESPN networks (I don’t know when this will ever happen). And the selection show. It would work so much better and make that thing worth watching.

So there you go. I know I have made other requests or had other ideas but I think you get the picture…I’m not influential at all. Saying that, some of my ideas have come to fruition which makes me happy if not a tiny bit proud. Maybe in the next few years a few more of my ideas will come true and I will be a very happy Bossman.

Alright. First post back. Feels good. Shake the cobwebs off. I am goofing around with new themes for the site to see what works. So if you notice things changing from week to week, it’s probably my undiagnosed ADD.

It’s already June. Where does the time go? I guess that happens when the days start melting together and you have very little sense of time. Have a great rest of the week everyone.