Hail Mary

HAIL MARY details a plan to save college football from the chaos caused by the NCAA's inability to manage what has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The author proposes a 64-team Super League with four 16-team conferences, a 16-team playoff with all spots determined by results on the field and players being paid a salary comparable to what their peers in other minor league sports make.
The author's proposal includes:

• Equal distribution of television revenue among Power League schools
• A salary scale for players to pay them a similar salary to what minor leaguers in other major professional sports leagues
• A relegation process that would bring at least one new team into the Super League each year, possibly more
• A 14-week regular season with a 13-game schedule that includes matchups designed to enhance parity
• Revisions to the transfer portal to bring it under control
• Conferences with teams aligned by geography to restore sanity to conference alignment
• A 16-team postseason playoff with all spots being won by results on the field

After the national outcry over Florida State's snub last year, the College Football Playoff accelerated its plans for a 12-team playoff. But even that will be fraught with peril, as only five of the twelve spots will be won on the field-the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC champs will be guaranteed a spot, as will the highest-ranked conference champ from any other conference. The other seven spots will be determined by the same committee that picked an Alabama team that needed a miracle to beat Auburn over an undefeated FSU team.
Heading into the 2024 season, 67 teams are in one of the four designated Super Conferences (Big Ten, Big Twelve, ACC and SEC). This doesn't include Notre Dame or the two schools kicked to the curb by the Pac-12-Oregon State and Washington State. A handful of non-Power Conference schools--Boise State, East Carolina, Fresno State, Houston, Memphis and San Diego State--can make a legitimate claim to being one of the best 64 programs in the nation.
The author chooses which 64 teams are most deserving of inclusion and assigns them into conferences based on geography, an effort to restore some sanity to college football. Conference realignment has stretched common sense to its breaking point. West Virginia is in the same conference as BYU-2,000 miles and two time zones away. That's a mere day trip compared to the 3,120-mile sojourn Boston College fans will make to Palo Alto for the matchup with Stanford whenever those two ACC rivals meet for the first time.
The author proposes a salary scale for players that pays them a similar wage to what other minor leaguers make in baseball, hockey and basketball. The proposal also includes a relegation process to demote underperforming teams and reward teams who are excelling in the old FBS division, which will become a separate tier and determine its own national champion each year. The FBS champion will receive automatic promotion to the Super League each year.
University presidents and athletics administrators are incapable of managing what has become a billion dollar per year industry. It's time for the upper echelon of college football teams to stop being the tail that wags the dog, divorce themselves from the NCAA, form their own league and let results on the field determine the college football champion.
Editor's note: This book was written after the 2023 season, before Indiana's meteoric rise to the top and Vanderbilt's revival under Diego Pavia.