Fixing College Football (SID Sports series), Parts 1-2: regional 10-team conferences and a 24-team playoff
Ideas index · Outside proposals (3)
Outside proposals are full reform plans from fans, writers and advocacy sites, not from people directly involved in college football. They are kept separate from the insider quotes archive and are summarized from the original pages, which are linked.
- Author
- Griffin Olah (SID Sports)
- Author type
- writer (newsletter; describes himself as a former FBS sports information director)
- Date
- Mar 30, 2026 (Part 1 published Mar 30, 2026; Part 2 published Mar 31, 2026. Parts 3-5 (calendar, governance, media rights; Apr 1-3, 2026) exist but are not summarized here.)
- Original
- https://www.sid-sports.com/p/fixing-college-football-part-1-realignment
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-01
Summary
A five-part newsletter series. Part 1 redraws FBS into 13 regional conferences of 10 teams built on historical leagues and rivalries (a slimmed ACC, the American, a revived Big East, Big Ten, Big Eight, a Northeast-based CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-10, SEC, Sun Belt, Southwest Conference and WAC), with 8 independents. Every conference plays a nine-game round robin. Part 2 drops conference championship games (the round robin decides the title, with tiebreakers) and proposes a 24-team playoff modeled on the FCS format: 13 automatic bids for conference champions and 11 at-large bids picked by revived BCS computers. The top 8 seeds get byes, the first two rounds are at campus sites, and the national title is played Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl. Bowl games move to the start of the season.
Key elements
| Number of teams | 138 FBS teams, with no relegation and no FCS call-ups (the author's count). |
|---|---|
| Conferences | 13 conferences capped at 10 teams, regional and based on historical leagues and rivalries, plus 8 independents: Notre Dame, Army, Navy, Air Force, Penn State, UMass, North Dakota State and Sacramento State. The last two are described as FBS newcomers. |
| Playoff size | 24 teams. Part 2 details the 24-team model. Part 1 also says 'Yes, I'm expanding it to 16 teams,' which conflicts with the 24-team plan described in both parts. |
| Selection method | 13 conference champions get automatic bids and 11 at-large bids (any conference or independent) are chosen with revived BCS computers. Straight seeding; the top 8 seeds, set by committee votes, get byes. Round 1 is at campus sites hosted by the higher seed; Round 2 re-seeds and is also at campus sites. There are no conference championship games: champions come from the round robin, with tiebreakers of head-to-head, then record against the next-highest teams in the standings, then a coin toss. |
| Season calendar | Nine conference games (full round robin). The national championship is Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl. The detailed calendar is in Part 3, which is not summarized here. |
| Bowls | Quarterfinals and semifinals rotate among the Orange, Sugar, Peach, Cotton and Fiesta Bowls plus the Sun Bowl; the title game is at the Rose Bowl. Other bowls move to the start of the season as matchmaking games (an idea credited to Tyler Schuster), with an emphasis on geographic, fun matchups (e.g., dropping the Bahamas Bowl). The BCS crystal ball trophy returns. |
| Rivalries | Conferences are drawn to keep rivalries (e.g., the Backyard Brawl, Bedlam, the Border War, the Holy War, the Lone Star Showdown and the Palmetto Bowl become conference games). Some, such as Virginia-Virginia Tech, Red River and Notre Dame-USC, become non-conference games. |
| Revenue / other | Parts 1-2 do not cover revenue. The series' Part 5 recap says later parts cover the calendar, transfer portal limits, tampering penalties, agent registration, a collective bargaining agreement and media rights; those parts are not summarized here. |
Related ideas in the Ideas index
- 9. Playoff expansion to 16, 24 or more teams (24-team playoff)
- 13. Preserve rivalries; geography-based conferences via pooled media rights (regional conferences built on historical rivalries)
- 10. Fixed title-game site at the Rose Bowl (national championship fixed at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1)
- 12. Scheduling: standardize schedules, reward tough non-conference games (nine-game round-robin conference schedules)
Notes
Newsletter writer, not a current insider. The Part 2 URL given in the research brief (/p/fixing-college-football-part-2-postseason) returns 404; the live URL is https://www.sid-sports.com/p/fixing-college-football-part-2-the. Part 1's 16-team vs 24-team wording is inconsistent on the page; the 24-team plan is the one detailed in Part 2.