SYSTEMIC CHANGES |
End of TV monopoly |
Recruiting coverage |
Early NFL Draft entry |
. |
SYSTEM RULE CHANGES |
Academic ineligibility |
CFP |
Conference championship games |
Scholarship limits |
. |
GAME RULE CHANGES |
OT |
Narrower hashmarks |
Tearaway jerseys banned |
Play clock modifications |
. |
GAME PLAY CHANGES |
Wishbone |
SEC integration |
Read option |
Film study |
I've been voting based on which I think had the biggest impact on the sport. That said, I'm going with academic ineligibility. The CFP has a huge impact but academic ineligibility is much, much bigger. Also, as a practical matter the rule is not nearly stringent enough. I've posted before about this, but some publication did an article a while back about the enormous gaps between real students and scholarship football players at P5 schools. Frankly, it is embarrassing for all of our schools. The one I remember is that Michigan had one of the higher avg SAT scores for football players and even theirs was bad, REALLY bad. Since Michigan had one of the higher averages, the rest of our schools are even worse.Not all, and I'm not speaking to only mine.
I would not like to see a rule that required schools to only take athletes who could get in to THAT school as legitimate students because I think that would disadvantage good schools. Instead, I would simply like to see a minimum SAT score at probably the 50th percentile. The unfortunate reality is that the rule I just proposed would probably eliminate 75% or more of the current football players.