The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'm just going to put this here, where nobody asked me to. 
We can't go back in time on alignment and all that. 
Here's my going forward to go back idea, all laid out.

We get 3 big 20-team conferences that comprise the current P4.  So a P3.  A P3 that is separated from the G5-types, who will have their own national championship.  No lawsuits.

Why?

So we can get back to everyone playing everyone else in their division/conference.  For this idea, it's best to view each division I list as a conference, but under the larger umbrella of the actual conference.

So what's it look like?
Well, we'll start with the SEC.  We're at 16 teams now, and since we can't go back and contract any of them, we'll have to add.  To get to 20, we'll poach the ACC/XII pair, just as the Big Ten will.

But the divisions will be founding members in one and all the newbies in the other.
Original Recipe:  UF, UGA, UTk, Vandy, UK, OM, MSU, AU, Bama, LSU
Johnny-Come-Lately:  Arky, USCe, A&M, Mizzou, Texas, OU + Virginia, VA Tech, UNC, NCST

We added 4 that expand the contiguous footprint (as if that matters anymore).  Brings in academics and rivalries. 

Big Ten:
Originals:  UM, MSU, OSU, IU, PUR, ILL, NW, Minn, Wis, IOWA
Newbies:  PSU, Rut, MD, Neb, USC, UCLA, Oregon, UW + Arizona, ASU

Expands the western position, both are AAU members and rivals

The third conference of 20 is a mashup of the ACC and XII.  And a little surprise:
East:  Miami, FSU, Clemson, GT, Pitt, UL, Duke, Syr, WV, ND
West:  Utah, BYU, TT, KU, KSU, CU, Cal, Stan, SMU, TCU

ND joins a conference, because they have to.  They will play every team in their division.  Period.
We've got some plus academic schools, and yes, the Big Atlantic 20 West division is the weakest in the sport, but out of six divisions, one is going to be the weakest.  Shrug.

Postseason:
each division winner is into the 8-team playoff.  Conf championship games are for seeding and hosting a 1st round game.  6 teams, 3 winners.
3 winners host a playoff game.  3 losers OR one of the 2 at-large teams will host a game as well.
2 at-large teams get in, probably based on whoever ESPN wants.  Or a committee.  Or a computer poll.  Or draw straws.  Whatever.  The point is everyone is on equal footing here and will have earned it.  And no first-round rematches.  That's just stupid.

1st round is on campuses (4 games), with the semis and NCG rotating between the old guard:  Sugar, Orange, Rose.

That leaves a lot of really good teams outside the playoff.
There will be 8 and only 8 "other" bowls.  Less is more.  Instead of everyone having a bowl, they just tie-in with an existing one and get on their board and pretend to be a big-wig with their monies brought in. 

Cotton, Fiesta, Holiday, Peach, Citrus, Sun, Gator, Liberty - basically the ones with history and/or big ones.  The Fiesta and Peach sort of bought their way in over 30+ years.  The Sun, Gator, Liberty, and Holiday are long-standing and we're going to respect that.

Winning your division matters most.  And you get to play everyone you're competing with there.
Winning your conference matters with hosting a playoff game, especially with no byes.
No one is punished for losing their CCG.
There are still 2 at-large bids for elite teams who maybe lost a tie-breaker or something.

All of this is possible by moving forward to go back to how it was.  Sort of.  Get the conferences so big, that the divisions become the old conferences.

This year:
Big Ten CG:  Indiana vs Oregon
SEC CG:  Georgia vs Texas A&M
BA20 CG:  Notre Dame vs Texas Tech

At-large:  Ohio St and Ole Miss

If the higher-ranked teams win the CGs:
Ole Miss @ Ohio State
Texas A&M @ Indiana
Oregon @ Notre Dame
Texas Tech @ Georgia

Something like that. If a team misses the playoff because they didn't win their division in which they played everyone else AND the AI super-computer committee of the roundtable didn't pick them, then tough shit.

Poke some holes in it.  Ask questions.  Where do I sign up to be the czar of college football?!?!

I strikes me often how good we had it with the OG Big 12, SEC, the PAC, and 11 member  Big 10. 

{stuff}

Infinitely better than what we have now.  

Show me where to sign, let's get 1000 sigs, and email it to Congress.

Make it so.

Now, fix NIL/xfer portal.  

Penn State, ND, and Miami could have been the cornerstones of a legit Big East.  I'd add FSU, but I don't think the ACC survives long-term without their addition.

ACC + FSU
Big East:  Penn St, ND, Miami, Syracuse, VA Tech, WV, Temple?, BC, Pitt....that's 9, just like the ACC w/ FSU.

But we know it all started with the SWC sort of falling off a cliff with first the blatant cheating, then the SMU death penalty, leading to a largely noncompetitive conference behind A&M.  The SEC expands, poaching Arkansas, the Big Ten expands, and so on.

But if the SWC got their shit together and a certain few made a legit Big East.....we'd have had parity and balance.

Even if we still progressed to a playoff, you'd have an intact PAC-8/10/12, giving us 7 conferences on equal footing (PAC, SWC, Big 8, Big 10, ACC, Big East, SEC) which probably have yielded an 8-team playoff with 7 conf champs and 1 at-large.

That might have been great.
But since we can't go backwards, my plan sort of gets us back to that as much as possible, under the format of larger conferences.