The Times, They Are A-Changin'

I don't know Mike Walsh, but I like the way he thinks. And I think the way he thinks is gonna change the way a lot of thinks are thunk.

Walsh is the Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications and Business Development at Boise State University. Among other things, his duties include oversight of revenue innovation. According to a recent report by Front Office Sports (FOS), Walsh is taking that part of his job seriously. 

Like most schools that play FBS football in leagues that aren't part of the Power Five (soon to be four) conferences, Boise State is on the outside looking in when it comes to exposure and revenue, fighting for the table scraps that come with being one of the Group of Five leagues in a world that looks more and more like it's heading to a single mega-conference that boxes out the majority of the nation's top-flight collegiate programs.

Enter Mike Walsh, who's apparently been watching soccer (and staying up late).

Rather than trying to jump to a new conference and keep up with the Joneses, Walsh proposes something radical for American sports: promotion and relegation for college football. As reported by FOS, Walsh developed a presentation that calls for the study of the creation of a new 24-school football-only entity based in the Western half of the U.S. that would be split into three tiers. The champions of Tier 2 and Tier 3 would move up a tier for the following season, while the last-place teams in Tier 1 and Tier 2 would move down.

In other words, can't join 'em, beat 'em. In this case, that's not a recipe for on-field wins, but for a system that would create a different kind of season-long excitement, and enable schools to manage travel-related expenses for non-football sports (it would work even better in the East, where travel distances are considerable shorter). 

For the sake of argument, assuming Washington State and Oregon State don't find Power Five homes (which is a reasonable assumption), Year One of New Conference might look like this:

Tier One

• Washington State
• Oregon State
• Boise State
• U.S. Air Force Academy
• Colorado State
• Fresno State
• UTEP
• San Diego State

Tier Two

• New Mexico
• New Mexico State
• Wyoming
• Utah State
• San Jose State
• UNLV
• Tulsa
• Rice

Tier Three:

• UT San Antonio
• Nevada
• North Texas
• Idaho*
• Stephen F. Austin*
• Montana*
• Montana State*
• Eastern Washington*

* Current FCS program

It is rare and refreshing to see someone from inside the current intercollegiate athletic structure propose something so unique. It's also a sign that at least some minds in the game understand that the current system is untenable. 

We're on record here in favor of decoupling football from the rest of the athletic programs for major college football. In that linked piece we called for an 80-team top tier. But Walsh has us thinking bigger. Or, actually, better.

If pro/rel would be exciting for a new league in the West, it'd be boffo on a national level. Feast your brain on this: Two tiers of power conference football, with 40 teams in each organized into four 10-team conferences. Each team would play every other team in its conference and three non-conference games for a total of 12 regular season contests.

The top two teams from each conference in the Premier League equivalent would meet in an eight-team tournament each year to determine who wins the national title. The bottom two teams in each conference would be paired into an eight-team bracket to see which four teams get relegated to the second division. At the same time, the top two teams in each of the Second Division conferences would play off to see which four get promoted. 

Broadcasters would have significantly more inventory at year end, and every in-season game would matter - top teams would be fighting to get into the tournament, middling teams would be fighting to stay out of the relegation playoff. Imagine, if you will, fans of, say, JMU doing this at the end of a long fight for promotion:

Get a load of this setup, and salivate at the potential:

	Tier One
	East	Central	Midwest	West
1	Florida State	Iowa	Oklahoma	USC
2	Clemson	Ohio State	Kansas State	UCLA
3	UNC	LSU	Oklahoma State	Oregon
4	Miami	Alabama	TCU	Utah
5	Georgia	Texas A&M	Michigan	Washington
6	Florida	Texas	Michigan State	Stanford
7	Tennessee	Auburn	Wisconsin	Cal
8	Penn State	Mississippi	Notre Dame	Boise State
9	South Carolina	Kentucky	Nebraska	BYU
10	West Virginia	Louisville	Northwestern	Texas Tech
	Tier Two
	East	Central	Midwest	West
1	Duke	Tulane	Kansas	Air Force
2	NC State	Pittsburgh	Iowa State	Fresno State
3	Wake Forest	Virginia Tech	Cincinnati	Colorado
4	Georgia Tech	Syracuse	Purdue	Washington State
5	UCONN	JMU	Indiana	Oregon State
6	Boston College	SMU	Memphis	Arizona
7	UCF	Arkansas	Minnesota	San Diego State
8	Maryland	Mississippi State	Tulsa	Arizona State
9	Rutgers	Vanderbilt	Illinois	Houston
10	Navy	Army	Missouri	Baylor

It would be something, indeed, if after all the true believer gnashing of teeth amongst the American soccer cognoscenti the advent of promotion and relegation in U.S. sports was born in college football. I'm giddy over the prospect.

I probably need to get a(nother) hobby.