More news today is about schools changing conferences, and the landscape of college sports than the sport itself. This is a huge mess, and doesn't look to be getting fixed anytime soon. But I have my answer.
What I would love to see, would be for the NCAA to take a page out of European Soccer and implement promotion and regulation.
For those of you who are new to the term, Regulation in European Soccer is when the teams who finish at the bottom of the league are kicked out. Also, those in smaller leagues who win the championship, get a chance at the top level. In the English Premier League, Norwich City F.C. is a great example of a regulated team. Last spring, they finished 2nd in the English Champions League, which is the 2nd highest league of soccer in England (AHL, AAA Baseball). With this finish, they were promoted to the EPL league (highest league, NHL, MLB) of Soccer in England, in which they are competing in right now. In 2005, Norwich City finished in the EPL as one of the 3 worst teams, and they were regulated from the EPL to the Champions league, where they competed for 6 years until regaining a good enough of a season to get promoted to the EPL. As long as they finish outside of the last 3 this year in the EPL, they stay in the league next year as long as they don't finish at the bottom.
The beauty of this is that every game is important, even if it's 2 teams below .500. If you lose, you may lose your status as a team in the top league.
It's hard to envision in American profesional sports since every minor league team is owned by a professional team, but envision it as such. The Hershey Bears win the AHL Calder Cup and are the best team in the AHL. Their reward for this championship, is that they would become an NHL team...this is where the promotion comes from. The worst team in the NHL (Edmonton Oilers) would be placed in the AHL as punishment for finishing dead last.
This works in soccer, since every team owns their players, at all levels. This is why teams like Barcelona sign 12 year old kids to play in their development leagues....so other teams don't have a chance at owning his talent. They have "developement" leagues instead of "minor leagues," and the Champions league isn't just players playing for a spot on a professional roster....it's a TEAM playing for a CHANCE to be at the highest level.
Here's how I would love to see College Sports. And please, hear me out before you jump to conclusion.
The current D1 teams would be divided into say 6-8 "super" and 6-8 "d1" conferences, based on location. North East, Mid Atlantic, SouthEast, NorthCentral, Heartland, MidSouth, NorthWest, SouthWest, etc... And you would have in the north east the "super-confrence" for football be your Penn State, Maryland, Boston College, Pitt, Temple, etc. Then your "d1" conference would be teams like Villanova, Towson, Rugters, etc.
So your looking at a "Super-Conference" and "D1 (slightly inferior)" conference. From here, we would implement regulation. The team who finishes dead last in the "super-conference" would be regulated to the "d1" conference, and the team who wins the "d1" conference would be promoted to the "Super-Conference." The regulated school would then next year compete and try to win the inferior conference to get back into the super-conference, or the program would fall apart and a smaller school could grow.
Lets face it, current athletics amongst school lines are set in stone. If you are a D-1a superpower like Villanova or Appalachian State...it will take decades alone to get back into a reputable conference and have a shot at being a top-tier program. If you are a D2 school, despite how good you are, recognition is next to nothing.
Again, this is a sketch, not a blueprint. I just see this type of program turning out awesome. It could be expanded, and allow smaller D2 schools with outstanding programs (Shippensburg's Field Hockey) have a shot at competing. This also opens up the currently unavailable option of having top tier athletes play at smaller schools and get recognized to play at the next level. If you get regulated up to the D1 status, you would attract more and more recruits (especially local), and could build and form a great program that way.
This is just an idea i've thought about, and thought how cool it would be. I love how it works in soccer and how the credibility of losing is non-existant in a lot of american sports. The worst D1 schools are always given a higher status than a good D2 school. This would give those D2 and D1-A FCS schools a voice.
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