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60 teams are stuck in college football limbo and can never win a championship, but there is a radical path they could take to fix that
Phelan M. Ebenhack
The University of Central Florida is once again undefeated and once again has no shot to be in the College Football Playoff.
UCF is one of 60 schools stuck in college football limbo — also known as "The Group of Five" — with no shot to win a championship.
Increasing the strength of schedule for Group of Five teams is their only hope, but challenging the Power 5 schools to more head-to-head matchups is likely to be ignored.
The more enticing path might be to divorce the Power Five conferences, merge with some of the FCS schools, and build a new division with college football's version of March Madness.
In 2017, UCF went 11-0 in the regular season, won their conference championship, and were nowhere near the College Football Playoff as the committee placed them 12th in the final ranking to determine the final four teams.
A year later, UCF is undefeated again (9-0), on pace to win their conference, and are still nowhere near the playoff, No. 11 in the most recent ranking.
Such is life in the Group of Five (GoF) conferences, where 60 teams are stuck in college football limbo.
Julio Aguilar/Getty ImagesFor teams in the GoF conferences (Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Sun Belt Conference, and UCF's American Athletic Conference), the Knights' plight is strong evidence that the teams in those conferences have their playoff fate determined before the season starts. Even if a team wins every game on their schedule, they still have no shot to compete with the Power Five teams in the playoff.
The biggest problem is the playoff itself. With only four spots, five Power Five conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and Pac-12), and Notre Dame, it is already designed to exclude good teams. It is hard to justify the inclusion of a school from a lesser conference when we already know good teams from the Power Five conferences, including at least one conference champ, will be left out.
The simple answers won't work or would take too long
The most straightforward solution is to expand the playoff to eight teams with one spot reserved for the top GoF team if they meet specific criteria (e.g., must be ranked in the top 12). But with ESPN locked into a 4-team playoff contract through 2025, it appears we are still eight years away from any hope of that happening.
The other answer that might seem simple on the surface is to challenge the top Power Five schools to more head-to-head matchups in the regular season and increase schedule strengths. The knock against UCF is that their schedule makes it difficult to determine how good they are.
Unfortunately, that is likely to go largely ignored.
Sean Gardner/ReutersMost of the top Power Five schools have no interest in risking a blemish to their record against a team outside the top conferences, preferring, instead, non-conference matchups against fellow Power Five teams or cupcakes.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban took it a step further, saying he wished Power 5 schools only scheduled games against other Power 5 schools.
"If it was totally up to me, I’d say you’ve got to play all 12 games in the top 5 (conferences)," Saban said in 2014.
But there is another way.
Divorce the Power 5 schools
Matthew Holst/Getty Images
Challenging the big schools to more head-to-head contests might help 3-4 GoF schools, but it won't do much for the rest. To elevate all 60, they need to split from the Power Five conferences.
The big schools have floated the idea of the Power 5 conferences breaking off into a "fourth division" of college football as a way to provide more money to players. It would also give the GoF 60 a shot at winning championships again.
If the Group of Five were to leave the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), they could form a separate division of college football and compete for a new championship. But the more enticing scenario might be to merge with all or some of the 125 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools.
By merging with the FCS schools, there could be as many 186 schools competing for a title in a division that already has a 24-team playoff.
It wouldn't be as popular as the Power 5 playoff, but it would be college football's version of March Madness. Tie it with some of the popular bowls that are not included in the playoff and fans would get into it.
More importantly, the NCAA could stop pretending schools like UCF have a shot at the playoff, and the GoF 60 would have a shot at a legitimate championship.
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