Buddy Martin Blog: College Football Met One Challenge. Another Awaits Around The Corner. Just Do It!

College football showed its ability to change in 2020. Now it's time to change for the better. Photo Courtesy: CFP

If there’s one word we’ll remember from 2020, it’s “change.” Now, what’s the key word for college football 2021?

More of the same. Should it be different? And how? Plenty, in my opinion. And given the poor TV ratings of the national championship game, those changes need to be immediate and perhaps even substantial.

I’ve been working on ideas for those changes almost 30 years, playing to a small audience. Sometimes just one – maybe two when I had a dog. Rather than dusting off that old “Buddy Martin Manifesto on CFB,” however, I’m just going to assemble a short Post-2020 Wish List. Especially as it pertains to the SEC and Florida Gators.

Now that college football is becoming a global business and sport, the need for an even more centralized power has developed. What happens in Boise can matter in Baton Rouge, and vice-versa. Given the dire need for uniform policies, streamlining of the playoff system/committee and the implicit void of leadership that needs filling, more things should be governed collectively and internally.

So, let’s start right there with ditching of the NCAA in football and establishing a blue-ribbon board of directors to manage and oversee the game and report back to each conference and its school presidents.

I already hear your raised voices: “JUST WHAT WE NEED! Another level of bureaucrats!” I feel your pain, so I’m just going to leave this brief list right here and let it gestate. So many of them are tied in together.

1. For the 155th time, EXPAND THE PLAYOFFS NOW. It will solve two or three of the next problems listed here.

2. There needs to be a universal minimal number of games played in order to qualify for the playoffs and the rankings should be weighted heavily by that.

3. Major bowl games should be used for the post-season playoffs and the smaller bowls could become the NIT of football which amounts to extra practice for next season.

4. Find a way to invoke a loyalty clause in order to reduce the so-called “opt-outs.” (The French word for “quit.”) Expanded playoffs would reduce them by making post-season more playoffs an inducement.

5. Close the loop on transfer portal by capping the number of players each school can take and limiting the number of times a player can transfer.

6. At the same time, the players should be free to move if their coach is fired or changes schools.

7. Coaching buyouts have gotten out of hand, primarily because of agents, and need regulating.

8. Nick Saban’s Halfway House/Holding Tank for fired coaches is an unfair advantage. While it was a good idea at first and helpful to the coaching profession, it tilts the playing field in favor of big box brand schools like Ala-Damn-Bama.

I could go on, but let’s stop it there.

Most college fans turn a blind eye to some of this stuff, but the intelligentsia knows the truth. My colleague and I, Franz Beard, senior columnist for GatorBaitMedia.com, have accumulated a combined century of journalism and broadcasting experience, much of it spent on covering college sports. We like to think of ourselves as enlightened observers with a deep passion for the game. Both of us are concerned about the future of college football.

As Franz wrote this week in his eloquent column about the fate of the game: “If ESPN and the people who are in charge of the College Football Playoff can’t accommodate expansion rather quickly, we’re going to see the game go into a downward spiral that it may not recover from. If you don’t believe that’s possible, then look at what is going on with the NFL, once the bell cow for all sports programming. The NFL ratings have been nosediving for five years and the end is not in sight. College football desperately needs to take a long look at what makes basketball successful and adapt unless it wants to go in the tank.”

Hard for me to say it better. But having said all that, I don’t want to diminish in any way the mega-effort of the game’s caretakers. And would also like to add my thanks and congratulations to all those players, coaches, administrators and fans who helped preserve the sport by devoting their hearts, souls and sweat to finish the Covid-plagued, abbreviated season. Thank you.

But we can do better this fall.