No, this isn’t a call to abolish divisions in college football — I did that last year.
The reform I’ll push for in this piece — something I regularly advocate as a college football writer (one of these centuries, I might get lucky) — is for the use and adoption of the flex game in the sport.
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Let’s make this distinction at the outset, just so no one gets the wrong idea: In the NFL, a “flex game” is more for television purposes. The matchup is set on the schedule, and nothing will change the fact that Game X will indeed be played on Sunday, December 6. The network assignment and/or the timeslotting change.
In college football, the idea of a flex game is different. Sure, it has a TV-friendly component; ESPN would love to show bigger and better games in November, leading up to the football version of Selection Sunday in early December. However, in college football — for purposes of making this idea clear and recognizable — the flex game is not about switching networks or time slots. The actual composition of the matchup is what’s at issue.
In 2015, there is no better poster child (at this point) for the need to have one flex game on the schedule than the Iowa Hawkeyes.
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Kirk Ferentz — a punching bag for me and plenty of other columnists over the years — has served me and other scribes a refutation sandwich topped with “own it!” dressing, accompanied by a side of crow fries, and served with a fat slice of humble pie for dessert. What Ferentz has done at Iowa this season rates as one of the better coaching jobs in the country. Once every several years, Ferentz finds the magic formula in Iowa City, and it seems he’s done it again.
Let it be said simply and clearly: Ferentz and Iowa deserve every word of publicity and praise they’re getting this week.
What follows, then, is in no way a criticism of Iowa or Ferentz. It should simply be seen as a reaction to the contours of the 2015 season, and how college football can better address them in future years.
Point-blank, Iowa is a representative example of why — if college football doesn’t abolish divisions — the sport must at least allow for the creation of a flex game in its conference schedules.
The concept is not an elaborate one. It requires some logistical juggling, in which the allocations of tickets to VISITING fans (not home fans) will become an issue. To that extent, the problem seems rather minimal in a larger context.
What a flex game entails in college football is for a team in a split-division conference to play a tough team in the opposite division.
Given that the Big Ten has 14 teams, and given that the league has an eight-game conference schedule instead of nine, it is very easy for one team to avoid playing all of the tougher teams in the opposite division. Such is the case with Iowa, which does not have to play Michigan, Michigan State, or Ohio State within the confines of its 12-game schedule. The Hawkeyes will have to play one of those three teams in Indianapolis in the Big Ten Championship Game (barring a collapse), but they won’t play any team within the regularly-scheduled 12-game run of the season, and the eight-game slate set aside by the Big Ten.
You might think this is pointless, given that the Hawkeyes will have to play a big boy from the Big Ten East in December. Consider, though, the simple fact that Iowa being 12-1 gives the Hawkeyes a lot more leverage in the chase for a New Year’s Six bowl bid. Iowa, if 11-2, would not have nearly as much leverage. If we’re going to make teams earn these precious NY6 slots, shouldn’t they have to play a few more difficult games?
The flex game principle is simply this: Play your six divisional games in the Big Ten West. Play a seventh game against a traditional rivalry opponent, the one team you’d like to face out of your division each year. For the eighth game, however, a slot should be left open in the middle of November. At this time each year (this is the midpoint of the season; after week six would also suffice), the conferences should match teams in the top, middle and bottom tiers of their leagues in competitive games. Teams with the best records should get choice of venue (i.e., so that they can play at home), but they must be forced to play cross-division opponents in their tier of the conference.
Iowa’s two Big Ten East opponents this season: Indiana and Maryland.
Allow Iowa to play one. Force Iowa to play another team far above the other’s pay grade.
That’s flex scheduling, and one doesn’t need an elaborate explanation to see why — and how — this one reform of only one conference game per season could greatly improve the product of college football, chiefly by making sure that if you get a New Year’s Six bowl berth, by golly, you will have earned it.