Could the Relegation System Work in the College Athletics?

[Alsacs]

I was debating this with a friend from England. He says that the relegation system is one the best things in all of sports and prevents complacency. That if your team is not good enough it forces change and accountability within your sport team. He and I went back and forth on relegation within the NCAA. If the American Sports fan wanted to see how it worked college sports would be the perfect experiment for it.With Coach K bringing up the possibility of colleges pulling out of the NCAA it would be an interesting scenario where the BCS conference teams jumped and created a sort of Premiere League Table with the teams. If you took the top 64 BCS teams and put them in 8 tables crowned each one a champ and relegated the bottom team in the table below and the champion of the table to the table above it would be interesting.
Here is how it may look
based on the 2010 season
Table 1
1. Auburn
2. Oregon
3. Stanford
4. Ohio State
5. Oklahoma
6. Wisconsin
7. LSU
8. Alabama
Table 2
1. Arkansas
2. Oklahoma St
3. Michigan St
4. Mississippi St
5. Virginia Tech
6. Florida St
7. Missouri
8. Texas A&M
and so on whereby the bottom team moves down in this example Alabama and Arkansas from the second group moves up.
Anybody think this type of system could work. I argued that college sports depend on tradition and rivalries too much for this type of system to work, but it if was 8 team tables and traditional rivalries could be preserved in the non-conference portion then it would have some merit. It was an interesting discussion.

edit: Also, it would command a lot more money than what conferences generate now, and probably would destroy amateurism completely and wouldn't be feasible but its good cannon fodder. Also, for basketball there would be a 64 team tournament, and you could play teams in the non-conference easily.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

I would prefer that this idea be relegated to the back burner if not to the disposal.

Yeah, I'm over 25 and I am only an occasional viewer of the Premiere League so I'll stick with tradition and rivalries and real all-sports conferences that bear some resemblance to geographic cohesion.

I'm not saying you didn't have an interesting discussion. I just hope the school presidents, ADs and media don't have it.

 

[qdawgg]

The point of the relegation system is to ensure the best teams are not relegated. Your list of teams demonstrates one of the core issues with implementing the relegation system in the U.S. --- Your list is missing TCU and Boise St.

The reason this works in England is because everyone is accepting of the fact that if your not good enough you are relegated. In the US decisions would only be partially based on how good you are - that is why we have the whole "bowl" debate and Championship game debate every year. This system would only benefit the "richer" schools who are able to get the most media attention. Every year we see examples of teams that are ranked in the top 25 yet everyone knows they probably don't belong there.

 

[Moontan]

No.

I don't believe this would be healthy for college athletics. Especially, not for the student athletes.

Imagine: "I'm sorry, swimmer X. We're going to have to pull your scholarship because the football team had a bad year. We'll be losing $10M in revenue next year and simply can't afford to fund the swimming team's scholarships. Yes, I know that the softball team sucks. Unfortunately, Title IX prevents us from pulling their scholarships. Good luck!"

 

[bnoro]

While I love EPL relegation, fact of the matter is most teams getting relegated have to sell their best players because they lose a ton of money dropping down a division, especially from the Premier League to the Championship. Colleges would lose their main stream of revenue, television contracts.

This would be especially bad for us. Who would go see a second division Syracuse team if we got relegated? We'd have 1,000 fans in the stands. It would be a mess for college athletics. Maybe if you paired up conferences, lets say the BE and the MAC.

If Louisville finished last this year, and Toledo finished 1st, Toledo would become a BE school and Louisville would go to the MAC. Only relegating one team a year seems like it could work, and when Louisville destroyed the MAC and went 12-0 the next year, they could move back up. The issue is that non-conference would be obsolete because no one would want to play good schools. You would only play conference teams, and this would destroy college FB.

 

[Upstate]

While I love EPL relegation, fact of the matter is most teams getting relegated have to sell their best players because they lose a ton of money dropping down a division, especially from the Premier League to the Championship. Colleges would lose their main stream of revenue, television contracts.

This would be especially bad for us. Who would go see a second division Syracuse team if we got relegated? We'd have 1,000 fans in the stands. It would be a mess for college athletics. Maybe if you paired up conferences, lets say the BE and the MAC.

If Louisville finished last this year, and Toledo finished 1st, Toledo would become a BE school and Louisville would go to the MAC. Only relegating one team a year seems like it could work, and when Louisville destroyed the MAC and went 12-0 the next year, they could move back up. The issue is that non-conference would be obsolete because no one would want to play good schools. You would only play conference teams, and this would destroy college FB.

Agree with this, though, It would be kind of cool to see a US sport do relegations. Something with a "minor league", but it seems like it needs to be a really established league.

 

[NailstheCusefan12]

Agree with this, though, It would be kind of cool to see a US sport do relegations. Something with a "minor league", but it seems like it needs to be a really established league.

And a league that has multiple divisions. The only such system is the Minor League Baseball system with AAA, AA, and A. The problem would then be that no Major League team could have affiliated squads as each would be independently owned and operated. It would call for a revamping of the entire drafting and bidding process to adapt to what is currently in place in English football. Is it logical? Not at all. But I agree it's fun to think about. Relegation/promotion season is always fun to watch in the EPL and Championship, as one of my best friend's from home is a Middlesbrough supporter (currently near the top of the table of the Championship).

 

[BlazeOrange]

Agree with this, though, It would be kind of cool to see a US sport do relegations. Something with a "minor league", but it seems like it needs to be a really established league.

I recall discussing a relegation system for major league baseball a while back. The first step of initially separating the teams into Major and Premiere Leagues is the difficult part, so I'll skip that. Once that's done, assume that they'll be 16-18 teams in the Premiere League and 12-14 teams in the Major League. All teams keep their existing Minor League systems as long as they can afford them.

Major League plays their regular season until mid August, then their 4 top teams (probably two division winners and two wild cards) have a playoff lasting into the start of September. Premiere League plays their regular season until the end of August, then have a playoff and World Series lasting to the end of September. Can do that however they want with 4, 6, or 8 teams.

Also, the bottom two Premiere Teams have a relegation series, which is taking place at the same time as the Championship round of the Major League (and the first round of the "real" playoffs). The losing Premiere League team then plays a series against the Major League champion, with the winner getting a spot in the Premiere League the following season and the loser playing in the Majors.
Season is done by the end of September, eliminating the cold weather griping we've seen lately. You have more playoff teams, but don't dilute the rounds leading to the World Series (which still gets a solo audience). And you add an intense series as teams are fighting for a spot in the Premiere League. Small market teams that don't have much of a chance now could become competitors in a slightly lower league and increase fan interest.

 

[riskylogic]

I think relegation would make sense for football, but most other college sports programs can change rather dramatically in the space of a year as players graduate and new ones come in. That said, it would make a LOT of sense for football. Sure, you could have a 64 team premier division, but would the rest of the 1A teams do? Simple - have another 64 team first division, with it's own playoff. Swp a few teams every year. You could even have separate premier and first division within the same conference. For example, a 16-team ACC might have both an eight team premier division and an eight team first division. Football revenue could be distributed a bit unevenly (say 60-40) or not. Coaches salaries could then be tied to which division they are playing in.