August 27, 2023 By: Mark Knudson

College Football “Premier League” would work, but need relegation, too

Even if you’re not a soccer fan, chances are you enjoyed watching the “Ted Lasso” TV series. You would have learned something, too. Something that could impact college football in the not-too-distant future.

Soccer is huge in England, as everyone knows. Too huge to be contained in one even “Super” League. Instead, the Brits have what they call a “Football Pyramid” of leagues, orchestrated by what’s called the English Football League System.

It allows even small market clubs to compete for the ultimate championship (even if few ever actually do. At least there’s a chance…) The best of the best play in the “Premier League,” which consists of the Top 20 English soccer clubs.

Being in the Premier League is obviously a coveted position – just ask Lasso and the folks that ran mythical “AFC Richmond.” But getting there doesn’t mean automatically staying there. Finish at the bottom of the league (as Ted’s team did that first season) and you’re given the boot – literally. They call it “relegation” and it means that the next season, you’ll be playing in one of the other leagues, a notch down the pyramid.

With American football played by teams representing colleges (for the moment) just growing in popularity on this side of the pond, it’d be a good idea for those in decision making capacities to take a good look at how the English operate their soccer system, because before too long, a new and more stable system is going to be needed…and it might be something very very similar.

The demise of the Pac 12 Conference has accelerated talk about a College Football Premier League, albeit one with far more than 20 members. Experts have already drawn up plans, some placing the top 48 or more schools at the top of the pyramid, with the remaining programs trying to get good enough to move up.

Of course, if someone is moving up, someone else is moving down. That’s going to be a problem.

To this point, the whole realignment thing in college football has been about schools being elevated – like Utah and TCU moving from the non-Power Five Mountain West up to the Pac 12 and Big 12 more than a decade ago. More recently, BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston were lifted from the non P5 level to the Big 12. Everyone’s getting a promotion!

Not everyone of course. There are still a lot of programs – we see you San Diego State – just itching for a P5 invite that’s yet to be extended. If rumors are true, Southern Methodist, whose only true qualification for promotion is that they play in the Dallas TV market, is about to join that list too by moving up to the Atlantic Coast Conference along with Stanford and Cal (who are located pretty neat the Pacific coast…but that doesn’t matter anymore.)

So far, no schools have been demoted. But that could change if Washington State and Oregon State are left out of P5 expansion and land back in the Mountain West (or the American Athletic Conference for some unthinkable reason.)

Yes, the Cougars and Beavers could be the first to be “relegated.” But will they be the last?

That’s doubtful, given that the entirety of the college football landscape is built on quicksand. And the next schools to be relegated probably won’t get the chance to “redeem” themselves, which is just wrong.

Why not just rip off the band aid and form that “Premier League” with four 16-team somewhat regional conferences, set up the phat money TV deals, and tell everyone else who’s not included in that 64-team field that they’ll have a chance to play their way in…while others play their way out?

It works for English soccer. Even the relegated clubs remain popular and profitable. And it is possible to move back up. Lasso’s club did, right?

Why are we at this point?

College Football administrators couldn’t leave well enough alone. They had to chase the big TV money, ruin regional leagues and rivalries along the way with little or no thought given to the aftermath. At least if they agree to step back and regroup, they could form something – an American Football Pyramid – that would give everyone a chance at promotion.

But will they? Highly doubtful.

Too many programs and administrators will do anything and everything to avoid even the slightest chance at the relegation part. That’s only going to happen to schools like WSU and OSU because they didn’t play in big enough markets, not because they didn’t earn it.