Blue White Illustrated

111 E. Beaver Ave s State College, PA 16801 www.The-Phyrst.com 814.234.4406 137 Elmwood St. s State College, PA 16801 www.HappyValleyBeer.com Wood-fire Grill 12 Beers on Tap 200 Year Old Barn 821 Cricklewood Dr. s Toftrees, State College www.AmericanAleHouse.net 814.237.9701 s Piano Bar s Sommelier 814.238.1406 814.234.7700 s 1611 Atherton St. s State College 814.941.7788 s Plank Rd. Exit s Altoona www.ChampsSportsGrill.net s Best Game Bar s Large Groups Welcome c lc e W We s p u o r G e g r a L s a e B m a st G e B s S n S h 1 A 1 6 1 0 0 7 7 4. 3 2 4. 1 8 me co r a l l C S r G s rt o p S s p m a h C . www s t i x . E d k R n a l P s 8 8 7 7 1. 4 9 . 4 1 8 S s . t n S o t r e h t 1 A 1 6 1 s 0 0 7 7 4. 3 2 4. 1 8 t e n . l l i r na o o t l A e g e l l o C e at t S 111 E. Beaver Ave s State College, PA 16801 www.The-Phyrst.com 814.234.4406 137 Elmwood St. s State College, PA 16801 www.HappyValleyBeer.com Wood-fire Grill 12 Beers on Tap 200 Year Old Barn 821 Cricklewood Dr. s Toftrees, State College www.AmericanAleHouse.net 814.237.9701 s Piano Bar s Sommelier 814.238.1406 814.234.7700 s 1611 Atherton St. s State College 814.941.7788 s Plank Rd. Exit s Altoona www.ChampsSportsGrill.net s Best Game Bar s Large Groups Welcome c lc e W We s p u o r G e g r a L s a e B m a st G e B s S n S h 1 A 1 6 1 0 0 7 7 4. 3 2 4. 1 8 me co r a l l C S r G s rt o p S s p m a h C . www s t i x . E d k R n a l P s 8 8 7 7 1. 4 9 . 4 1 8 S s . t n S o t r e h t 1 A 1 6 1 s 0 0 7 7 4. 3 2 4. 1 8 t e n . l l i r na o o t l A e g e l l o C e at t S think gives them the best chance to be undefeated. In my mind, that's what you need to do. You need to do everything in your power to give yourself the best chance to be undefeated at the end of the season, very similar to Notre Dame, which schedules all their games." Conferences that play eight-game schedules have had their champion rep- resented in every CFP since its incep- tion, while conferences playing nine-game schedules have seen their champions absent multiple times. So scheduling is clearly a critical variable. But if changes are needed, what would those changes look like? To hear Franklin tell it, the fundamental issue has to do with conformity – and that's an issue that the Big Ten can't fix by itself. "It probably needs to start with the playoff committee making some recom- mendations on what… would give them the best opportunity to evaluate every- body and be able to compare oranges to oranges or apples to apples," Franklin said. "So what I mean by that is, every- body is playing a conference champi- onship or everybody is not. Everybody is playing the same number of conference games. You can't have one team that's not in a conference and everybody else is in a conference. It's all got to be the same. "Everybody has got to be in a confer- ence. Everybody has got to play a con- ference championship. Everybody has got to play the same number of confer- ence games. Everybody has got to play I- AA opponents or no one plays I-AA opponents. I think it starts there. Every- body has divisions or everybody plays round robin." Franklin said that recommendations should be made to conference commis- sioners and passed on to the athletic di- rectors from their various member schools, providing a framework that would allow for a playoff to be con- ducted under uniform conditions. "If we're going to have a playoff, the only way you can do it is to make sure everybody is playing with the same cri- teria," he said. "And then obviously from there, the commissioners and athletic directors make decisions. But to me, that's where the dialogue needs to start." Over the course of the teleconference, Franklin returned to a point he had touched on previously, rejecting the ar- gument by some that division realign- ment is unnecessary due to the natural peaks and valleys that college programs endure as they replace graduating play- ers. Since the Big Ten split into East and West divisions in 2014, the East cham- pion has won the league title every year. In general, Franklin noted, "the strong programs have been the strong programs from the beginning of time." Taking all that into consideration, Franklin returned to the larger questions that the conference's leadership must confront. "We've got to say, 'Are we putting our programs in the Big Ten in the best posi- tion to compete for national champi- onships? Is our model the best model for putting our teams in the best position to play for national championships?' " he said. "One conference is playing less conference games than we are and has been playing I-AA opponents for a long time, [and] there's been discussion the last couple of years of them possibly getting two teams in the playoff and us [being] left out. I think it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to not at least have the discussion [about making changes]. Not get defensive, not any of those things. Just say, 'Hey, this is at least worth a discussion.' " That conversation is not happening now, at least not in the media. Most of the talk after this year's playoff field was announced had to do with the decision to select Oklahoma over Ohio State and Georgia. It was a replay of previous se- lection debates, and it missed the larger point that Franklin is making. Without a fundamental re-examination of how schedules are created, without anyone pushing for uniformity in how the con- ferences conduct themselves, without a rule in place that would require CFP participants to belong to a conference, the selection process will never really be equitable. Whether there's enough willpower to fix its inadequacies is unclear, but for the sake of the game and its future, this is a discussion worth having. ■

• Cover