Mejia E, Lourim J. 2022. How Realignment Is Changing College Football, In 20 Maps. Five Thirty Eight. Retrieved from: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-realignment-is-changing-college-football-in-20-maps/
One of the things I am passionate about is sports. Being a student at James Madison University makes the JMU Dukes one of my teams that I route for. I have always paid attention to sports including the changing landscape of college sports. It all began when Texas and Oklahoma made their decisions to join the Southeastern Conference (SEC). JMU was one of the several schools that changed their conference. However, their transition was not as smooth as others. JMU’s former athletic conference banned them from conference playoffs in their final season with the conference. I was upset because it was one less year of having an opportunity to see my team play in a national championship. I researched to understand why JMU was being banned. Considering that college sports is still not finished changing, a relegation style league is needed in college sports because it would provide fairer opportunities for college athletes and more consistent competition in all college athletic conferences.
What is a relegation league and where is it being used?
English Football League Pyramid System. Grosvenor Casinos. Retrieved from: https://blog.grosvenorcasinos.com/english-football-league-pyramid-guide
A relegation sports league is one in which teams are relegated to lower divisions for poor performance and promoted to higher divisions for excellent performance. The existing leagues of this kind are the European soccer leagues. For example, the English Premier League is made of seven levels of leagues, in which the top 5, in order of best to worst, are the Premier League, the Champions League, League 1, League 2, and the National league. At each level, the two or three worst teams are relegated down to the next league, while the top 2 from each level are promoted up to the next league. For college football in the U.S, the discussion over how to determine who are the best teams that should play for the national championships has been going on for decades. Given that landscape of college is going through some significant changes, now is the best time to consider how college football and the rest of college athletics can benefit from a relegation style league.
What are the main problems a relegation league can solve in college sports?
In college sports, teams are organized into different conferences which are independent of each other. This means each conference has its own bylaws, which can vary from each other. One of the major problems in college sports are bylaws that temporarily ban colleges from playoff contention when they either leave or join a conference. For example, James Madison University’s athletic program was banned from the CAA’s playoffs and championship, once they announced they would be leaving to join the Sun Belt Conference. The group that is impacted the most by this problem are the student athletes. Since the window of opportunity for college athletes is small and they have no decision over these changes, the impact of losing the opportunities for meaningful games and accolades weighs more heavily on them. If college athletic conferences were structured as a relegation league, then the movement of colleges from higher and lower ranked conferences would be more fluid. This would protect college athletes from losing opportunities to play in meaningful games because promoted teams would not lose their eligibility to compete in playoffs in their new conferences.
Eck, T.J. 2021. Update: JMU accepts invite to join the Sun Belt Conference. WHSV. Retrieved from: https://www.whsv.com/2021/11/05/update-jmu-accepts-invite-join-sun-belt-conference/
Another problem that is caused by these bylaws is mismatched competition. Because these bylaws make it difficult for colleges to move up in conferences and there is no rules on relegating the poor performing teams, many college athletic conferences have uneven matchups. This impacts the entertainment value for fans. For example, JMU’s football team would blow out most of their opponents in the CAA. Being a student at JMU, I observed that most students would leave by half time because the dukes would be up 3 or more touch downs. On the other hand, there are teams who sit in big conferences that will unlikely being kicked out, like the University of Kansas whose football team has gone 3-42 from 2015 to 2019. In a relegation league, even the games with the lowest ranked teams are exciting because teams in those games have the threat of relegation.
Why the chances for a relegation league in college sports is unlikely?
As much as it makes sense to have a relegation league for college sports, there are many reasons why it will be hard to get all parties involved on board. Among the many issues three standout to me as being the most important. The first issue is how will colleges transition between different conferences when each college has several different sports, which are not treated equally. For example, the University of Kansas is in the SEC, which is inferior in football, but the school is superior in basketball. If all of college sports were a relegation league, then Kentucky’s basketball team would be promoted to the superior basketball conference but would be relegated to an inferior football conference. The second issue is determining how to format a relegation league for college sports. There have been different ideas for a college relegation league. For example, an aggregate relegation league would mean teams are promoted or relegated every four years based on their record in that time. Lastly, schools will have issue over leaving their current conferences and which conference they would start in if a relegation league would happen. Schools will have concerns over many things including the bylaws of the new league, revenue sharing, TV deals, etc.
Dean, Jeff. 2022. As Kansas celebrates victory, a years-long NCAA investigation hands over the school. NPR. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/06/1091334394/university-kansas-ncaa-violations
A relegation league for college sports would be a great thing to have for both college athletes and the fans. It would give athletes better opportunities to play meaningful games and fans more interesting games to watch. At the very least, more needs to be done for college athletes by getting rid of athletic conference bylaws that threaten their chances at playing for prestigious titles. Let’s all hope that college sports committees come to their senses to make college sports better.
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