Crimson Corner: College Football Needs a Single, Unified Voice
Well, here we are.
This past weekend was one of the darkest weekends that I can remember in college athletics, rivaling that of earlier this season when college basketball and the rest of the spring sports suddenly and abruptly saw their seasons end.
While there wasn’t much to report on this past weekend, rumors concerning the conferences canceling their 2020 seasons began to circulate. Rumors had the members of the PAC-12 and Big Ten meeting to discuss the possible postponement of the 2020 season following the Mid-American Conference canceling its own season earlier in the week.
As it turns out, those reports turned out to be true.
On Monday morning, Dan Patrick of The Dan Patrick Show revealed that he had received word that both the PAC-12 and the Big Ten had elected to cancel the upcoming college football season. While the report remains unconfirmed by either conference, there are now multiple media outlets reporting the same news, and both conferences are now expected to make their formal announcements on Tuesday.
As of right now, neither the SEC, ACC or Big 12 have made their own decisions. At least, not to the knowledge of the media or the general public.
Along with the “We Want to Play” movement gaining steam among college football players, coaches and now athletic directors, reports have also begun to surface that the SEC is courting teams from the ACC and Big 12 to join them for the 2020 season. This would ultimately mean chaos as the teams’ schedules would once again need reshuffling just one week after schedules were seemingly finalized by the conferences.
Don't believe that the college football world is fractured? Check out this clip of Paul Finebaum on ESPN's Get Up!:
All of this to me means one thing: college football needs a commissioner.
A commissioner would provide one voice for the entirety of college football. As we’ve seen over recent months and particularly in recent weeks, the fractured conferences being forced to make independent decisions has proven that there needs to be widespread reform among the sport. The whole situation has turned into one big mess, but a commissioner could help alleviate many of the problems that the system currently faces.
First and foremost, it would provide a singular, unified voice for the sport. A figurehead that those could celebrate as well as have disagreements with. While a commissioner could potentially make wrong decisions, he/she would ultimately act in the best interests of the players and schools and could help unify the fractured landscape that is currently college football.
Even Alabama’s Nick Saban has stated in the past that it would be good to have a singular, neutral entity that could look at the game from all angles and not simply what is best for the individual conferences.
According to Mark Dantonion in an article from ESPN, Saban reportedly told the former Michigan State coach that “Everybody tends to see life through a straw.”
This is what is happening in the college football world today. You have the five main FBS conferences in the Power Five making decisions that are ultimately best for them, which is fine. However, their decisions have ramifications for the other four conferences, wreaking chaos abundantly and consistently sending the other conferences into a scramble to adjust.
To put it simply, it just isn’t right.
College football needs reform. 2020 has made that abundantly clear. To start the path to recovery, a commissioner must be appointed. One who has the best interests of the sport at heart, and one who can make wide-sweeping, unified decisions for the betterment of college football as a whole.
