Should College Football Teams Have Uniform Schedules?

Last year, as football teams in the top conferences were playing their conference championship games, the University of Oklahoma and the other members of the Big 12 Conference were going about their business like it was any Saturday. No team in the Big 12 played a game that day because the conference doesn’t have a championship game. Despite not playing a championship game, Oklahoma was selected to play in the national championship playoffs, which rankled a few teams that felt they derived it more because they were ranked higher in the college football rankings.

In 2014, TCU and Baylor were left out of the playoffs because their conference didn’t have a championship game, which is why a lot of people are calling on the NCAA to make college football teams have uniform schedules that would help eliminate some of the confusion that occurs at the end of seasons.

When Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops was asked if he thought his team would be left out of the playoffs like TCU and Baylor where the previous year, Stoops said he wasn’t worried about it because he felt strongly that they would have been invited to the playoffs based on their performance during the regular season.

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said he doesn’t believe that college football teams should have uniform schedules because he believes that the conferences aren’t equal.

Beilema, who spent six years as Wisconsin’s head coach, compared his time in the Big 10 to his time in the SEC. Bielema said despite winning three Big 10 championships, he believes the Big 10 and SEC are in two completely different ball parks.

The College Football Playoff Committee officials insisted that they don’t compare conferences when making their selections, they compare teams instead. Despite their insistence, it doesn’t make sense that they don’t compare conferences because it would make it impossible for them to determine the strength of a team’s schedule without acknowledging the depth or the lack of it of the conference a team contending for the playoffs plays in.

The debate about uniform schedules doesn’t seem to have any traction because the FBS commissioners are not contemplating any scheduling mandate right now, even though one of the committee members noted that it would make their jobs a lot easier if they did.

The committee member in question is Barry Alvarez, the former head coach of Wisconsin and the schools current Athletic Director. However, Alvarez also said he doesn’t know how it can be done.

Alvarez feels uniform scheduling will be hard to achieve because as things currently stand, teams in the same conferences don’t even play all the other teams in their conference. He used the ACC and SEC as examples. In the ACC, teams like Virginia Tech and Duke don’t have to face teams like Clemson and Florida State unless they play in the ACC Championship games. In the SEC, A lot of teams in the SEC East don’t get to play teams like Alabama and LSU unless they make the championship game.

Despite the logistical problems, some coaches have come out in favor of uniform schedules.

Baylor head coach Art Briles not only supports uniform change, he would also like the scheduling of FCS schools to be banned and would like to see teams schedule nine or ten games against Power 5 teams.

In the SEC, Commissioner Greg Sankey called each conference its own entity and also made it clear that he would not support any scheduling mandate. Sankey’s response wasn’t surprising considering the fact that the SEC schedules the most FCS schools every year.

When asked about the chances of the NCAA adopting a scheduling mandate, Bob Stoops flatly said it’s not going to happen.