Our plan to fix the insane college football calendar (unless the NFL provides a remedy)
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell extended a hand to college football earlier this week, offering the league’s services “to bring some clarity” to all the “disruption.”
The list of issues at the major college level includes a messy calendar, not during the three-month regular season but throughout the remaining nine.
The College Football Playoff is too long — next year, it will span 39 days — and overlaps with the NFL’s postseason. The transfer portal is open during the CFP. The placement of the early-signing period (for high school recruits) in December incentivizes schools to fire coaches during the season. And everything could become more cluttered and confusing if the CFP expands to 16 or 24 teams in two years.
If the NFL knows anything, it’s how to make money. But it’s also quite adept at conducting an offseason in which major events are staggered in a fashion that gives each the space needed for maximum media exposure and fan consumption.
Early February: Super Bowl
Late February/early March: scouting combine
Mid-March: free agency
Late March/early April: league meetings
Late April: the draft
Mid-May: schedule release
June is the only month without high drama and endless headlines. The rest of the offseason is a masterful blueprint that offers a model for college football.
The NFL’s not-so-secret sauce is a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the players that allows the league to control events without the threat of lawsuits. College football doesn’t have a CBA because the players don’t have a union, and they don’t have a union because they are not (legally) employees.
We’re skeptical the sport will accept Goodell’s offer. The Big Ten and SEC are focused on consolidating power, not giving others a seat at the table.
(That said, the NFL recently received regulatory approval to take a 10 percent ownership stake in ESPN in exchange for NFL Network and other assets. Technically, the NFL owns 10 percent of the CFP’s media deal for the next six years.)
Whether Goodell and his lieutenants become involved or not, college football must adjust its calendar. Fortunately, the Hotline has a plan. It’s rooted in the NFL model of spacing the tentpole events over the course of the offseason with the ultimate goal of shortening the CFP.
Next season, the CFP begins Dec. 18 and ends Jan. 25. There will be approximately two weeks between the opening round and quarterfinals, two more between the quarterfinals and semifinals, then 10 days between the semifinals and championship. It’s enough time for Phileas Fogg to make it halfway around the world.
And that’s not a one-off schedule, folks. The 2027-28 playoff will span 39 days, as well … unless it’s longer to accommodate expansion.
The NFL itself presents one of many challenges. While Goodell extends an olive branch with one hand, he conceals a knife in the other. His plan to add an 18th regular-season game — and push the Super Bowl to the Sunday of President’s Day weekend — would increase NFL game inventory in January and create more competition for the later rounds of the CFP.
The goal of our calendar overhaul is to reduce the January overlap and move the CFP championship up several weeks, all while accounting for the inevitability of expansion in 2027 and beyond (preferably to 16 teams, not 24).
Here we go:
February
The early-signing window in December simply adds to the clutter and encourages in-season coaching changes. It needs to go the way of the Dodo.
Force all high school seniors to wait until February to sign letters-of-intent whether it’s on the first Wednesday (the traditional date) of the month or another day.
The change would prevent recruits from graduating early and enrolling in January. That’s fine. They can be high school students for five more months.
March
College football should go pitch dark for the month while players and coaches sit back and enjoy the NCAA Tournament.
No spring practice — not in March, not in April, not ever again.
This dramatic step is being discussed by influential executives across the FBS, and they are spot on. Eliminate spring ball entirely. It doesn’t work with the transfer portal.
April
For years, college football schedules have been released in stages: opponents and dates in the winter; early-season kickoffs and Friday games in May. Why not do everything at once?
Sure, the campuses would grumble because they want to promote home games and sell tickets as soon as the previous season ends. But a multi-month delay would be worthwhile if it meant the early kickoff times could be set six or eight weeks sooner than is currently the case.
The sport should block out a week for schedule reveals after the Final Four but before the NFL Draft. Give each power conference its own day and leave one for the Group of Six.
May
College football executives spent months discussing when to position the single transfer portal.
The Big Ten pushed for April or May. Everyone else favored January because coaches understandably didn’t want to conduct spring practice with players who would enter the portal the day workouts concluded. The majority ruled, and the portal opened Jan. 2 this offseason.
Guess what? The Big Ten was right.
It makes zero sense for the sport to allow free agency during the CFP. Move it back to the spring.
Under our plan, there would be no spring practice, so staffs wouldn’t waste time coaching players who are about to enter the portal.
June
Time to take a page directly from the NFL’s playbook.
Instead of spring practice, allow each program to conduct one or two early-summer training sessions, similar to the OTAs (Organized Team Activities) in the NFL.
Depending on the academic calendar, schools would have the flexibility to hold workouts in late May, early June or late June.
July
Vacation for players and coaches.
At least until the last week of the month.
August
Our plan calls for training camp to span two weeks instead of the traditional three — the June OTAs would help ensure players are ready for contact workouts — followed by one week of standard game preparation before the season openers.
But when would camp start? And what about the regular season?
The sport should turn what is now Week 0, the Saturday before Labor Day weekend, into the new Week 1, with a full slate of games. And we have a twist: College football needs to make use of what would currently be considered Week -1.
In 2027, that would mean teams could play Aug. 22 if opponents, conferences and TV partners agreed.
Why? Because the middle of August is devoid of premier inventory. MLB is grinding through the dog days; the NFL is playing exhibitions; the NBA is shut down.
We suspect ESPN and Fox would be interested in dropping meaningful college football games onto the otherwise barren landscape. There isn’t much real estate left. The sport should take what it can get.
Sept. through Nov.
Play the regular season, per usual, but with the flexibility created by the opening of Week 0 to a full slate of games.
December
Eliminate conference championship games on the first weekend of the month, creating a needed break for every team.
Start the CFP the second weekend, play the quarterfinals the third weekend — that’s when the opening round currently takes place — and then break for Christmas.
The semifinals (Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl) would be played on New Year’s Day, with the championship game on the first Tuesday that’s at least one week after Jan. 1.
This would allow the CFP to conclude before the NFL playoffs begin. Sure, ESPN might cringe at the loss of playoff inventory on New Year’s Day, with two semifinals instead of three quarterfinals, but the best of the non-CFP games can slide in.
Heck, put the Pop-Tarts Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The primary complication with our plan is easy to spot: The Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach Bowls would recoil at the notion of moving to pre-Christmas dates in order to host the quarterfinals.
In our view, college football is well past the point that four bowl games should prevent a calendar shift that would unlock so many benefits for the sport writ large.
It’s time for the leadership to take a stand. Or step aside and let Goodell do it.
*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to wilnerhotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or call 408-920-5716
*** Follow me on the social media platform X: @WilnerHotline