The End Of Conference Title Games? New NCAA Proposal Shifts College Football Calendar – OutKick

The NCAA moves toward a 14-week calendar to protect player health and safety.
The expanded College Football Playoff has created the need for several massive changes in the structure and timing of the college football season. 
Several prominent voices and coaches have come out in favor of eliminating institutions like the SEC Championship Game. Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart recently spoke about the game becoming less meaningful and important if the playoff field grows to 16 teams or more. 
RELATED: Kirby Smart Says CFB Playoff Expansion Will End SEC Championship Game: 'Has To Go'
So did Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, who made recent comments about conference championship games having run their course in the modern era. 
Well, the NCAA's Football Oversight Committee this week has recommended more big changes to the sport's scheduling that will create significant changes to how the season plays out. And they have a supporter in Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea.
Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The committee's proposal would have the regular season start on Thursday of "Week Zero." Instead of just a few teams starting their year that week, it would effectively become Week 1. The season would then end the Saturday after Thanksgiving, giving programs 14 weeks to schedule 12 games. 
That adds the opportunity for another bye week, following the NFL model. And importantly, would provide for "flexibility for potential changes to the postseason."
Those potential changes continue to be debated among the major conferences, but are almost certain to result in further expansion. And potentially the end of conference championship games, along with a compressed window between the end of the regular season and start of the playoff. 
Moving the schedule up, instead of back, continues to allow for that opportunity, while adding an extra bye week. With some superconferences stretching from coast to coast, the opportunity for more rest will be much appreciated by coaches. ESPN spoke to Lea, who sits on the committee, and he said he views it as a "health and safety" issue.
"To go through a season without two bye weeks is challenging to a roster," he said to ESPN, "and in a time where we've imposed roster limits, and in our league where we're playing nine league games now, on the off years where we weren't able to get that second bye, we believe there's a negative impact mentally, physically, emotionally, to the players, coaches, everyone involved. So from our vantage point, it was something we've supported and feel strongly about."
This proposed change makes sense, overall, but it is funny that part of Lea's justification is the SEC moving to nine conference games, when other conferences have played nine for years, if not decades. Amazing how quickly things can change when the SEC wants it to happen. 
Regardless, this all seems to be moving in the same direction. A slightly longer regular season that preserves the end of November window for the regular season to finish up, followed by either the elimination of conference championship games, or a shorter break between the end of the season and the playoff. These changes are yet another step towards what, at this point, feels inevitable.
Ian Miller is the author of two books, a USC alumnus and avid Los Angeles Dodgers fan. He spends most of his time golfing, traveling, reading about World War I history, and eating cereal. Email him at [email protected]
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