[Cecil Terwilliger]

I’d love a set up similar to what you describe but it isn’t just shameful schedule padding that goes into those decisions to play minnows. Same reason perennial doormats stay in the power 5 conferences only to go 3-9 every season with no hope of ever becoming a quality program.

And that would be money. The Citadel is ecstatic for the opportunity to get destroyed by Alabama because that one game will be the largest source of funding for their program. It dwarfs all other sources of revenue for smaller, less prestigious schools. Same with a school like Vanderbilt getting embarrassed every year in the SEC. They have something like one season with a winning record in conference play in 30 years.

Believe it or not, such a change would be ,ost opposed by the smaller programs because they need the cash. For the big schools, playing top tier competition week in and week out wouldn’t actually be that bad. They’d probably make even more money.

A reduction by more than half of FBS teams would be devastating for some of the less prestigious football schools. And since universities in the US are run as a for profit business as much as they are as education centres, making less profit is not an option. Not to mention the prestige that having a top tier football program provides.

One last note, promotion and relegation wouldn’t work. Winners beget winners in college ball. Teams getting demoted would have issues recruiting and would have issues a with transfers and kids reneging in their commitments. Teams almost never drop from FBS to FCS to vice versa to move up.