Last week, an anticipated matchup became the latest casualty of the superconference era, as North Carolina and South Carolina chose to cancel their upcoming two-game series.
Had the series gone through, 2028 would have marked the Tar Heels’ first visit to Columbia in 15 years. The Gamecocks would have returned the trip in 2029, ending a 22-year absence from Chapel Hill. The two have met four times in the past 11 seasons, but all have come at the Panthers’ stadium in Charlotte.
Instead, the series has been canceled. To add insult to injury, South Carolina immediately replaced the Tar Heels’ trip in 2028 with a buy game against Bowling Green. And as usual, the losers are the fans.
Both schools will cite the upcoming nine-game conference schedules for their respective leagues. And to an extent, there’s merit to that, especially in South Carolina’s case. The Gamecocks have to play Clemson every year, along with nine SEC games. Adding a potentially difficult 11th game doesn’t help their playoff chances.
But the biggest loss here, as usual, falls on the people who actually care about these games. This isn’t as much of a rivalry as it was when the Gamecocks were in the ACC, or even when South Carolina was an independent. But it’s still a regional matchup that both fan bases care about. Going on campus would have been great for both schools. Instead, both will play a game that nobody really cares about.
College football needs to do better than this. Here’s what should happen.
Incentivize Tough Non-Conference Games
If the expansion to 24 teams in the playoff comes, and it seems it will eventually, the selection committee must prioritize those who face good opponents.
This doesn’t mean ignoring head-to-head results, as Notre Dame ludicrously tried to claim when it argued for inclusion over Miami despite losing at Miami. But it does mean that a team that schedules tough out-of-conference games should get a boost to their profile.
Additionally, teams who schedule home-and-homes should get a boost. There are some rivalries that make sense at a neutral site. Florida and Georgia play in Jacksonville every year that stadium is available, and nobody is calling for that tradition to end. When Tennessee and Virginia Tech played at Bristol Motor Speedway, that was a unique game that worked with both schools’ locations.
But for most schools, college football is about on-campus traditions. Regional rivals playing in each other’s stadium adds to the charm and excitement for both fan bases. Those need to take priority to maintain the best things about college football.
Add a 13th Game
The season already feels long enough, but adding a 13th game makes sense if it’s done properly. A 13th contest could be used strictly for scheduling an FCS school, with that expectation built into the committee’s analysis. This could be done by allowing teams to drop their lowest-ranked game from their strength of schedule.
From there, schools would be expected to play 12 FBS opponents, with at least one coming from another power conference. Building the docket this way gives coaches the flexibility to treat one game like a preseason tuneup. After that, coaches would have an idea of their rosters and could prepare for the rest of the season.
One caveat: FCS would no longer count toward bowl eligibility. Back when teams only played 11 games, the NCAA had a rule that said programs needed six wins over Division I-A (FBS) opponents to be bowl-eligible. If a big boy scheduled an FCS game, it knew it needed seven wins to make a bowl.
Once that was dropped, the number of games against FCS opponents exploded. It’s usually a nice deal for school athletic directors and coaches: buy yourself a comfortable home win for a couple hundred thousand dollars. But most fans don’t want to pay to see a game where the walk-ons will be playing by the third quarter. Removing that credit ensures teams would schedule at least 12 FBS opponents.
Require a Conference Minimum to Be Bowl Eligible
Right now, the lower-level Power 4 teams have a formula: play three weak non-conference opponents, then try to get three wins out of nine in their league to reach 6-6.
Ironically, a great example of this thinking is defending national champion Indiana. Underscoring that these schedules are constructed years in advance, the Hoosiers simply were aiming for a bowl game before Curt Cignetti arrived. Over the past two years, Indiana played Florida International, Western Illinois and Charlotte one year and Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State last season.
Back when Indiana considered a bowl trip a success, the Hoosiers would have started conference play needing just three wins out of nine to make the postseason. While that keeps fans invested, it’s not good for the season as a whole.
Requiring a conference minimum would make bowl invitations an achievement. Last year, Penn State made the Pinstripe Bowl without ever beating an FBS foe with a record above .500. Though the Nittany Lions won the game, nobody considered it a successful season.
Bowls should require a certain level of success to qualify. Adding that element would make them meaningful again for those that don’t make the playoff.
Regionalize Conference Schedules
One of the best things about divisions was that it meant that teams played more games they cared about. One of the worst things was that it often meant sacrifices for those who could fit in either division.
For example, when the SEC went to divisions, Auburn lost its annual game with Florida. The Tigers and the Gators had a spirited rivalry over the course of 58 consecutive meetings from the end of World War II until 2002. Since then, they’ve met four times in 24 years. Over that same time frame, Florida has made six visits to Missouri and Auburn seven trips to Texas A&M. Before 2012, the Gators had played Missouri once, and the Tigers had played A&M twice.
With divisions no longer existing, conferences are free to prioritize whatever they want in their scheduling. That means they can and should protect a lot more rivalries than they currently do. If Auburn plays a nine-game SEC slate, it could play Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi State annually, then cycle through the other 11 league opponents. This would ensure they’d get the games that matter most annually, while seeing their other league opponents at least once every three years.
Bottom Line
Superconferences aren’t breaking apart anytime soon. But as long as we have them, conferences and the committee need to get creative.
The best thing about college football is traditional, regional matchups between schools with a lot in common. With superconferences, that’s often lost. Fans need and deserve more matchups like North Carolina and South Carolina, not less. And the loss of this series should be a wake-up call to those who love the sport.
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