Josh Pate, College Football CBS Sports football commentator and host of ‘The Late Kick Podcast’, has broken his silence on the current state of college football and believes that significant changes will be coming to the game this offseason. In a tweet released following Georgia’s 63-3 dominant win over Florida State, Pate said he was very confident in big changes coming to the sport.
I’m very confident big changes are coming to CFB. Multiple tipping points have been hit.
Idk when or how yet but every powerful person seems aligned in their belief that something big is imminent.
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) December 31, 2023
Pate has a reputation for not being too far off from what is happening. In other words, if it comes from someone like Josh Pate, paying attention is a good idea.
It’s no secret that many fans, coaches, and players have had issues this year, ranging from NIL to the College Football Playoff Committee selection process. But what changes could Pate have been referring to? We aren’t given any more information, but it is easy to come up with a few theories.
I’ve ranked three changes I think will happen this off-season in the order of their likelihood. These aren’t necessarily the same changes that Pate may have been referring to, but they are ones that college fans can agree on.
1. Players Opting Out of Bowl Games
This is the biggest issue, yet the most difficult to solve. Whether they should have to play every game they are healthy for has been a debate for the past seven years since opt-outs first started.
There is one very simple solution to at least decrease the number of opt-outs significantly and that is changing the date of the transfer portal. There are two logical ways to do this: either be available to enter after the team’s season is done or move the opening date to sometime after the New Year.
The second option makes the most logical sense since many transfer portal players are buried on the depth chart, and it could be viewed as a disadvantage to them despite them having very little chance to participate in the bowl game.
Another potential way to fix this issue is to tie NIL to the game. Have player interviews, post-game activities, and other opportunities for players to actuallir name, image, and likeness to promote the game.
2. College Football Playoff Committee Selection Process
If you’ve ever watched the CFP Selection Show on ESPN, the number of times that the committee chairman contradicts himself is almost comical. He will defend one teams ranking because of a head-to-head win and two minutes later claim another team is ahead because they are looking better despite a head-to-head loss.
Using a BSC-like computer model is not the answer here, but it needs to play some significant role. The whole “best four teams vs four deserving teams” debate is out of hand and a computer model that doesn’t care about factors such as deserving or eye-test seems necessary.
Let’s be honest, right now Georgia is a top four team in college football. Yet they weren’t even considered because of “deserving” arguments by other teams.
At the very least, there should be a longer explanation of each choice with more accountability. Getting in front of a camera virtually and answering underhand softball questions from ESPN’s commentators for five minutes hardly seems tough enough for decisions that impact so many people and players.
3. Number of Bowl Games
College Football analyst and commentator Kirk Herbstreit also seems to agree with Josh Pate that there needs to be change. He said the following:
“There’s way too many bowls. You should be 8-4 to go to a bowl game. I think it’s not great for the bowl system that we have so many teams, and these stadiums are empty, and the pre-Christmas bowl games are on TV. I think bowl games should be sold-out stadiums and teams that had great years, and it should be a celebration for the year you had.”
This is going to be a challenging situation to deal with, and it may take a few years to phase out since contracts may have already been signed, but the idea is valid. It makes even more sense when you consider teams like Georgia or Arkansas who are, playing three to four games that are automatic wins during the regular season. Some years, SEC teams get into bowl games by going 2-6 in conference play.
One option to lower the number of bowl-eligible teams is to get rid of the FCS games, or at least not count them towards the six wins. If you took out FCS wins, there would have been at least 11 fewer bowl-eligible teams. One idea I’ve seen thrown around is having FCS games be the annual spring game teams play. People would still pay money to come, and it would give money to the FCS schools and allow FBS schools to play another FBS opponent during the regular seaseon.
Josh Pate is Right
Sometimes, it is simple to complain and not do anything about it. However Josh Pate seems to have some knowledge or idea of what will happen. What we do know is there is going to be change, there has to be. This season was a huge mess that, while still entertaining, left a lot to be desired.
What changes would you like to see? Drop a comment and I’ll respond!