Football, both college and pro, is immensely popular in the U.S. Yet, there are so many things that can be improved about the college game to make it better.

Saturdays in Fall mean college football. Unfortunately college football gives us a lot of non-competitive games and endless debate regarding the rankings system. Here is a look at how the game can be improved.

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The Competition in College Football

One of the biggest problems with college football is the scheduling. Most weeks the top teams are playing inferior competition and the games wind up being blowouts. It's hard to stick with a game when a team is up 21-0 midway through the first quarter and the game is pretty much decided. This week, in fact, there are several teams that are favored by 50+ points. Why don't these big time teams pick on someone who can actually give them a fight? If top teams played more games against other top teams, it would lead to much more competitive and entertaining games. It seems like right now you are lucky if you get a handful of great games in the regular season between highly ranked teams.

The College Football Rankings System

There are so many things wrong with the rankings system in college football that it is hard to know where to begin. Here's a thought. How about waiting until the teams acually play their first game before ranking them. It seems absurd that rankings would come out before the season even starts. Even the average sports fan knows that having the more talented team on paper doesn't always translate to being a better team on the field. Another problem with the rankings system is that it encourages teams to run up the score. Winning isn't enough, you have to "impress" the voters. Here's a perfect example. USC began this season ranked #1 and they won their first game by 39 points, yet they lost the #1 ranking. How is that fair? Did they have to win by 70 or 80 to keep the #1 ranking? Now, #2 Alabama beat a much better team in #8 Michigan but still, why should a team that won by 39 drop in the rankings? Another problem you run into is that if you have more that two undefeated teams, it's up to the voters to decide which two should play for the national championship. It's too subjective and once again, encourages teams to run up the score on the inferior competion in order to "impress."

The Future of College Football - Will Things Change?

A good sign is that there has been a proposed four team playoff to determine a national champion that could go into effect within the next couple of years. That is a good start but an eight team playoff would be ideal. You could spread it out over three weeks in late December and early January with 1 playing 8, 2 playing 7 and so forth. The system they have now is pretty silly. There are too many bowl games and only one that really matters. As for the competition during the regular season, it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon. You would probably have to realign conferences and break with traditions and maybe impose some sort of rules, perhaps limiting the number of out of state players on a team, and that would likely never fly. So, it looks like we will have to setle for this four team playoff format. While it will not cure all that ails college football, at least it is a good start.