How to boost CFP: Start earlier, kill conference championships

• There’s a way to increase the college football schedule but also play the national championship game on Jan. 1.
• Conference championships must go. Replace them with a 13th game for everyone.
• Start season in August. End it on New Year’s Day.

Fernando Mendoza is a champion. He’s also an idea man.

Asked during a 2024 podcast appearance what his idea would be for a bowl game, Mendoza suggested a game in Alaska.

“It’d be crazy — just the salmon and bears all around,” said Mendoza, before going on to win the Heisman Trophy and a national championship as Indiana’s quarterback.

Hey, nobody said it was a good idea.

Inspired by Mendoza’s blue-sky thinking, I’ve come up with a few postseason ideas of my own and revamped the playoff schedule.

Buy IU championship books, prints

1. Eliminate conference championship games, move to 13-game schedule

The playoff selection committee confirmed conference championship games had lost their meaning after Georgia boot-stomped Alabama in the SEC championship, and then neither team budged an inch in the ensuing CFP rankings. The committee treated Alabama-Georgia as a December exhibition.

The argument for conference championships further withered when Duke won the ACC title game, but Miami received the conference’s de facto automatic bid.

Conference championships were once revolutionary. They’re now antiquated. Time to evolve.

Dump them in favor of an additional data point for every team. I’m not suggesting play-in games. Sorry, Tony Petitti, that idea still stinks.

Instead, I’m suggesting every team play a 13-game regular-season schedule, with no conference championship games. So, you’d just add one game to everybody’s schedule.

On the subject of regular-season scheduling, to be eligible for playoff consideration, each Power Four team should be required to play at least 11 of its 13 games against either Power Four opponents or Notre Dame.

So, a schedule could look like this:

Two cupcake games + two marquee nonconference games + nine conference games = 13 games.

2. Start the season earlier, but keep rivalry week during Thanksgiving

No matter when the season starts and ends, rivalry week must remain during Thanksgiving week.

Ohio State-Michigan. The Iron Bowl. The Egg Bowl. Texas-Texas A&M.

These games should occur alongside a helping of turkey and pumpkin pie. Rivalry week remains the sport’s pinnacle. Leave it undisturbed, even if the playoff changes in size and shape.

But, we must find a spot for the 13th game I’ve added to the schedule. I could slot that 13th game in December, in place of conference championship weekend. But, no. Instead, start the regular season a week sooner. In other words, the week that’s now dubbed Week 0 becomes Week 1. The regular season would end with rivalry games during Thanksgiving weekend. Then, advance straight into playoff selection.

3. Start and end the College Football Playoff sooner

OK, so I’ve freed up the first weekend in December by nixing conference championship weekend and slotting the additional game into Week 0. Using the 2026 calendar as a guide, that means the regular season would start Aug. 29 and end Nov. 28, with Selection Sunday the following day.

Let’s model what this could look like, using the current 12-team playoff format.

• First-round playoff games: Dec. 4-5. One game on Friday, followed by three on Saturday.
• Quarterfinal playoff games: Dec. 11-12. One game on Friday, followed by three on Saturday.
• Semifinal playoff games: Dec. 19.
• National championship game: Jan. 1.

This would wrap up the postseason before the NFL playoffs begin.

By starting the postseason sooner and shortening delays between CFP games, you’d build off the momentum of rivalry week and Selection Sunday and roll straight into a playoff crescendo.

4. Make New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day a college football bonanza

Bowl games don’t mean what they used to, but they can be incorporated throughout the holiday season as appetizers to the national championship game to preserve New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as marquee dates on the college football calendar.

Earmark multiple bowl games to be played daily, starting on Dec. 26. Include several bowl games on Dec. 31 and additional bowl games in the noon and afternoon windows on Jan. 1, as the lead-up to the national championship game that kicks off in prime time on New Year’s Day.

5. Portal opens after the national championship

Open the transfer portal on Jan. 2, one day after the national championship game.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.