"People need to see what happened today, and they need to fix this." That was Kirby Smart's key quote after Georgia demolished Florida State in the Orange Bowl—an Orange Bowl that saw around a third of each team not on the field.

Opt-outs. The transfer portal. NIL. Conference realignment, expansion and destruction.

College football is in a completely different space today. While the championship is mostly decided on the field now, coaches consistently mention those problems and discuss how bad it is.

As an alternative to the constant discussions of what is wrong with the sport, let's discuss some potential solutions. What can preserve the pageantry, rivalries, and history of the game, while also allowing it to exist in this new arms race for television dollars?

Let's examine some new ideas.

(I'm assuming a start-from-scratch approach, with no contracts, deals, or conference tie-ins that must be preserved. And a disclaimer: I’m obviously not an attorney nor understand the finer details involved in potentially making these changes. These are just ideas hitting the big picture issues.)

He’s not the first, but Chip Kelly is certainly the most recent high profile head coach to actually present potential solutions. In the above, Kelly presents a very NFL-like model with the current FBS split into a 64-team primary group and then another group.

My solution takes that a step further, in part based on the past. Over the past 26 seasons, only 22 teams have had the opportunity to play for a championship either via the BCS Championship game or making the College Football Playoff. Of those 22 teams, only 17 have won a game (and that number was 15 before Michigan and Washington won earlier this week).

There are currently 133 FBS teams. Thus, the overwhelming majority legitimately have no shot to play for the championship. While I don't think everyone should get a trophy, there are clearly levels of competition. My solution:

- Two leagues, independent of the NCAA. Call them whatever you like (1-A and 1-AA for now).

- 1-A = 48 schools with six, eight-team divisions based on traditional rivalries and diversity of "Commitment score" (see below).

- 1-AA = the remaining 85 schools.

- No conferences. Football is just different. As Kelly mentions above, conferences can exist for the remaining sports, much like Notre Dame's model.

- Each league (1-A and 1-AA) has a 12-team playoff.

- Current SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey installed as "Commissioner of College Football."

- Advisory board of various head coaches.

- Much like SEC Network anchor Peter Burns mentioned (tweet below), pay the players through television contract revenue sharing, including a bonus structure for players on playoff teams like the NFL.

- Pay becomes part of NIL, but would include both a floor and ceiling/cap.

Now, how would you determine which 48 teams are in the 1-A league? A composite "Commitment score" for all the schools/teams based on budget, historical record (sorry Vanderbilt, you've been terrible for too long), attendance and other metrics worth including. In essence, find a way to get the 48 "biggest" programs in the sport in the 1-A league.

Then, much like the relegation model in soccer, the Commitment score would be re-assessed every five (or ten) years to determine if a team should be moved to the lower league if they consistently cannot compete.

From a schedule perspective, I am going to focus on the 1-A league, with the exception of the playoffs (a similar schedule structure would exist for the 1-AA league, but the math is different because there are more teams).

- 12-game regular season with teams playing the other seven teams in their division, three from another division, two from the lower league. (If the FCS must be incorporated, then have one FCS game and two from another division).

- No conference championships. Season ends on rivalry weekend (Thanksgiving week). Week off, then the playoffs start.

- The playoffs would be the six division champions and six at-large bids. Seeding determined by a BCS-like formula blending rankings and analytics.

- First and second round of the playoff at the home field of the higher-seed. Those teams earned that berth, let them reap the financial benefit of it.

- The semifinals for both leagues (1-A and 1-AA) would then be played on New Year's Day. College football has always and should continue to own that day. The 1-AA semis early in the day and the 1-A semis later much like this season. Given that would be six different games (two semis and a championship in each league), the current New Year's Six bowls can rotate as sites for those games.

- The remaining bowls can go away or potentially just become regular season neutral site games if they choose to sponsor them. Ideally, many exist in the first two weeks of the season. The bowls could even potentially sponsor one of the eight total playoff games that occur each of the first two weekends between the two leagues.

The creation of two leagues, with each league having its own playoff, would finally give certain programs an opportunity to compete for a championship. While the traditional powers will still remain, the smaller number of teams in the "higher" league combined with equal revenue sharing and caps on player payments might finally give those programs an opportunity to compete for a championship.

Two big changes from an eligibility standpoint. First, to be eligible for the NFL draft, a player must currently be at least three years out of high school. That needs to change. What used to be a mental and physical development rule/issue is outdated. If there is an elite player like Brock Bowers or Marvin Harrison Jr., or especially a running back that is clearly ready to play at the professional level, they should be able to turn pro. Thus, my proposal is to reduce the eligibility requirement to declare for the NFL draft to two years after high school.

There is also a flip side to that coin. There are certain players who can play at an elite level in the college game, but aren't truly ready (or good enough) for the NFL game. We've seen what the extra Covid year has done for rosters (Washington has nine Covid super-seniors) and the quarterback position. Given NIL and the payment of players discussed above, individuals should be able to play a fifth year of college football--as long as they get a degree first (remember, that is ideally the goal for the vast majority).

While these potentially take away elite players from the college level, the combination (along with another change below) could also slow the constant roster turnover/transfer portal entries.

The ability for players to basically transfer at any point, combined with the transfer portal/early National Signing Day timing has become a complete mess. Thus, some potential solutions.

- A player that signs out of high school with a school must stay through two seasons, then can one-time transfer anywhere if they so choose. Much like a draft pick signs their contract with the team for three to four years, a high school athlete stepping into a paid situation should stay at least two years. Learn. Grow. Struggle. Figure out how to earn playing time. Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins recently entering the portal is the perfect example of this. He played two seasons for Rebels and is now choosing to transfer. While certainly a shock, at least Lane Kiffin and the staff that spent countless time recruiting Judkins developed him and received the benefit of his production for two years, versus him bailing after one.

- A player can transfer a second time if they graduate.

- One caveat with transferring would always be if the head coach leaves to take another job. In that case, a transfer should be allowed, no matter the timing.

- The transfer portal has its window, with no overlap of National Signing Day.

- Speaking of signing day, there should just be one, back to the original. In NFL terms, the portal is free agency and signing day is the draft.

You might like some of these ideas. You might hate them all. But it’s time to move from the complaining phase to finding solutions.