There are at least 13 weeks from the end of August through the week of Thanksgiving. For the first 12 weeks, teams will play an 11-game schedule. At random, one week out of the first 11 weeks would be an open date, with all teams playing their 11th game the weekend before Thanksgiving. No games shall be played the week of Thanksgiving, including the immediate following weekend. An extra open date at the beginning of the season could be provided if Thanksgiving falls within the last few days of November; meaning an 11-game schedule for 13 weeks as opposed to 12 weeks. 

For the preferred number of teams to be played within and out-of-conference during an 11-game season, we utilize the 63/37 ratio defining majority and minority influences. [This ratio is explained in detail in the ‘Revenues’ section, as well as the ‘GP Formula: Alternate Ranking Method’ section]

37% of 11 = 4 games to be played out-of conference. 

63% of 11 = 7 games to be played within own conference. 

A poll configuration to be described is utilized and, at the end of the season, teams are seeded by overall ranking #1 through #28. The top 12 teams will play for the championship, with seeds #1, #2, #3, and #4 having first round byes. Teams of rank #13 through #28 will play in a secondary tournament. Final seedings and site pairings will be made public on Thanksgiving day, giving fans ample opportunity to
discuss match-ups and speculate outcomes.

Mythical champions and accompanying discussions of ‘what might have been’ or ‘what should have been’ will be gone. Putting to rest any notions of limited perspectives or past loyalties, poll voters need no longer be solely responsible for separating the million-$ teams from the "other" teams and thereby creating one important bowl along with the remaining relatively meaningless ones. The poll system, however, will still play an integral part in bringing what all other levels of
football have: a true champion.

The coaches poll (labeled X) and the writers poll (Y) will be joined by a third independent poll (Z). Polls (X) and (Y) will each be weighted twice as much as poll (Z) to provide an index that determines overall rank. Lower index numbers correspond with better rankings. Ties can be broken by giving secondary consideration to the non-weighted sums of individual team rank of the three separate polls.

In the preferred configuration, the (Z) poll uses the GP Formula (described in a separate section), and therefore objectively checks and balances the possibly subjective (X) and (Y) polls.

[Ratings preferably shouldn’t be released until Oct. as early ratings would not be substantiated]

Example 1:

Florida has an index of 11 [(2)1 + (2)3 + 3 = (2)X + (2)Y + Z] and sum of 7 [1 + 3 + 3 = X + Y + Z]. Since Florida has the lowest index, it has the overall #1 ranking. A
team’s sum is used only as a tiebreaker. Although Notre Dame has a lower sum than Nebraska, it is the index that determines rank order. Nebraska has a lower index and therefore is ranked ahead of Notre Dame.

Example 2:

Notre Dame and Florida have the same index, however Notre Dame is ranked ahead of Florida because it has the lower sum.

This poll configuration is certainly intriguing in that simple algebra accommodates a scenario where there can be no ties! No ties between any two teams where both the index and the sum are identical. Intuition deduces this theorem, however we welcome any interested parties (novice or avid math lovers, or anyone with nothing better to do) to present a valid mathematical proof. This problem may be similar in difficulty to Fermat’s theorem, a conjecture stated by the famous French mathematician of the 17th century. [Remember though, it took until the 1990’s for a valid proof to be provided for Fermat’s theorem]

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