Should college football keep prioritizing conference games in the future?

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Arizona Wildcats fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

As the start of the normal college football season draws closer, schools and conferences are still scrambling to put together a 2020 schedule in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Last Friday, the Pac-12 released 10-game, conference-only schedules for all 12 members. Other leagues have made similar decisions, or at least dramatically cut back on non-conference games. Most fans, however, hope this is a just one-year trend.

According to results from the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey, more than half of NCAA football fans don’t want schedules to focus on conference games beyond this season.

In the Pac-12, an example of focusing on conference games would be shifting to an 11-game conference schedule in the future, as opposed to nine, so that the league plays a true round-robin like it did in the old days.

The 12th game would be a non-conference game of each school’s choosing, which could help continue storied rivalries like Utah-BYU and USC-Notre Dame.

With this model, there would be more competitive games on a weekly basis than the way college football schedules are normally constructed, where major-conference teams often play one or two Group of 5 or FCS schools per season.

A downside is many of those smaller schools rely on money guarantees from games against bigger schools to balance their budgets. Take those away and you might see athletic departments all over the country fold or at least made some significant cuts.

What do you think? To vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week, sign up here.

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