One thing I try to do in our Until Saturday newsletter: Give you clips from Stewart Mandel’s weekly mailbags. Some of you appreciate it so much that you then email me as if I am Stewart Mandel. Sorry to potentially disappoint you, but I am not.

In this week’s mailbag, however, Stew wrote one section that I liked so much, it’s going to be most of today’s newsletter. Reader Dan G. asked him for “Ten Commandments to make the game better for everybody,” so let’s go through all 10 of them. I’ll chime in after each of Stew’s ideas, just to make it look like I did some work around here.

1. “Thou shall have a 12-team Playoff for at least the next decade. And the event shall be moved up by a week to allow the season to end on or around Jan. 8, as it did when there were four Playoff teams.”

Guys in suits have fiddled with the postseason format every few years since 1992. They need their hands slapped. A Jan. 8ish title game would be a huge improvement, though I’m enough of a curmudgeon to prefer Jan. 1 natties at the Rose Bowl every year forever.

2. “Quarterfinals shall be played at campuses. The semifinals shall be at two New Year’s Day bowl games, one of which shall annually be the Rose Bowl. And Army-Navy shall be moved to the early Jan. 1 window leading into them.”

I asked Stew for more about this genius Army-Navy idea. What if they’re in the Playoff?

💬 “Obviously, those schools aren’t going to sacrifice CFP access, though if we’re being honest, they’re never going to make the semifinals. And it’s such an enormous exposure opportunity. Army-Navy already gets a big TV audience (7.8 million viewers last year), but I bet they could double it by playing on Jan. 1.

“But hey, on the off, off chance one of them advances in the CFP, why couldn’t we just reserve a backup date for their rivalry a few weeks later? None of their players are going into draft-prep mode. Play it right before the Super Bowl.”

Or, if Army or Navy wins a Playoff game, tag Air Force into the bracket so Army-Navy can remain the focus. Or Stew’s even better idea: Give that spot to the Pop-Tarts Bowl winner.

3. “All West Coast power-conference schools shall return to the Pac-12 immediately (or form a new league with a different name), restoring the sport to five power conferences. And the other leagues shall be adjusted for geographic sensibility. Maryland to the ACC, SMU to the Big 12, etc.”

4. “Thou shall have centralized non-conference scheduling. Following the national championship game, the czar will assign each P5 team one P5 opponent with a similar record, one high-level G5 opponent and one low-level G5 or FCS opponent. All shall be played at home stadiums, not neutral sites.”

I’d just want some longer-term scheduling for G5 and FCS teams, who can tell recruits they’ll get to play in the Big House or what have you.
Stew also said to me: “What might be cool is to do some flex scheduling for the G5 vs. G5 games. Everybody leaves one non-conference game open in, say, early November, and we pair up the first-place team in the Sun Belt vs. the first-place team in the Mountain West, etc. A Playoff for the G5 Playoff spot.”

5. “There shall be no limits on how much players can earn from outside NIL opportunities, and no need to send anything through NIL Go (the platform for athletes to report third-party NIL deals). In return, players shall only be allowed to transfer and play immediately once in their careers.”

I’d always err on the side of player freedom and compensation, and this seems fair to me.

6. “Players shall have five years to play five full seasons. No redshirts, no waivers. Maximum age: 23. Exceptions shall be made only for those who went on a religious mission or performed military service after high school.”

An age limit feels like what they’ll have to do at some point, though the trick will be getting schools to avoid sneaking around that rule eight seconds later, as they’ve always done whenever they try to govern themselves. (Meanwhile, lawyers will explore visionary definitions of “religious mission.”)

7. “Coaches shall be required to remain with their teams through the duration of their season, however long it lasts. Contacting a coach about a job during the season shall be treated the same as tampering with an athlete.”

Stew, we’ll still be able to fire coaches midseason, right? Please don’t take that away.

💬 “Sure, why not? Because sometimes firing the coach and going with an interim actually salvages a team’s season. Brent Key is the coach of Georgia Tech today because four games into 2022, the Jackets promoted him and nearly made a bowl game.

“The dream scenario would be the NFL model, where they not only wait until after the season but send out news releases announcing which candidates they’re interviewing. Not as feasible, though, when SEC rivals are trying to hire away each other’s coaches.”

8. “Any P5 game airing exclusively on a streaming service (such as Peacock) shall be simulcast on an over-the-air network in the two schools’ home states. Also, a school’s road game may not kick off later than 9 p.m. back home.”

Zero objections from anyone but Pete Peacock, founder of Peacock.

9. “All conferences shall publish an officiating report within two hours of a game ending with explanations for the three most controversial calls. And all conferences shall air replay deliberations live during broadcasts, like the ACC did for certain games last season.”

Take or leave this one, though it’s probably prudent. I like ref mess, as long as they do something theatrical along the way.

10. “Finally, the committee shall not conduct another Tuesday night ranking show. For eternity.”

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

I bet you now wanna share the item you’d add to that list of ways to fix college football. Email me at untilsaturday@theathletic.com, and maybe I’ll run a few of the best, but keep ’em cheerful. No grumpy grumps allowed. It’s because we love this sport that we find it worth improving.

Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.