JV College Football?

What if college football had JV teams? What if on Tuesday night i could turn on the TV and see a freshman 5-Star QB who is redshirting lead a team of fellow freshman and sophomores against another schools JV team?

Its a far fetched idea, but as the atmosphere dies down from National Signing Day and everyone debates over who landed the top recruiting class, people realize that they might not see some of these players for years to come. An answer to the fan could be playing games with these players.

JV and Freshman teams haven't been around high profile college football conferences since the 70's. Back then, freshman weren't eligible to play their first year, but when the NCAA aloud freshman to play the teams dissolved and where outlawed.

A return by the JV team to division-1 football could bring some benefits, but there is also some questions. How would you field a team? Who would coach the team? Who would watch the game? Would it count against a players eligibility?

First off, the current scholarship number teams are allowed would have to go up. Currently teams are allowed 85 scholarship athletes. This number would need to raise by at least 5. Having 90 scholarship athletes in the program would be enough to field both a JV and a Varsity squad. The varsity squad is clearly the main influence of the program, as it is the money maker, so the JV squad would fall underneath it. 70- players would be devoted to the varsity roster leaving 20 scholarship athletes for JV.

All a football team needs to have to play a game is 24 players really (11 on each side of the ball, and a kicker and punter). The remainder of the JV roster would be devised of walk-on players and wouldn't total past 45. 5-JV players would be eligible to move up and down on the Varsity roster due to injury.

On the JV team, the player would have 1-year where eligibility wouldn't count against him. For example, lets take Florida QB signee Tyler Murphy. Murphy enters the 2010 season on the JV roster where he earns the job starting JV QB. His freshman season on the JV squad, would be the equivalent as a redshirt season. The next season Murphy remains on the JV squad to play QB, this becomes his first year of eligibility. Murphy then would have 3-years on the varsity level as your only allowed 2-years on JV.

The question then arouses that there is really 5-years of eligibility if you take the JV route. This is correct, however it isn't 5-years on the highest level of college football playing in games with the top coaches. The JV teams, would be coached by Graduate Assistants, and one coach on the payroll from the university such as an offensive coordinator. Taking these matters would have two different benefits. First it would prevent that 5th year of playing eligibility and it would give graduate assiatants more experience, which long term would produce better coaches.

The next question would be who the JV teams would play and when. Since money isn't the number one priority at the JV level, traveling would need to be kept to a minimum and the schedule wouldn't exceed 6-8 games. Forming "JV" conferences would make sense. For example a conference of all the teams in the state of Florida would make sense, because in many cases teams would travel by bus. Thursday nights would work for most of these JV contests because of how the varsity teams would work. JV teams in case would be the scout team all week for the varsity teams.

For all of this to work, however you would need a TV contract, as that would provide a market for advertisers and networks. A station like ESPNU would be the perfect fit for the competitions as it is not too high profile but it also would provide the opportunity for fans to see the future of their teams.

After all, this is a long shot, but it would be cool to see happen with the modern day media and coverage of college athletics.

- UCF wide receivers coach David Kelley was responsible for bringing in the more recruits single handily than any other coach in the nation. Kelley landed 14 players total, 2 more than all of FAUs class (12). Rivals.com named Kelley one of the top Non-BCS recruits and he deserved it. 9 players from the Miami area signed with UCF including 2 4-star players and a highly recruited dual-threat QB.

- Former Tennessee QB Tee Martin has accepted the Wide Receiver's coaching position at Kentucky. Tee Martin was the starting at QB at Tennessee back in 1998 when they won the National Championship. Since then Martin had a career in NFL, NFL Europe and the CFL before coaching QBs at New Mexico last season.

- The number-1 recruit in the nation OT Seantrel Henderson, who committed to USC on national signing day might not be signing with the Trojans. With an NCAA investigation reviewing the entire athletic department for USC, Henderson has stated he might not want to play football there if they were on suspension. Many expect that USC could be hit hard with violations, as the investigation has combined the basketball program with its O.J. Mayo case and the football program with its Reggie Bush problem. USC could face penalties such as loss of scholarships or a ban from televised games.

- My number-1 recruit in the nation for next year is ATH James Wilder Jr. out of Plant High School in Tampa. James (pictured below) is the son of former NFL running back James Wilder. Already with offers from every top level program, Florida looks to be his leader very early in the process. At 6'2" 219 pounds, Wilder looks to be a wide receiver, but could mold into another position if you look at his body and frame. An early call on this one, but expect a UF-USC battle for Wilder.

A. Ivins Predictions-

Uconn at #3 Syracuse 7p.m.- Syracuse is 23-1 and on the way to a number-1 seed, whereas Uconn has been facing a large drop off from previous years (4-6 in Big East play)- Syracuse by 14

#7 Duke at North Carolina 9p.m.- North Carolina, the defending champions from last season, are 13-10 going into what some people call the nastiest rivalry alive. Duke has been rolling and should be able to roll over a UNC team that is 1-6 in the last 7. -Duke by 10

- A. Ivins