It’s a crisp fall day on campus. There’s a palpable electricity that fills the cooling air with students arriving back in town. And as the days start getting shorter and the leaves start changing color there’s an undeniable buzz that can only be summarized in three words- ‘it’s football season’.

The tradition of attending a college football game is one of the few things not in constant change on campus. Reciting the same chants, singing the same fight songs, and overpaying for a concession hot dog are all rights of passage on the same level as pulling all-nighters and setting off the fire alarm from overcooking microwave popcorn in your freshman dorm room (not speaking from personal experience of course). Generations of students separated by different upbringings, values, and formative world events all united by their stadium’s traditions to support their school. As Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt said “It’s the one sport in the world where you can say I am a Michigan Wolverine”.

But for the first time in the history of the sport money is beating out tradition. And the uniqueness of the game is being sacrificed to the TV revenue gods. Albeit, the sport has never been perfect, and some of these changes are long overdue. People are finally recognizing the veiled attempt of a billion-dollar organization saying sharing some of their revenue with student-athletes is just ‘too complicated’. And how the expanded playoff and addition of a group of five team to the field inspires the competitive spirit that lives inside every FBS college campus during early August when they say ‘Maybe this year’.

But change for the sake of change is just as futile as sticking with something because ‘that’s how it’s always been done’. And college football certainly is changing. As a fan who wants to see what’s best for this sport, I think there are — a number of major problems facing the game right now. While these might not be perfect solutions, they are at least a starting point for talking about what could be better. Let me know what I got right and what I got wrong. I think it’d be extremely egotistical for one person to say they could fix something as grand as the spectacle that is Fall Saturdays, but what the heck- here’s how I would fix college football.