Should college football adopt an NFL-like schedule release?

It's NFL schedule release week, which gives outlets a ton of wiggle room to predict and project how the NFL slate will look ahead of the football season. It's an exciting time for players, coaches and fans as they wait for the hand that they're dealt in an event-style reveal.

While the NFL milks the attention in mid-May for games to be played this fall and winter, it's fair to wonder whether college football would benefit from molding its schedule release plans to be similar to the NFL's.

Granted, there are a lot of things standing in college football's way to be able to accomplish something like this. Conferences are going to want to do things their own way and won't necessarily capitulate to the wishes of others.

Additionally, the presence of guarantee or "buy" games, which are usually announced many months or even years ahead of time, has been a part of the fabric of college football for decades. It can be exciting for larger and smaller schools to get this news out into the open as soon as possible.

There's also the tradition of rivalry games being played during the final week of the regular season. Would it be anathema to suggest that Michigan and Ohio State play at any other time besides Thanksgiving weekend?

Granted, a lot is working against college football when it comes to a one-night special schedule release event. But there's a lot to be gained from a shift in thinking as well in this regard.

While NFL teams know their opponents months or years in advance, there's something to be said for not knowing when the matchups will take place that's exciting.

What if Michigan and Ohio State squared off during the first week of the season, with the Buckeyes and Wolverines having the opportunity to ruin each other's campaign right from the get-go in certain years?

What if a smaller school learned in the spring that it would play an SEC or Big Ten school in a guarantee game that it didn't see coming later that fall?

What if conferences agreed to keep their schedules quiet until a pre-determined date in order to drive excitement and anticipation in a rising-tide type of situation?

College football has shown its ability to change immensely in the last 15 to 20 years, and could continue down that path if it were to ponder a paradigm shift that could benefit the sport considerably.

Contact/Follow