NIU’s move into the Mountain West was a great, proactive step to try and stay relevant in an ever-evolving college football landscape.

That evolution got shoved headfirst into a nuclear reactor Sunday when Notre Dame got left out of the College Football Playoff, leading to the type of temper tantrum that only rich, entitled people can make.

And like most temper tantrums of the rich and entitled, it will get results. Which in this case will likely mean the end of Group of 6 teams in the playoff. Instead of some sort of half-measure like a Group of 6 playoff, which seems like begging for scraps, the G6 should stop pretending they’ll ever get a seat at the table and see if they can build something better at the FCS level.

The Group of 6 schools should join the Football Championship Subdivision.

The Huskies in the Mountain West may have seemed like a big swing a year ago (derp there are no mountains in DeKalb I’m clever and smart and have many friends), but it may be time for a bigger swing. A big swing the G6 schools are going to have to take together. Considering a third of them are suing each other at the moment, that may be a big ask.

It’s a lot, but there’s the bones of something there. For starters, let the Power 4 schools have their own semi-pro (or, let’s face it, fully professional) upper-level league. Live the dream, boys.

That lets the G6 and FCS schools design a system almost from scratch. There are two big issues from the get-go smarter minds would have to figure out. There’s a competitiveness issue that would have to be resolved, and then there’s the issue of money.

The competition issue doesn’t seem too severe, as I’m sure NIU fans really don’t want to be reminded with that too-close-for-comfort Holy Cross game earlier this year and the Eastern Illinois loss a couple of years ago. This year, four FCS teams beat G6 schools; last year, it was six.

As for money, it would be a great put-up-or-shut-up time for all the people out there who complain about the lack of amateurism in college sports. It doesn’t seem like viewership for any of these conferences would be any different. MACtion would still exist. Mountain West after dark would still exist. And a new and improved FCS playoff could be a money-making machine. We saw how much interest Illinois State’s upset sparked locally. While all the big boys are crying and whining and sitting out for the draft, the FCS/G6 playoff gets to play the blue-collar card. That’s the potential for a lot more than scraps.

Instead of a constantly changing playoff system at the whims of crybaby institutions that would rather change conferences than be accountable for losing to the University of Miami, a framework would be in place from Day 1 of an equitable playoff.

The current FCS playoff is 24 teams, with all 11 conference champs getting in. In this wild and crazy new world I’ve invented, there would be 17 conferences. Lends itself pretty well to a 32-team playoff if you ask me. Fifteen at-large bids instead of 13.

Big swings are the only answer. NIU heading to the Mountain West was one. If the Group of 6 schools want to matter, they’ll have to swing bigger—together. Dropping a level might look like giving up, but it could also be the reset that finally gives them control. And if that feels like a tantrum, well, at least it makes more sense than Notre Dame’s.