On Monday, CBS Sports' own Dennis Dodd reported that the kickoff could soon be a thing of the past in college football. Specifically, the American Football Coaches Association and NCAA are citing player safety as the reason kickoffs are being investigated and could be eliminated.

It's a polarizing topic. On one hand, player safety is indeed a concern. One of the most famous cases involved former Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, who was paralyzed in 2010 while covering a kickoff. On the other hand, special teams are an important part of football. Players further down the depth chart can make an impact. Additionally, kickoffs can flip field positions or scores, both of which can change momentum.

If kickoffs are eliminated -- Dodd says any rule changes likely won't come until after the 2017 season -- how would college football adjust? From the reasonable to the absurd, we've put together some options to help keep college football safer and interesting.

1. Every team starts on the 25-yard line: This is the most likely alternative since it doesn't actually change much. Touchbacks in college were moved up to the 25-yard line in 2012 with the NFL following suit this past offseason as a one-year trial. Couple that with kickoffs being moved up to the 35-yard line, and there was an immediate spike in the number of touchbacks.

By starting all possessions at the 25-yard line, college football basically moves the touchback rate to 100 percent while keeping the rules as consistent as possible with the current game.

2. Use a team's collective GPA: These are supposed to be student-athletes, right? Isn't that what the NCAA and its membership pushes on everyone, every year? Time to put that philosophy into practice. If your team has a collective 2.5 GPA from the year before, it starts every offensive possession -- yes, every possession -- on the 25-yard line. If your team has a 4.0 collective GPA, it starts on the 40-yard line every time, every game.

While using GPA wouldn't allow for much variance in starting field position, it could give certain schools a built-in advantage. Imagine, say, Northwestern starting every possession at the 37-yard line. That might make things a little more interesting.

Of course, cheating could be rampant with academics now directly affecting on-field situations. That's an obvious loophole in this possibility, but it's fun to think about nonetheless.

3. Use a dart board: This isn't some metaphor. We literally mean use a dart board. Put that sucker out there at midfield and let your best (darts) player determine your starting field position.

The potential to keep field position consistent with current rules is certainly there. The 10-20 range (plus 25) make up 12 of the 22 numbers on the board itself. But the extreme numbers are where things get interesting. Let's say your dart thrower hits a 1 while aiming for the bullseye -- and he misses it by a fraction of an inch. Sorry, you're starting this drive at the 1-yard line. Conversely, if a player hits a triple 20, his team starts the drive at the opponent's 40-yard line.

But what if your best darts player is only at his best once he's, ahem, "consumed several adult beverages?" That's a real thing, you know. That's what we call a high-risk, high-reward decision. What's more important? Starting every offensive possession at midfield or not having your No. 1 wideout running the wrong route and getting sick every 30 seconds?

This is why you're getting paid the big bucks.

4. Starting field position is determined by the opponent's score: This is where things could get real interesting. Starting an offensive drive based on the opponent's score would require a little bit of a head start since every team starts at zero. As such, it would have to be paired with another scenario. For example: Each team's first offensive possession of the game would start at the 25-yard line (scenario 1) or at a pre-determined spot (scenario 3).

After that, things could get tricky and one of three outcomes could occur:

It could keep a low-scoring game low scoring. If two teams are knotted at a 3-3 tie, field position isn't exactly set up to encourage a shootout. If a game is scoreless, each team starts at the 1-yard line. However, if an offensive struggle ensues, it could flip field position for one team based on punts and field position. Defensive-minded fans would enjoy this.

An offensive shootout could get even more out of hand. If we're talking about a game with two high-powered offenses, starting field position could quickly get into the 30s, 40s, or dare we say, opposing field position. If you like offense, this exponential increase could be wildly entertaining.

Thirdly, it could encourage comebacks. Let's say one team scores a touchdown to go up 31-10. The losing team would then start its next offensive possession on its 31-yard line. Even if it gets so much as a field goal out of that drive, it closes the gap and keeps its opponent inside its own 20-yard line. If the losing team then scores a touchdown on its next offensive drive, the winning team is still trapped at the 20-yard line and the losing team has now made it a two-score game.

Think that's unfair to the winning team? There's a simple solution: Stop the losing team from moving the ball and scoring.

5. The XFL-style scramble: Notice that we haven't mentioned onside kicks yet. Don't worry, we've thought of that, too. Remember the XFL and all of its hilarious rules that were meant to differentiate it from the NFL? Well, Vince McMahon's legacy will live on in college via the scramble, a rugby-style scrum meant to determine possession.

College football can't afford to lose the onside kick. There's too much drama at stake and television ratings need the potential for comebacks. The scramble allows for all the heart-pounding, fumble-tastic play of the onside kick while keeping with the general field position advantage (or disadvantage) it provides.

And if college football wanted to get really weird, the scramble could determine opening possession for each of the two halves to keep the element of surprise, a la a second-half opening onside kick. Oh, what's that? It's not fair for the same team to get amazing starting field position at the start of each half? Hey, it's all about want-to, kid.