How the NCAA should deal with conference realignment (opinion)
After Texas’ and Oklahoma’s bombshell announcement last season to leave the Big 12 for the SEC by 2024, there were major concerns for the future of conferences in college football.
Is there going to be a major realignment within the sport? How would they revamp the CFP? Is there any way to keep the conferences together?
To answer those questions, college football as we know it will change dramatically within the coming years. Texas and Oklahoma were just the beginning.
Thursday afternoon, USC and UCLA informed the PAC 12 that they intend to leave and join the BIG 10 Conference.
Their request and approved and are set to join the BIG 10 by 2024.
The news of USC and UCLA jumping ship to join the BIG 10 sparks arguments on the future of the sport. The two top conferences that would most likely stay intact are the SEC and the BIG 10, which will both have 16 teams by 2025.
What are the options for the other conferences? How will they stand up to the SEC or BIG 10?
Theories
The different fan theories aren’t terrible. One theory I liked was the idea of four mega-conferences containing sixteen teams in each.
The idea created by Kyle Umlang, in December of 2020, was to have those four mega conferences and split them into north and south divisions. Have seven division games with two rotating conference games and three out of conference games (one from each other conference).
This idea would expand the college football playoffs to eight teams. The first round of the college football playoffs would be the conference championships.
This sounds like a great idea, but with the recent change to teams leaving their conferences for others, this would cause a massive realignment sending some teams down to the group of five conferences.
Another option is to have those mega-conferences each with four divisions similar to the NFL. The four top teams from the divisions have a playoff for the conference championship. Then the four conference winners play for the national championship in the CFP.
This may seem like a longer season is necessary. However, college football could do without the early season “cupcake” games and just do a conference-only schedule with two out of conference games with teams that had similar records the past season.
Three set opponents each team will play every season from their division. Then five rotating teams they would do home and home series with. This would be very similar to what the ACC has adopted for the 2023 season.
What it could look like
SEC: North: Tennessee, Kentucky, Vandy, Mizzou.
East: South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Auburn.
South: LSU, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss.
West: Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas.
Vandy probably does not deserve to stay in the SEC, but for the sake of the theories, we’ll keep them there for now. There is also an option to move Mizzou to the Big 10, or now Big 16.
BIG 10(or 16?): North: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State.
East: Penn State, Rutgers, Ohio State, Purdue.
South: Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa.
West: Nebraska, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State.
PAC 16: North: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State
East: Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State, Baylor.
South: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Boise State/BYU.
West: Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA.
With the recent news of USC and UCLA moving into the Big 10, it does not make sense to keep them there. They should move back into the Pac 16 mega-conference. With the dumpster fire of Arizona State, they would be removed and replaced by Boise State or BYU.
ACC: North: Syracuse, Pitt, Virginia, Maryland.
East: Duke, UNC, NCST, Virginia Tech.
South: Miami, Florida State, UCF, Clemson.
West: Notre Dame, Louisville, West Virginia, Georgia Tech.
Obviously, this format would not be fair for those teams that are left out of the mega conferences because they would never have a shot at a national championship.
There is no telling what college football will look like in the next few years. We can only speculate what conference realignment will look like. Let’s be honest though, the speculation is the fun part.
When Oklahoma and Texas announced they were departing the BIG 12 to join the SEC, this left the BIG 12 in a tough spot. Now, with USC and UCLA doing the same thing, we could possibly see the PAC 12 and BIG 12 merge to create their own mega-conference.
However, this is just me thinking out loud and offering ridiculous hypotheticals, but I can always dream of the mega-conferences. Maybe one day we will see the perfect realignment. Until then, I’ll keep speculating.