The landscape of college football is as stable as trying to play Jenga in the middle of an earthquake. It seems just as something starts to seem stable; another block falls, causing a domino effect again. For some perspective, just five years ago, more than 30 teams were in a different conference than they will be this upcoming season, including 12 teams already in P5 leagues.
For a while, it felt like the SEC and Big 10 were destined for a two-conference Super League, with the rest of college football getting left behind. We may still end up there, but earlier this week, a new model was released with 80 teams in the top college football division, including all of the current P4 teams and ten current G5 teams.
A few different models have been released on how this could look. Some favor tradition, others geography, and others try to spread out the TV revenue. Everyone will have a different opinion on this, but I believe that the main emphasis should be rivalries and geography. Here are the conferences I believe should be created:
AAC (G5 Schools)
Teams: Varying
The AAC or American Conference would feature the top ten Group of Five Schools. This conference would also use relegation to maintain and keep the top ten schools competitive with the other seven conferences. The tough part would be how the relegation would work. For example, if Utah State were to be dropped down and Coastal Carolina were to rise up, it doesn’t make sense to send the Aggies to a conference that would be East Coast-based.
Maybe the answer to fix this is to have no G5 conferences. G5 conferences can essentially be Independent scheduling whichever other G5 schools they want.
ACC
Teams: Central Florida, Clemson, Florida State, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wake Forest
The ACC is a tough conference to create because, similar to what you will see in the Pac 10, the current geographic conference stretches from the most northern team (Boston College) to the most southern team (Miami) in the P4. However, by recreating the Big East conference, the dividing line came down to either cutting out Virginia and keeping Georgia Tech or letting Georgia Tech into the SEC and keeping Virginia, which fits the ACC culture much more.
Ultimately, Virginia staying and getting rid of Georiga Tech makes more sense since it would give Georgia another rivalry, as well as put another ‘less dominant’ team in the SEC.
Big 10
Teams: Cincinnati, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin
The Big 10 would continue to be the most top-heavy conference in the nation, with Michigan and Ohio State dominating the league for the foreseeable future, but with teams like Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue still in the league, in addition to the addition to Maryland, this conference would certainly still be considered a fair league competitively.
Losing Penn State seems odd, especially with the addition of Cincinnati, but competitively, the Big East needs a more competitive team, and the Big 10 would be too strong with Penn State.
Big 12
Teams: BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Utah
The Big 12 certainly would be the oddest league in the country because it covers a lot of land and certainly lacks teams with multiple rivalries. Yes, BYU vs. Utah, Iowa vs. Iowa State, and Kansas vs. Kansas State would be great rivalries, but the cross-country games would be less intriguing with not as much history as the Pac 10, the only other conference with a huge geographical area.
Also, it is important to point out that Minnesota would clearly stick out in this conference, but without a spot in the Big 10, it’s the only realistic landing spot.
Big East
Teams: Boston College, Lousiville, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia
Many people are talking about how Notre Dame feels like a Big 10 school, but if this Big East were to be established, looking at this group of schools, the Fighting Irish would feel more like a Big East school. This conference would be a true ‘rust belt, blue-collar’ kind of conference that would be a ton of fun to watch.
This conference also has many great rivalries, including Kentucky vs. Lousiville, Pitt vs. West Virginia, and Notre Dame vs. Penn State, which feels like an instant classic.
PAC 10
Teams: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State
Reason: The traditional Pac 10 is a perfect conference that should go back to being what it once was. Some will argue that geographically, Arizona is further to Washington than it is to half of the current SEC schools, but the other schools that geographically would make this conference closer to the Washington schools are BYU and Utah, which will fit better into the Big 12.
The Pac 10/12 traditionally was a great conference. If they had had the season they had last year just a year earlier, perhaps the TV networks would have put up enough money to keep the conference from falling apart.
SEC
Teams: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Miss State, Ole Miss, Tenessee, and Vanderbilt
Breaking apart the SEC was very difficult because it’s tough to validate getting rid of some teams while also not loading up the conference too much. Losing Kentucky and South Carolina are tough, while keeping Vanderbilt and adding Georgia Tech seems to be a step in the wrong direction, but when looking for geographical fits and conferences that make sense while also not loading up the SEC to be a powerhouse, that is significantly better than any other conference.
LSU is the one school that seems a bit out of the way in this conference, but with rivalries against Alabama and Florida, they made more sense than throwing them in the SWC.
SWC
Teams: Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and TCU
If there is any conference I would enjoy watching week to week, it would be the old SWC, which has been basically renewed. This conference appears to be loaded with talent, but with all of the Texas schools back in one conference, the talent would distribute itself to make this a very competitive conference compared to the others.
Every single week, this conference would have must-watch games for most of the teams.
Here’s our breakdown of an 80-Team Super League!
Thoughts?! https://t.co/o7BbInpgDM pic.twitter.com/uIf455mKK8
— Heartland College Sports (@Heartland_CS) April 6, 2024
College Football Conclusion
For fans of college football who don’t want to see the sport essentially turn into an NFL-lite with 32-40 teams primarily in the current Big 10/SEC footprint, the 80-team Super League feels like the best option. People will differ on who they believe should be in each conference, but if push comes to shove, most Arizona, BYU, Boston College, and Oklahoma State fans will take any conference if it means not being relegated to a second-tier conference.
Which college football teams did we get right? What would you change? Let us know in the comments!
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