Any college football fan knows that realignment has been a big part of college football since its inception, but few realize how much realignment has changed the landscape of college football in just 20 years. Sure, 20 years sounds like forever ago, but when I throw out players like Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush, and Darren McFadden, suddenly, 20 years ago doesn’t feel like the Stone Age.
UCF’s Schedule Puts Realignment Into Perspective
In a tweet by originally sent out by ‘Spark College Football’ asking how many wins UCF would get with their 2024 schedule, user Fifth Quarter BYU retweeted the post and added the caption:
“Imagine seeing this schedule 20 years ago in 2004 and trying to guess what conference UCF is playing in. Based on 2004 alignment, UCF is playing: 2 FCS teams 2 Big 12 teams 2 C-USA teams 2 MWC teams 2 Pac-10 Teams 1 Big East Team 1 SEC team.”
He is absolutely right about the schedule. Here is their 2024 schedule with the current conference and the conference that each team participated in in 2004.
- New Hampshire – FCS – FCS
- Sam Houston – CUSA – FCS
- TCU – Big 12 – CUSA
- Colorado – Big 12 – Big 12 (although spent 12 years in the Pac-12)
- Florida – SEC – SEC
- Cincinnati – Big 12 – CUSA
- Iowa State – Big 12 – Big 12
- BYU – Big 12 – Mountain West
- Arizona – Big 12 – Pac 10
- Arizona State- Big 12 – Pac 10
- West Virginia – Big 12 – Big East
Of all the schools that UCF is playing this year, only Iowa State has remained in the same conference that they were in 20 years ago. Of course, there are plenty of schools around the country that haven’t moved (most of the SEC and traditional Big 10), but still, the fact that 11 of UCF’s opponents this upcoming season have been affected by realignment shows really how unstable football is.
On a side note, they have also changed conferences, and BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, TCU, and Sam Houston have all gone through realignment two times.
Stability of College Football Conferences
Every fan likes to think that their conference, as it is currently constituted, is the conference that will remain for the rest of their lives. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is, of the 69 P5 teams in college football, 28 teams either are in a new conference than they were in 2004 or they have spent time in a different conference in that period. That is over 40% of the Power programs. For G5 schools, it is over 80%.
With money driving the game more than ever, don’t be shocked if, in another 10 years, we are looking at another 20 schools in different conferences. Heck, we may get to the point where conferences are so whacky that they decide to reorganize completely under one giant media deal with ESPN/FOX.
https://x.com/byu_fq/status/1811093217573753264
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