Look at what we currently have for FBS football conferences. Take a good long look at it. Maybe you like it, maybe you believe it could be improved. Well, completely scrap it. Throw it in the trash and give me your eyes and ears. Conference realignment has been a hot topic on my mind ever since Cam Leblanc and I did it our junior year of high school. This past weekend, I worked day and night to look at the FBS conferences, throw it in the trash, and do God’s work. I realigned the conferences on my own.
My main goal in doing this was simple: eliminate small conferences like C-USA and Sun Belt while also putting an end to independent schools. I also wanted to make sure that no team had to travel an absurd distance for a conference game. Another goal was to elevate a handful of FCS schools to the big leagues. Some were already making the move, and others I felt deserved a shot in the FBS. For this realignment, I elevated North Dakota State, Eastern Washington, San Diego, Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State, and James Madison.
Now I present to you, the nine new FBS football conferences.
Big North East
North: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Boston College, Buffalo, Syracuse, Army, Rutgers, Temple
South: Penn State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Navy, Maryland, West Virginia, James Madison (bump up)
Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC)
East: East Carolina, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Appalachian State, South Carolina, Clemson
West: Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Louisville, Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee, Tennessee
South East Conference (SEC)
East: Miami, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, South Florida (USF), Central Florida (UCF), Jacksonville State (bump up), Florida
West: Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, Troy, Alabama Birmingham (UAB), Ole Miss, Mississippi State
The Heartland Conference (HC)
East: Marshall, Ohio, Ohio State, Akron, Toledo, Kent State, Cincinnati, Bowling Green, Miami Ohio
West: Ball State, Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue, Western Michigan, Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan
Big South Athletic Conference (BSAC)
NO REGIONS: Missouri, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Memphis, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Lafayette , Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana State (LSU), Tulane, Southern Mississippi , Houston, Sam Houston State (bump up)
Tornado Alley Conference (TAC)
North: Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Texas San Antonio (UTSA), Baylor, Texas Christian (TCU)
South: Southern Methodist (SMU), North Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Kansas, Kansas State
Middle America Conference (MAC)
East: Northwestern, Northern Illinois, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota
West: North Dakota State (bump up), Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Colorado State, Air Force, Texas Tech
West Coast Athletic Conference (WCAC)
North: Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Nevada, California, Stanford, San Jose State
South: Fresno State, Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), California Los Angeles (UCLA), Southern California (USC), San Diego State, San Diego (bump up), Hawaii
Mountain West Athletic Conference (MWAC)
North: Eastern Washington (bump up), Idaho, Washington State, Boise State, Utah State, Utah
South: Brigham Young (BYU), New Mexico, New Mexico State, Arizona, Arizona State, Texas El Paso (UTEP)
Like What You See?
By realigning to these nine athletic conferences for football, six FCS programs get bumped up to compete at the FBS level, growing their universities infrastructure. We also see the cut down of travel within conferences. In the “old” AAC, teams like Navy would have to travel to BYU and Houston for in- conference away games.
Now, Navy will be confined to the northeast for all of their in conference games. Going out west, we see the travel spread out a bit because there aren’t clusters of universities like there are in the northeast and Ohio valley. It still is a better compromise than having to travel across the nation to play your conference games. Every conference also has a great mix of playoff contenders and smaller schools to up the competition of play from every team. This will also improve recruiting because there are better shots at teams winning their conference championship.
While this may sound like a pipe dream coming from a delusional college kid writing this on fumes and a few cups of coffee, it does make sense. Right? Teams will still be able to schedule out of conference games like they already do. Alabama can still play Texas A&M and maybe this opens the door on a return of Notre Dame vs Miami. This conference realignment also guarantees us WILD games ever year. You are guaranteed Michigan vs Notre Dame, Miami vs Florida, UCLA vs USC, and Iowa vs Iowa State EVERY SINGLE SEASON. Who doesn’t love a guarantee like that?
Someone needs to get Mark Emmert on the phone with me as soon as possible.
