Nearly two years ago, I laid out my proposal for a dramatic realignment of the FBS level of NCAA football. Today, inspired by Sports Illustrated's recent (and, frankly, awful) realignment plan, I've gone back to the drawing board and come up with something even more radical than before. After playing around with ideas for modifying the existing conference structures, I kept coming up with a group of six northeastern schools that would be difficult to fit into conferences: UConn, UMass, Army, Rutgers, Temple, and Navy. I thought it would be interesting if they had a little conference of their own, and even more interesting if they played a double-round robin conference schedule (ie two games against each conference opponent, one home and one away, for a total of ten conference games). Spurred on by this idea, I decided to try to see if I could do something similar with other groupings of schools. This is what formed the basis of the proposal laid out below.
As I've already mentioned the core concept here is the six-team conference playing a double round-robin schedule. From this, I was able to come up with 16 such conferences, for a total of 96 schools. This includes every Power Five school, all of the schools from the Mountain West and American Conferences, and some independent, CUSA and Sun Belt Conference schools to round out the list. As I see it, this plan represents a throwback to the past, a continuation of current trends, and something completely novel all at once.
In terms of being a return to college football tradition, the conferences are all heavily based on geography, and more specifically geographic rivalries. This is a far cry from the sprawling, geographically nonsensical conference alignments of the present day (why on Earth is West Virginia in the Big 12??). Travel distances would be greatly reduced in every conference, with most schools not having to go more than a state or two over to play a conference game. In the age of COVID-19, this kind of arrangement may well become necessary to begin with.
As a continuation of current trends, this proposal would see the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to sixteen teams. Let's consider that an expansion to eight teams is almost an inevitability at this point, so sixteen isn't really all that far-fetched, and would only meaning adding one potential game to a given team's schedule if we get rid of conference championship games. I for one would love to see a "March Madness" style FBS tournament, especially if it gives smaller schools an opportunity to play Cinderella while still generally seeing the blue bloods come out on top, as this proposal likely would.
The novel element of this plan is the double round-robin conference schedule. As far as I'm aware this has not been implemented by an FBS conference before, certainly not in recent times. Usually the only time two teams would play each other twice is if they met again in a conference title game. The only example I could find of this being done intentionally in the regular season is the current series between New Mexico State and Liberty - and that one is only because both teams are independents who need to fill out their schedules. Yet I don't think this plan is as outlandish as it may seem at first. Divisional rivals in the NFL get to play each other twice despite playing only a 16-game schedule, and college basketball conferences have traditionally used a double round-robin format. I don't think anyone would argue that getting to see a Cowboys-Giants or Duke-UNC game twice a year is a bad thing. Now imagine if you could have Ohio State-Michigan or Alabama-Auburn twice a year, instead of having one of those games being Ohio State-Rutgers or Alabama-Vanderbilt instead. Having smaller conferences would make this possible, while still allowing for two non-conference games to be played every year. And even with the smaller conferences, I found that most of the major rivalries within conferences could still be maintained.
So, without any further ado, here's what these conferences would look like. Note that the conference names are just placeholders to help distinguish the conferences from one another:
Northwest Conference
Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, BYU
Made up of five Pac-12 schools (four from the North division alone) and one independent, this conference would have the potential to be one of the strongest in this new alignment. The key rivalries here are the in-state ones: Washington-Washington State, Oregon-Oregon State, and Utah-BYU, the latter of which would be a conference game for the first time since 2010; Washington-Oregon would be the other key rivalry. This would be one of the few conferences where the states are not geographically contiguous.
Far West Conference
Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State
This conference would be completely composed of schools from the Pac-12, four of them from the South division. The four California schools are all reunited here with their key rivalries (Stanford-Cal, Cal-UCLA, UCLA-USC, and USC-Stanford), while Arizona and Arizona State are kept together.
Pacific West Conference
Hawaii, San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Nevada, UNLV
This is literally the West division of the Mountain West Conference. Fresno State maintains its rivalries with San Diego State, San Jose State, and Hawaii, while Nevada and UNLV are also kept together. Probably one of the weaker conferences here.
Rocky Mountain Conference
Boise State, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico
This is likewise the Mountain division of the MWC, and also a relatively weak conference. We see a fairly low concentration of major rivalries, the biggest being Utah State-Wyoming, Wyoming-Colorado State, and Colorado State-Air Force. I would have liked to put Boise State elsewhere (as I did with my previous proposal) but can't really make that work here.
Great Plains Conference
Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Arkansas
This conference is loaded with rivalries from the old Big Eight - Nebraska alone would have rivalry games against Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri, while we also have Kansas-Kansas State and Kansas-Missouri. Arkansas is a bit of an awkward fit, though at least they'd have the opportunity to continue building their rivalry with Missouri.
Central Conference
Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois
Five of these six schools hail from the Big Ten West, giving us a number of rivalries: Minnesota-Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Iowa, Iowa-Minnesota, and Northwestern-Illinois. Meanwhile, Iowa-Iowa State is made a conference game. Arguably one of the stronger conferences in this alignment.
Great Lakes Conference
Purdue, Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State
Probably one of the two strongest conferences here (along with the Deep South). Five of the schools are from the Big Ten, and four from the East division alone. Michigan-Ohio State is one of the greatest rivalries in sports, while you also maintain the Michigan-Michigan State, Purdue-Indiana, and Indiana-Michigan State rivalries. Adding Notre Dame to the mix allows them to play existing rivals Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue, and potentially build an in-state rivalry with Indiana.
Appalachian Conference
Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Maryland
We restore four core schools of the old Big East here. A very high concentration of rivalry games, as Syracuse, Pitt, Penn State ,and West Virginia are all rivals with each other. We also see the Boston College-Syracuse, Penn State-Maryland, and West Virginia-Maryland rivalries here.
North Atlantic Conference
UConn, UMass, Army, Rutgers, Temple, Navy
The conference that formed the basis for this whole idea, this may ironically be the weakest of all of them. This also has the fewest rivalry games, with only UConn-UMass and Army-Navy counting as such currently. However, I believe Rutgers-Temple would have obvious rivalry potential, and the geographic proximity and relatively similar strength of these programs overall makes me think this could actually work quite well.
Tidewater Conference
Virginia, Virginia Tech, UNC, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest
Another conference with a high concentration of rivalries, mainly due to all of the Tobacco Road schools being each other's rivals. We also have the Virginia-Virginia Tech and UNC-Virginia rivalries here. I think these ACC schools would benefit greatly from being out of the shadow of the Clemson Goliath.
South Atlantic Conference
Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Florida, Miami
This conference combines four ACC and two SEC schools, although South Carolina was actually a founding member of the ACC as well. The three Florida schools are all each other's rivals, and we also get Clemson's rivalries with Florida State, South Carolina and Georgia Tech. I would have loved to fit Georgia in here somehow, but I think this works nonetheless.
Deep South Conference
LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia
Not only is this the strongest conference here - consisting entirely of SEC blue bloods - but also the one with the highest concentration of rivalries. Literally every single one of Alabama's conference games would be considered a rivalry game. We also get LSU's rivalries with Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Auburn, as well as the Ole Miss-Mississippi State rivalry. Georgia has the fewest here, counting "just" Alabama and Auburn as rivals. This would be an extremely entertaining conference schedule to watch.
Upland Conference
Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
An interesting conference with a relatively high rivalry density, I'm sure many of these programs would be glad to have their own spotlight for once, especially the three SEC schools here. Louisville, Cincinnati, and Memphis are all rivals of each other, as are Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee. Louisville-Kentucky would be made a conference game for the first time, and Memphis would have the opportunity to build rivalries with its in-state foes as well.
Magnolia Conference
Tulsa, TCU, Baylor, Rice, SMU, Tulane
A riff off of the old "Southern Ivies" concept of the 1950s and 1960s, all of these are private schools based in the South. These schools are historically connected through their various associations in the SWC, CUSA, and the American Conference. There's already a few rivalries here, including Baylor-TCU, TCU-SMU, and SMU-Rice.
Red River Conference
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Houston
Five of these six schools have direct ties to the Big 12, while Houston played in the SWC, the Big 12's predecessor. Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech all have rivalries with each other, while Oklahoma's rivalries with Texas and Oklahoma State are also present.
Southern Coast Conference
Appalachian State, East Carolina, Central Florida, South Florida, FAU, FIU
I feel like this conference could be called "The Leftovers", as we are forced to throw together the three remianing American Conference schools with schools from CUSA and the Sun Belt in order to round out our 96-school pool. This produces one of the only non-contiguous conferences in this proposal. However, these schools are actually decently strong, with FAU and App State dominating their respective conferences over the past few years and UCF emerging as one of the best Group of Five schools in the country. There's also a couple of rivalries here, particularly UCF-USF and FAU-FIU, as well as a burgeoning rivalry between UCF and ECU. I could see in-state rivalries forming between App State and ECU as well as between the four Florida schools as a whole.
While this proposal may have originated simply as a curiosity, I genuinely feel that this plan has legitimate merit. Think of all the advantages over the current system: a higher concentration of rivalry games, stronger overall quality of games, a fairer shot for more teams to be in contention for a championship, and far more more games that are relevant late into the season. What more could you ask for?
