Conference realignment and playoff expansion alter CFB
After a summer of vacant Saturdays and weeks of sulking in the sports drought, temperatures are dropping and leaves are changing; football season is finally back. And who doesn’t love college football? It’s one of the purest forms of American sport — 134 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams, all with rivalries and traditions steeped in a history of gameplay, race to the top of the nation’s totem pole for a four month season of shoot-outs, rock-fights and everything in between.
With the 2024-25 season comes a revitalized college football landscape. Following a decade of the four-team College Football Playoff, the NCAA welcomes a 12-team format, giving more teams an opportunity to chase the coveted National Champion title. The FBS is also seeing unprecedented conference realignment, with many PAC-12 teams leaving the 65-year-old conference, along with a pair of BIG 12 teams bouncing to the SEC.
In the past, parity was limited by the four-team Playoff. Last year, Florida State went undefeated in regular season play and still missed the Playoff, even despite being a Power-5 school facing a gauntlet of opponents such as LSU, Clemson and Florida. Florida State was worthy of CFP play but didn’t get the nod because four other teams, two of whom lost a game in the regular season, were deemed better by a 13-member committee (partially due to an injury to FSU’s starting quarterback Jordan Travis).
Only allowing four teams to compete in the win-or-go-home NFL-style Playoff was limiting the capitalist opportunity that sport requires, and blatantly stripped fans of battles between the best teams in the nation.
The NCAA is finally making the long awaited change. The new rules are simple: 12 teams, 11 games (the top four ranked conference champions get a bye), and one national champion. A spot in the tournament will be reserved for a G5 (Group of 5) program, so at least one non-“power” team is extended the invitation. With more teams competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff, more opportunity is opened up for the teams that otherwise wouldn’t have gotten the chance that they deserve to compete at the highest level of CFB competition.
And changes aren’t exclusive to the postseason; regular season conference play is seeing new developments as well.
The PAC-12 — which had once been home to a total of 22 National Championships — lost all but two of its teams, including the majority of their heavy hitters, such as USC (who won 11 of the 22 National Championships), UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Cal.
Texas and Oklahoma will be moving conferences as well, as they leave the BIG 12 for the SEC, which has seemed like a logical change ever since the SEC established itself as the premier conference in the South.
With 134 teams, the varying contrast in strategy, skill level, coaching, and environment gives college football its rich depth. It’s the style and culture diversity that allows college football to differ so greatly from any pro sport, and the NCAA is harnessing the unique nature of its product.
The conference realignment and Playoff expansion is creating both more enticing in-conference matchups and a slate of postseason games that will become must-see football, rivaling an NFL playoff game. It’s time to welcome a new era of college football.