Super Conference Realignment

The Big 12 has recently opened the door to expanding their conference. Typically when one of the Power 5 conferences expands, the others follow. The last time the [now] Power 5 conferences expanded en masse, a few teams left one P5 for another (West Virginia, Texas A&M, Missouri). This led to some conference realignment. With expansion in the near future – and with it, realignment – we decided to take a look at an end-all Super Conference Realignment.

There are endless opinions on this topic, so we had two of our writers give their ultimate realignment scenarios and with them, adjustments to the inevitably expanded playoff bracket.

Super Conferences

Marcus:

When looking at the Power 5 conferences, one can’t help but think at LEAST a handful of Group of 5 teams could hold their own in any of the P5 conferences. Recent moves upward (back when the P5 were known as the AQ conferences) include Utah and TCU. Both came from the Mountain West Conference and moved to the Pac 12 and Big 12 (respectively). Although both struggled at first in their new conferences, this last season both teams were ranked in the top four at one point in the season. So who’s to say any other G5 team couldn’t move up and make some noise? Teams that typically come to mind right off the bat (alphabetically): Boise State, BYU, Cincy, UConn, Houston, Memphis, and San Diego State.

My end-all Super Conference solution sticks with the Power 5 and the Group of 5, each conference has 16 teams and is split into 8 team divisions (west and east, north and south, or however else the conference chooses to divide). Because the Group of 5 conferences will be decimated, a large amount of FCS teams will be added to the G5 conferences. Keep in mind some teams near the bottom of the G5 conferences could replaced with other FCS teams.

Mapping out the full 16 team G5 conferences necessary to complete the full realignment solution. With this setup, the conferences will have a small level of fluidity. Each P5 conference is paired with a G5 conference below it (think sister/brother conferences): ACC/Sun Belt, Big 10/MAC, Big 12/C-USA, Pac 12/MWC, SEC/American. The best team in the sister/brother G5 conference, will move up into the P5 conference to replace the worst team in that P5 conference.

Two teams to note specifically: Notre Dame will finally join the Big 10 (like they should have during the last realignment, and Colorado will move back to the Big 12. Other than that, no other moves seem too outrageous, although some other teams that could arguably be moved up are Northern Illinois, Air Force, Fresno State, Nevada, Navy, SMU, and others. Which is why each season these teams will have the opportunity to move up to their P5 sister/brother conference.

Ryan:

We keep the Power 5 conferences, but each super conference will consist of 18 teams, split into two divisions of 9. This opens the P5 label to a large number of teams currently in the Group of 5 conferences. Notre Dame with join the Big 10, even though their basketball team currently plays in the ACC (the basketball team will also move). Also of note: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Miami (FL) will leave the ACC to join the SEC. Some might argue that this would make the SEC a nearly invincible conference, but that is where the playoff system comes into play to, more or less, level the playing field.

Since the Group of 5 conferences will be heavily altered, the five conferences will merge into four conferences of 10 teams based on region: West USA, Central USA, Mid USA, South USA. In order to create four 10 team conferences, Idaho will not move to the FCS as scheduled, and North Dakota State will make the move to the FBS.

Solving the Playoff Problem

Because there are very few differences between our two writers’ playoff solutions, we will lump them together:

The four team playoff just doesn’t work. Now, it’s exponentially better than the old BS...err...BCS system in which only two teams (determined by ridiculous voting – see our opinion of the AP poll here) had the opportunity to play for the National Championship. Many years, there wasn’t a HUGE controversy on the two teams selected; however, the 2009 season left us with five undefeated teams (Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise State), and a one-loss team (Florida) whose only loss came in the SEC championship (against undefeated Alabama). This scenario led to one of the most jam-packed BCS bowl season in history. Arguably any of these six teams could have (or should have) been in the National Championship game. What a perfect scenario of a playoff!! But that didn’t exist yet. Instead, Alabama and Texas faced off in the championship (because, well, it’s Alabama and Texas...two well-known names in college football) with Alabama taking the ring 37-21. Cincy faced one-loss Florida in the Sugar Bowl (losing soundly 51-24), Boise State faced fellow non-AQ TCU in a close win (17-10) in the Fiesta Bowl. Oregon and Ohio State (both 10-2) finished off the top 8 in the Rose Bowl, with Ohio State winning 26-17. Now imagine this being turned into an 8 team playoff (rankings would slightly be altered):

Round 2:

(1) Alabama vs. (8) Ohio State

(5) Florida vs. (6) Boise State

Do we see Alabama vs. Boise State in the championship? Do we see an SEC rematch? Or does Ohio State upset Alabama (like the did in the first year of the playoff system in 2015) to make the championship against either the Blue and Orange or the Blue and Orange?

Now in theory it would have been set up as follows for round 1:

(1) Alabama vs. (8) Ohio State

(4) TCU vs. (5) Florida

(2) Texas vs. (7) Oregon

(3) Cincy vs. (6) Boise State

This would likely lead to round 2:

(1) Alabama vs. (5) Florida

(2) Texas vs. (6) Boise State

With the Championship being anyone’s guess...but likely the championship would have ended up as how it actually happened (but this wouldn’t happen every season with the same setup – again...remember Ohio State 2015).

Our solution:

The 8 team playoff guarantees each Power 5 conference champion a spot in the playoffs. This essentially makes the P5 Conference Championship games somewhat of a play-in game for those outside of the top 5. These conference champions take seeds 1-5, based on rank. The last three slots are where Ryan and Marcus differ slightly. Ryan’s solution takes the next three highest ranked teams for seeds 6-8. If a Group of 4 team is ranked in the top 12, they automatically take the 8th seed.

Example scenario:

(Rankings)

(1) Alabama (SEC)

(2) Clemson (SEC)

(3) UNC (ACC)

(4) Notre Dame (Big 10)

(5) Oklahoma (Big 12)

(6) Boise State (Pac 12)

(7) Michigan (Big 10)

(8) Houston (Big 12)

(9) East Carolina (ACC)

(10) North Dakota State (West USA)

(Conference Champs)

ACC – East Carolina

Big 10 – Notre Dame

Big 12 – Houston

Pac 12 – Boise State

SEC – Alabama

(Playoff Seeds)

(1) Alabama

(2) Notre Dame

(3) Boise State

(4) Houston

(5) East Carolina

(6) Clemson

(7) UNC

(8) North Dakota State

ROUND 1 ROUND 2 CHAMPIONSHIP

(1) Alabama vs. (8) NDSU (1) Alabama vs. (4) Houston (1) Alabama vs. (6) Clemson

(4) Houston vs. (5) East Carolina (6) Clemson vs. (7) UNC

(3) Boise State vs. (6) Clemson

(2) Notre Dame vs. (7) UNC

Marcus has a slightly different solution for the final three slots: The next two top ranked teams fill the 6 and 7 slot and the highest ranked G5 team takes the 8th seed. If the G5 team is ranked higher than 8th, they take either the 6th seed (if they are ranked 1-6), or 7th (if they are ranked 7th).

Example scenario:

(Rankings)

(1) Alabama (SEC)

(2) Clemson (ACC)

(3) UNC (ACC)

(4) Notre Dame (Big 10)

(5) Oklahoma (Big 12)

(6) Boise State (Pac 12)

(7) Michigan (Big 10)

(8) Houston (SEC)

(9) East Carolina (ACC)

(10) North Dakota State (MWC)

(Conference Champs)

ACC – UNC

Big 10 – Notre Dame

Big 12 – Oklahoma

Pac 12 – Boise State

SEC – Alabama

(Playoff Seeds)

(1) Alabama

(2) UNC

(3) Notre Dame

(4) Oklahoma

(5) Boise State

(6) Clemson

(7) Michigan

(8) North Dakota State

ROUND 1 ROUND 2 CHAMPIONSHIP

(1) Alabama vs. (8) NDSU (1) Alabama vs. (5) Boise State (1) Alabama vs. (6) Clemson

(4) Oklahoma vs. (5) Boise State (6) Clemson vs. (2) UNC

(3) Notre Dame vs. (6) Clemson

(2) UNC vs. (7) Michigan

Seeing as how the two solutions were fairly similar, the example scenario seemingly played out virtually the same. However, they are different enough to make both solutions worth a look.

With Super Conferences and an 8 team playoff system, we could finally see what college football could REALLY offer. One can dream...

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