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Another Look at Realignment, CFB: Reborn

It's happening again: the talk of realignment is back again as news came out earlier today that Oklahoma and Texas had discussions with the SEC. So, it's time to bring back this gem that is my version of College Football Realignment! So without further ado, here it is – College Football: Reborn.



I'm going to make this article much shorter and more to the point than it was last time around, but if you want to read the full and original version, you can find it here: https://cfbselect.com/2020/07/22/college-football-realignment/


The Layout


As things stand now, it looks more and more like we are headed towards more teams with fewer conferences. However, this is a view in which I strongly disagree with. Playing regional is not something we should look to move away from in College Football, but rather something we should continue to lean more into. The structure of my realignment is based on the geographic location of schools while still attempting to keep history, rivalries, and traditions alive.


Instead of the 10 conferences made up of various numbers of teams that we see today, College Football would be made up of 12 different conferences made up of 10 teams each. This would help to balance out the conferences across the board. The FBS currently consists of 130 different schools across the country. The new layout would only see 120 teams in the FBS. This new alignment would see 13 teams relegated to the FCS while 3 teams will be promoted to the FBS.

So, to summarize:

  • 120 Total Teams

  • 12 Conferences

  • 10 Teams per Conference

  • 13 Teams Relegated to FCS

  • 3 Teams Promoted to FBS

Every team would play a Round-Robin style set of conference games resulting in 9 conference games. Each team would then play 3 non-conference games with the option to play 1 FCS team available (I know this is not liked, but the payouts for the FCS schools are needed to help keep their athletic departments alive).


The Top 2 finishers in each conference would advance to the First Round of the College Football Playoff where the winner would advance to the Round of 12. Yes, that’s right; the Playoff will be expanded to a 24-team Playoff.


All other teams with at least 6 wins would play in normal bowl games, as is done currently.

Here is how the new College Football Playoff will look:

  • 24 Teams

  • All Auto-Bids

  • Top 2 per Conference Advance

  • Round 1 (Round of 24):

  • “Conference Championships”

  • Neutral Site or Higher Seed is Host; Dependent on Conference

  • Round 2 (Top 12):

  • 4 Highest Remaining Seeds on BYE

  • Seeds 5-12 in Traditional 8-Team Format Tournament

  • Higher Seed is Host

  • Round 3 (National Quarterfinals):

  • Seeds 1-8 in Traditional 8-Team Format Tournament

  • Neutral Site

  • Round 4 (National Semifinals):

  • 4 Remaining Teams in Traditional 4-Team Tournament Format

  • Neutral Site

  • Round 5 (National Championship):

  • 2 Remaining Teams in Traditional 2-Team Tournament Format

  • Neutral Site

The Rankings

The current system in place to determine how a team is ranked in College Football is via the College Football Playoff Committee, a group of 13 people. While the idea of having humans selecting the rankings may seem appealing at first, the appeal quickly dies away. Of course, this is simply because we as humans have opinions, and that’s okay, but opinions shouldn’t be choosing how the teams are ranked, or at least choosing alone. The new ranking system will be made up of 7 different ranking systems averaged together. We bring old and new together as we have 4 computer rankings and 3 human rankings combine. Here’s a quick breakdown:

  • 7 Polls Averaged

  • 4 Computer Polls

  • MaxDiff

  • BCS

  • ESPN FPI

  • Heck-Miles

  • 3 Human Polls

  • CFP Committee

  • AP

  • Coaches


The Conferences

  • AAC – American Athletic Conference

  • Headquarters in Louisville, KY or Indianapolis, IN or Richmond, VA

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Lucas Oil Stadium; Indianapolis, IN

  • M&T Bank Stadium; Baltimore, MD

  • FedEx Field; Washington D.C.


  • ACC – Atlantic Coastal Conference

  • Headquarters in Charlotte, NC or Columbia, SC

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Bank of America Stadium; Charlotte, NC

  • Lincoln Financial Field; Philadelphia, PA


  • B1G – Big Ten Conference

  • Headquarters in Columbus, OH or Detroit, MI or Indianapolis, IN

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Ford Field; Detroit, MI

  • Lucas Oil Stadium; Indianapolis, IN

  • Paul Brown Stadium; Cincinnati, OH


  • CPC – Central Plains Conference

  • Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN or Chicago, IL

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Soldier Field; Chicago, IL

  • U.S. Bank Stadium; Minneapolis, MN


  • GCC – Gulf Coast Conference

  • Headquarters in Houston, TX or New Orleans, LA

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Mercedes-Benz Superdome; New Orleans, LA

  • NRG Stadium; Houston, TX


  • GPC – Great Plains Conference

  • Headquarters in Kansas City, KS/MO or Denver, CO

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Arrowhead Stadium; Kansas City, MO

  • Empower Field at Mile High; Denver, CO


  • MWC – Mountain West Conference

  • Headquarters in Seattle, WA or Salt Lake City, UT

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Century-Link Field; Seattle, WA

  • Allegiant Field; Las Vegas, NV


  • NEC – Northeastern Conference

  • Headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA or New York City, NY or Trenton, NJ

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • MetLife Stadium; East Rutherford, NJ

  • Heinz Field; Pittsburg, PA

  • Gillette Stadium; Foxborough, MA


  • PAC – Pacific Athletic Conference

  • Headquarters in Los Angeles, CA or San Francisco, CA

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Levi’s Stadium; Santa Clara, CA

  • SoFi Stadium; Inglewood, CA

  • State Farm Stadium; Phoenix, AZ


  • SAC – Southern America Conference

  • Headquarters in Dallas, TX or Oklahoma City, OK

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • AT&T Stadium; Arlington, TX

  • Alamodome; San Antonio, TX


  • SBC - Sun Belt Conference

  • Headquarters in Memphis, TN or Nashville, TN or Mobile, AL

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Nissan Stadium; Nashville, TN

  • Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium; Memphis, TN


  • SBC - Southeastern Conference

  • Headquarters in Atlanta, GA or Orlando, FL or Tampa, FL

  • Possible Conference Championship Location:

  • Mercedes-Benz Stadium; Atlanta, GA

  • Camping World Stadium; Orlando, FL

  • Hard Rock Stadium; Miami, FL

  • Raymond James Stadium; Tampa, FL

  • TIAA Bank Field; Jacksonville, FL



Realignment

Finally, the moment you all clicked this article for! Where does your team end up?


The following 13 teams said goodbye to the FBS:

  • Akron

  • Bowling Green State

  • Central Michigan

  • East Carolina

  • Kent State

  • Liberty

  • Middle Tennessee State

  • New Mexico State

  • Rice

  • Texas State

  • UConn

  • UMass

  • UTEP

Meanwhile, we had 3 teams say hello to the FBS:

  • James Madison

  • North Dakota State

  • Northern Iowa

And alas, here they are: the Realignment!


AAC – American Athletic Conference



ACC – Atlantic Coastal Conference



B1G – Big Ten Conference



CPC – Central Plains Conference



GCC – Gulf Coast Conference



GPC – Great Plains Conference



MWC – Mountain West Conference



NEC – Northeastern Conference



PAC – Pacific Athletic Conference



SAC – Southern America Conference



SBC – Sun Belt Conference



SEC – Southeastern Conference



It's not perfect by any means, but it's a direction I believe College Football should move in. All of that said, thanks for sticking with me this far, and leave me some feedback!


Do you like where your team landed at? Could you see the FBS moving to a model similar to this in the future or do you think conferences will grow into Super Conferences in the future?

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