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?