With the clamor of football season opening up today and the uncertainty that came over us when Texas A&M announced its departure for the now 13-team SEC (probably), many of us have grown restless over what the future holds for many of our teams. A group of four 16-team megaconferences seems more to be an inevitability than a possibility now. So what does that mean for USF, and for many other schools?
Luckily, I've taken the liberty of projecting what a compilation of a bunch of megaconferences would look like, and I'm going to share them with you, starting with what would be the four BCS conferences after the jump.
| Pacific Conference |
|
|---|
| Pacific Division | Valley Division |
| California | Arizona |
| Hawaii | Arizona State |
| Oregon | Boise State |
| Oregon State | Colorado |
| Stanford | Oklahoma |
| UCLA | Oklahoma State |
| USC | Texas Tech |
| Washington | Utah |
| Midwest Conference | |
|---|
| Great Lakes Division | Midwest Division |
| Indiana | Cincinnati |
| Michigan | Illinois |
| Michigan State | Iowa |
| Minnesota | Kansas |
| Northwestern | Kansas State |
| Ohio State | Louisville |
| Purdue | Missouri |
| Wisconsin | Nebraska |
| Big East Conference | |
|---|
| North Division | South Division |
| Boston College | Clemson |
| Connecticut | Duke |
| Penn State | Maryland |
| Pittsburgh | Miami |
| Rutgers | NC State |
| Syracuse | North Carolina |
| Virginia Tech | South Florida |
| West Virginia | Virginia |
| Southeast Conference | |
|---|
| East Division | West Division |
| Florida | Alabama |
| Florida State | Arkansas |
| Georgia | Auburn |
| Georgia Tech | Louisiana State |
| Kentucky | Mississippi |
| South Carolina | Mississippi State |
| Tennessee | Texas A&M |
| Vanderbilt | Texas Christian |
As you can see, there are not many radical geographical shifts, but rather the nation's football teams have been separated into four regions. You may also have notices that several teams who are currently with BCS conferences are no longer part of one of these major conferences, and also the other way around. Hawaii and Boise State have made the transition to the BCS, while Baylor, Iowa State, Wake Forest, and Washington State are no longer BCS teams due to the lack of substantial value they add to a major conference in basketball and football. Texas has also been stripped of its AQ status, but that's because Texas should go independent in this situation. Next, I'll show you the non-BCS conferences:
| Conference USA | |
|---|
| East Division | West Division |
| Central Florida | Houston |
| Southern Mississippi | SMU |
| East Carolina | Iowa State |
| Memphis | Baylor |
| Wake Forest | Rice |
| Tulane | Tulsa |
| Mid-American Conference | |
|---|
| East Division | West Division |
| Marshall | Toledo |
| Temple | Eastern Michigan |
| Massachusetts | Akron |
| Buffalo | Ball State |
| Kent State | Central Michigan |
| Miami (OH) | Northern Illinois |
| Ohio | Bowling Green |
| Mountain West Conference | |
|---|
| North Division | South Division |
| Washington State | UT-San Antonio |
| Air Force | UT-El Paso |
| Idaho | Texas State |
| Nevada | Fresno State |
| SJSU | San Diego State |
| Wyoming | New Mexico |
| Colorado State | New Mexico State |
| Utah State | UNLV |
| Sun Belt | |
|---|
| East Division | West Division |
| Troy | North Texas |
| FAU | Western Michigan |
| FIU | Western Kentucky |
| UL-Monroe | Arkansas State |
| UAB | UL-Lafayette |
| South Alabama | Louisiana Tech |
Many people will be left unsatisfied by the alignment of the non-AQ conferences. Those people are the fans of borderline teams like Southern Methodist, Houston, Southern Miss, etc. Those people will have to deal with it. There's nothing in the rulebook that says a non-AQ team can't play in BCS games. If you notice, these new conferences all include the teams that will be making the move to FBS in 2012 and beyond. Villanova has not been included for lack of an invitation.
An advantage of this schematic: Every conference has an even amount of teams, leveling the playing field in terms of money and other assets. A disadvantage of course would be the inability for non-AQ teams to move up into the BCS. The four superconferences skew the BCS picture a bit as well, leaving only four spots for true conference champions, and then the other six BCS spots being filled by at-large teams. Maybe this also means the nearing of a playoff, maybe not. But that's a different subject for a different time.
You can't please everyone with these things. You'll always have critics. But in terms of practicality and reality, the college football landscape is changing, and this looks to be the direction in which it's flowing. It appears now that the SEC will still have many of the dominant football teams, but basketball is more spread between the Midwestern and the Big East. So it may not be perfect, but it's probably going to look this way sooner or later.
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