We now have our Silly Season in college football. The public messaging behind the realignment may be to increase competition or expand recruiting territory but make no mistake: this is a money grab. TV deals abound, and even though these are primarily football-driven decisions, you can throw geography out the window. We know the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams next season. We have had several FBS teams change conferences recently, and more potentially on the horizon, so let’s see where we currently stand for the Power 5 conferences. And don’t forget to check in each week as I guide you through the college football season with all the major storylines, player profiles, and game previews you will need in our FantasyPros Devy Primer.

• 2024 NFL Draft Guide
• 2024 NFL Draft Prospects to Watch: QB | RB | WR | TE | OT | iOL | DL | EDGE | LB | S | CB
• 2024 NFL Mock Draft: First Round Picks & Predictions
• Dynasty Rookie Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE

College Football Conference Realignment: All You Need to Know!

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

• New Teams: None
• Outgoing Teams: None
• Rumors:
  • Potentially adding: Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, Washington State, SMU
  • Potentially leaving: FSU, Clemson, Virginia, VA Tech, UNC, Miami, NC State

After the big moves on the West Coast, members of the ACC started to re-evaluate their positions in the conference. Florida State has been the most prominent member speaking out about potentially leaving the ACC, with several other teams also inquiring about the current status. There was the real possibility of adding the remaining Pac-12 teams (Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State), but a “non-official” vote between the ACC members revealed that they would not get enough votes for expansion. FSU, Clemson, UNC, and NC State all said they would vote down expansion. To expand, the conference would need 12 of 15 votes and it seems like they don’t have them. So, the ACC will be status quo… for now.

Big Ten

• New Teams (in 2024): Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington
• Outgoing Teams: None
• Rumors:
  • Potentially adding: FSU, Clemson, UNC, Miami

The Big Ten will soon have 18 teams as they welcome four new teams starting in 2024: Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington. USC and UCLA will get full revenue shares from the Big Ten Network, but Oregon and Washington settled for less than a full share to ensure they were added. Regardless, their strength of schedule has risen, and now the Big Ten can add the West Coast to their already fertile recruiting grounds. Adding some ACC teams would further open up recruiting to the Southeast, where there is a bevy of talented football players who are usually ripe for the SEC to pick from.

There has been much talk lately in the media about how these moves affect more than just football. Even though football may be the big check-casher for a school’s athletic program, the other sports, including baseball, soccer, volleyball, and more, will now have to travel outside of their typical regions to play, which can be detrimental to the student-athletes and their families who like to travel to the games. With the largest distance between the new Big Ten schools at 2,915 miles (between Rutgers and Oregon), it will also add to the travel time, time zone changes, and other variables that were not the norm.

Additionally, with those teams leaving the Pac-12, we may now lose long-standing rivalries, such as the Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State and the Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State. With only a 12-game regular season and a division of 9 teams each in the Big Ten, it may be tough to keep those traditions alive.

Big 12

• New Teams:
  • 2023: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF
  • 2024: Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah
• Outgoing Teams (2024): Oklahoma, Texas
• Rumors: No more expansion

The Big 12 hadn’t made as much noise in the expansion department after the bombshell dropped in July 2021 that Oklahoma and Texas, two storied college football stalwarts, announced they were leaving for the SEC. But the Big 12 has quietly made some additions that have strengthened the conference and enabled it to remain a player in the College Football Playoff. This year will be the last year we see Oklahoma and Texas play in the Big 12. Hopefully, we will still see the Red River Shootout, but we may not see any more Bedlam games between OK State and OU following this season.

The Big 12 is adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF this season. All four teams have ranked the past few years, with Cincinnati recently playing in the College Football Playoff as the #4 ranked team in the nation in 2021. These teams will help the Big 12 maintain some of its juice while waiting for four more teams in 2024. Losing Texas and OU is gigantic, but Utah is not a slouch, as they won the last two Pac-12 Championships, earning a spot in the previous two Rose Bowls. And we all know that Colorado’s new head coach Deion Sanders will be an intriguing storyline as he tries to rebuild that program. If the SEC and Big Ten are the top powerhouses in college football, you can make the case that the new-look Big 12 could be right up there over the ACC.

Pac-12

• New Teams: None
• Outgoing Teams (2024): Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Colorado, Oregon, USC, Utah, Washington
• Rumors: Remaining teams to the ACC, dissolving the conference, or merging with Mountain West

The Pac-12 is all but dead after this season. They will lose 66% of their conference to the Big 12 and Big Ten. Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State are left standing with no chairs. The Pac-12 tried to close a TV deal with Apple TV, but the price offered to each school was $12 million less than the next-lowest offer from another conference. The Pac-12 last expanded in 2011 when they added Utah and Colorado, but now it will be a shell of its former self. Usually, the Pac-12 champ heads off to the Rose Bowl, but since the Rose Bowl is part of the College Football Playoff this year, there is no conference tie-in this season unless a current Pac-12 team makes the Playoff. Outside of that, the Pac-12 is guaranteed a New Year’s Six bowl, but we don’t know what the future holds. It will be challenging for the Pac-12 to recover from this, and I think the writing is on the wall for the conference to be a thing of the past.

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

• New Teams (2024): Oklahoma, Texas
• Outgoing Teams: None
• Rumors: Potentially add Clemson, FSU, UNC, Virginia, VA Tech

The SEC has always brought the “Power” in the Power 5 conference. The SEC has won 13 of the last 17 National Championships, and their recruiting has always been top-notch, with Georgia, Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M always in the top-10 in recruiting classes. Now add in the fact that Texas and OU will be joining next season. With the additions of Texas and OU, the SEC will eliminate divisions and become a 16-team conference. The SEC doesn’t necessarily need to counter the Big Ten with expansion, but adding tradition-laden schools like FSU and Clemson wouldn’t hurt. And if they were to take any of the Virginia or North Carolina teams, that would potentially cut into the Big Ten’s recruiting territory.

The consensus top conferences in college football are the SEC and Big Ten. They could be interchangeable at #1 and #2, depending on who you talk to. The SEC has just been a dominant conference for a long time. They have expanded twice since 1991, when they they added Arkansas and South Carolina, and then again in 2012 when they added Mizzou and Texas A&M. They will remain a dominant force in college football, and it will be interesting to see if any of the teams currently in the conference can make a run to dethrone Georgia or Alabama.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | iHeartRadio