Conference Realignment
I’m not necessarily uncomfortable with conference realignment, but you can’t deny that some of that nostalgia that college football once had is lost. No more Pac-12, USC is in the same conference as Michigan, the AAC got fleeced, but I’m still remaining optimistic and excited about it. Plenty of great games come out of it.
BIG TEN:
The Big Ten has the potential to have some great games, but on paper some of the matchups are strange. USC plays Rutgers, Oregon plays Maryland, UCLA plays Minnesota, etc. Some of the games just don’t feel right. On the flip side to that, the realignment creates some awesome matchups like Ohio State at Oregon and Penn State at USC, which just about every college football fan is chomping at the bit waiting to see those games.
With four of the former Pac-12 schools joining the Big Ten (Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC) it definitely changes the landscape of what we once knew as the Big Ten. It’s not only two completely different styles of football, but it’s completely different environments. The Big schools are known for their size and bully ball style of offense. Smaller teams like USC and UCLA are going to need to be ready to face those massive Big Ten defenses and deal with stopping the run offense. Ultimately USC will end up translating to the Big Ten, it may just be a less smooth transition than a team like Oregon is going to make. Their schedule definitely doesn't help playing LSU, Michigan, and Penn State in conference as well as Notre Dame out of conference.
Oregon will adjust perfectly. They’re an incredibly high powered offense who I expect to make a very deep playoff run with a potential National Championship berth. Even though they lost their QB, their top RB, and top receiver they're still stacked with talent mainly due to third year head coach Danny Lanning's spectacular work in the transfer portal.
Washington has lost a ton this off season. Their ceiling should be around six or seven wins. I don’t believe they will compete at as high of a level as they did last year, especially with the toughest conference schedule in the Big Ten. They play Michigan, at Oregon, at Penn State, at Iowa, and USC.
PAC-12:
Washington State and Oregon State are the only teams who have not disbanded from the PAC-12, forming the "PAC-2". The ten other schools formally in the conference have been realigned to different conferences.
SEC:
The SEC makes a lot of sense to me. Texas and Oklahoma seemingly belong there and have competed with many SEC schools for years. The changes in the SEC are not as significant as the changes in the Big Ten conference. Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC is going to feel very normal as time goes on.
Texas is a team that has a serious shot at the National Championship, and Sarkisian is hungry for some hardware entering his fourth year at the helm. Quinn Ewers, who is a legitimate Heisman contender, is the perfect candidate to help lead this team in his third year as the starter at Texas.
The change from the Big 12 to the SEC may have thrown a rift in things for Oklahoma. They’re coming off a ten win season, they have nine returners on defense, a great receiving core, the #1 QB in the highschool class of 2023. Some may be thinking it’s only up from here, but there’s a few issues. Their Offensive coordinator from last season Jeff Lebby has left, all five starters on the O-Line have left, and their schedule is tremendously difficult with Tennessee, Texas, at Ole Miss, at Missouri, Alabama, and at LSU. Absolutely brutal. The issue with Oklahoma is out of there control. They have good talent, just an absolute gauntlet of a schedule. Somehow it’s not the toughest schedule in the SEC, just take a look at Florida’s 2024-25 schedule:
The SEC overall becomes increasingly competitive.
ACC:
The ACC is a sample size of what the Big Ten is like when it comes to conference realignment. Cal, Stanford, and SMU are all coming in. Just like the Big Ten, some very weird games here. Stanford has to play at Syracuse on a Friday Night? That just feels plain insane.
BIG 12:
Texas and Oklahoma being poached from the Big 12 are massive hits for them, but at least they didn’t leave empty handed. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado join the conference. Lost some of their top teams but replenished with an incredible Utah team that has a legitimate case to be a National Championship contender, a solid Arizona team with a new coach, Colorado led by Coach Prime and ASU who unfortunately has not looked great in the past, but can easily be overlooked coming into the Big 12.
MOVES OUTSIDE THE POWER 4:
AAC hasn’t added much of anything and SMU jumped ship to a power four conference while the AAC acquired Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UTSA, and Army. They got absolutely raided and did not replenish.
12 Team Playoff
The expanded playoff is incredible for College Football. More teams have a shot at the title, first round home playoff games, and way less opportunity for the committee to screw up.
The 12 teams in the playoff will be selected based on the four highest ranked conference champions, which will all receive a bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded wherever they are already ranked or at No. 12 if they're outside the top 12. Teams ranked 6-12 will be selected based on the highest ranked non conference champions. In the first round teams will play at the higher ranked teams home stadium while later rounds will be at standard bowl game locations.
With the 12 team playoff, there's a way bigger chance of a “Cinderella” type team to make the playoff. College football overall is very top heavy in terms of talented teams. Some of the first round games will likely be blowouts. The 1 and 12, 2 and 11, games like that. Later rounds it is likely we will get more competitive games fortunately. Those teams who happen to sneak into the playoff will likely have a rude awakening.
Losses in the regular season matter a little less for the top schools. You have teams like last year's Georgia team who would’ve likely won the national championship had they not lost to Alabama in the final week of the regular season which ultimately lead to them being snubbed from the playoff. Even Florida State who went 13-0 last season was not selected into the playoff because of star quarterback Jordan Travis’ injury. Things like that won’t happen with this new 12 team playoff. There’s too many slots in the playoff to snub teams like that. That doesn’t mean the powerhouse schools can let their guard down throughout the regular season though. With the eight additional slots in the playoff, that means if you’re a big school you have a target on your back. We saw it this past weekend with Florida State dropping their Week 0 matchup against Georgia Tech in Ireland 27-24 despite being 10.5 point favorites.
A lot of the top teams in the power four conferences benefit from the 12 team playoff. You don’t need to win your conference to squeeze into the playoff anymore. If you do, you get a top 4 seed, but If you’re a team that doesn’t win your conference but has been a top ten team all year, you’re going to have a bid to the playoff.
Home games in the first round is a very exciting spin on the playoff. The atmosphere is going to be absolutely electric. Exactly what College Football is about.
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