What Were the NCAA Conference Realignments?

While our favorite NCAA Division 1 college football teams finish up their preseason schedules, many fans are still trying to sort out all of the conference alignment changes from earlier this summer.  Luckily, we have another whole season to figure it out, as the moves are not effective until at least the 2011-12 season.

The school that seemed to set off the chain reaction was the University of Colorado with their decision to switch from the Big 12 to the Pac-10 conference, effective in 2012. Growing beyond their namesake with their eleventh school, the conference made no secret of its goal to continue growing, possibly to be the Pac-16.

Other Big 12 universities were rumoured and asked by the Pac-10 to go west, but in the end it was the University of Utah that went surfing leaving the Mountain West Conference (MWC).  Having twelve members allows the Pac-10 to split into two six team divisions and play a lucrative conference championship game.

The jewel of the Big 12 was the University of Nebraska, especially their football program. Courted by several conferences, the Cornhuskers made the dramatic jump to the Big 10 just days after Colorado’s announcement.  Of course, the Big 10 has been mislabeled for 20 years after the addition of its eleventh member Penn State. Like their counterpart out west, the Big-10 can now form two divisions and crown their champion with a final game.  Those alignments were just announced with a balance of equity and traditional rivalries deciding the match-ups.

Both the Pac-10 and the Big 10 see the potential for more TV contract revenue as they expand their geographical base.  More teams means more households into which to beam their sportscasts.

While the major conferences fought over the big fish, a so-called mid-major conference was also on growth spurt.  Hurt by the loss of Utah, the Mountain West Conference (MWC) staged a coup by first attracting perennial football star Boise State University from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).  After another MWC stalwart, Brigham Young University, announced they would take their football program independent with their other teams going to the West Coast Conference, the conference poached two more teams from the WAC, Fresno State and the University of Nevada.  Utah State turned down an offer from the MWC, thinking the WAC would remain intact.

One thing is for sure; don’t use the conference names as a clue to their size.  Both the Pac-10 and Big 10 now have 12 teams and the Big 12 is down to 10 teams.  It may be time for a marketing firm to start working on some generic, non-committal names.

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Dan Peterson writes about sports science at Sports Are 80 Percent Mental.

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