College football's new landscape: How conference realignment has changed the map

It’s a time of change in college football.

The calendar is flipping from June to July, and that means the makeup of several conferences across the sport’s landscape is officially changing.

The latest wave of realignment began back in July 2021 when news emerged that Oklahoma and Texas would leave the Big 12 for the SEC. That monumental move won’t go into effect until next summer, but it caused a major ripple effect throughout college athletics as conferences raced to secure stability.

Among the impending changes are UCLA and USC’s cross-country journey from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. While that move also won’t officially materialize until July 2024 (there’s also the College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams in 2024), 14 FBS schools will officially move conferences on Saturday, July 1.

Here’s a look at what’s different in 2023 and what could be coming on the horizon.

Big 12 officially adds 4 new members

With its two most prominent members, Oklahoma and Texas, exiting, the Big 12 was in a tenuous position. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby had to act fast with his league facing the prospect of being down to just eight members — or imploding altogether.

And that’s just what he did. Bowlsby, who has since retired, was quick to add BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to the Big 12. The formal invitations were announced on Sept. 10, 2021, less than two months after the initial news report from the Houston Chronicle signaled the dawn of a new wave of realignment.

BYU had been operating as an FBS independent since the 2011 season following its departure from the Mountain West and had been angling to join a power conference. The other three are set to make the transition from the American Athletic Conference. Houston has had recent success — particularly in men’s basketball — and is a natural geographic fit with the other Texas-based Big 12 members. Cincinnati also has a rich basketball history and has been a perennial football contender with UCF atop the AAC. Adding UCF also brings Big 12 football into the fertile recruiting grounds of Florida.

For the 2023 season, the Big 12 will operate as a 14-team conference with Oklahoma and Texas playing out one final year before they go to the SEC.

AAC bringing in 6 new members

Once three of the American Athletic Conference’s top schools were raided by the Big 12, the trickle-down effect continued with the AAC reaching into Conference USA.

First, the AAC pursued Mountain West members like Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State. In October 2021, all four opted to stand pat with the MWC.

From there, the AAC (which was down to eight members) pivoted and reached agreements with six members of Conference USA: Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA.

On Oct. 21, 2021, the news became official, creating a 14-team conference for football. Those six C-USA schools will join East Carolina, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa for football. Navy is a football-only member. Wichita State is also a member of the AAC but does not have a football program.

With the new teams added for 2023, the AAC has eliminated divisions and will play an eight-game league schedule.

Sun Belt previously added multiple C-USA schools

With those six schools leaving for the AAC, C-USA was all of a sudden down to just eight members. Three of those remaining members — Southern Miss, Old Dominion and Marshall — did not want to wait around to see what was going to happen with Conference USA. Instead, they jumped at the chance to join the Sun Belt.

Before October 2021 concluded, all three became official Sun Belt members. In the months that followed, they all accelerated their exits from C-USA in time to make their debuts in the Sun Belt last fall.

The Sun Belt also added James Madison from the FCS level to create a 14-member conference.

Conference USA left to pick up the pieces

Conference USA was left on the brink of complete collapse with six members departing for the AAC and three others heading to the Sun Belt. That left five remaining members — Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, UTEP and Western Kentucky.

Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky subsequently had flirtations with the MAC, but decided to stick with C-USA as the conference worked to add new members. Liberty and New Mexico State joined the fold after previously being FBS independents. The conference also added Jacksonville State and Sam Houston from the FCS level.

With the additions of Liberty, NMSU, Jacksonville State and Sam Houston, C-USA will operate as a nine-team football conference in 2023. Additionally, Kennesaw State will transition from FCS to FBS and join the conference in 2024 to round out the 10-team configuration.

For 2023, the league will have no divisions and play a round-robin eight-game conference schedule. And much like the MAC, C-USA will get some national spotlight by playing many of its games on weeknights, beginning in October.

Pac-12 media rights deal looms large in next phase of realignment

All eyes are on the Pac-12, which is in a vulnerable state.

The conference has been scrambling to secure a new media rights deal. That was true even before UCLA and USC decided to leave for the Big Ten. Those departures meant the overall value of the league’s broadcast inventory took a massive hit, and it also increased the urgency to try to get a deal done.

The Big Ten’s new deal with Fox, CBS and NBC commences July 1. The SEC’s exclusive ESPN deal begins next year. The Big 12 reached an extension through 2030-31 with ESPN and Fox. The ACC’s grant of rights has it in media purgatory until 2036.

The Pac-12’s impending broadcast contract will play a massive role in dictating the course of its future. If commissioner George Kliavkoff can strike a deal that is commensurate with the Big 12’s (reportedly around $32 million annually to its members), the conference’s remaining 10 members could opt to stick together. If not, some of its members may be looking for other alternatives to guarantee more revenue.

As always finances are the main motivator here, and the Big 12 could be ready to pounce.

The Big 12 is open to further expansion, commissioner Brett Yormark said at the conclusion of the league’s spring meetings in early June. According to multiple reports, Colorado has had conversations with the Big 12, which is reportedly eyeing CU along with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.

Other schools like UConn, Memphis and Gonzaga have emerged in media reports as possible options for further Big 12 expansion. Gonzaga is a basketball power out of the West Coast Conference that does not have a football program. UConn, the defending national champions in men’s basketball, left the AAC for the Big East in basketball and plays football as an independent.

“We have a plan,” Yormark said. “We have an appetite to be a national conference in our makeup from coast to coast. We love our current composition, love the four new schools that are coming in the next month. However, if the opportunity presents itself to create value, we will pursue it. It is a focus of ours.”

There’s also the status of San Diego State, which informed the Mountain West that it plans to exit the conference. SDSU has long been linked to the Pac-12 (which wants to maintain a presence in Southern California), but the lack of a new Pac-12 media rights deal got in the way of SDSU’s exit plan. For now, SDSU is staying put in the Mountain West.

The ACC’s 14 members are tethered together by the conference’s ESPN deal that goes through 2036. It’s not an ideal situation as the other leagues will get to renegotiate their media deals again before the ACC’s grant of rights expires. Many ACC schools are displeased, as evidenced by the new revenue distribution model that will go into effect in 2024, but there are a lot of legal hurdles to overcome for any of them to break free from the conference.

Meanwhile, the SEC and Big Ten — who have now distanced themselves from the rest of the pack in terms of revenue — loom quietly in the background.

Both the Oklahoma-Texas and UCLA-USC departures came out of left field, so perhaps the best piece of advice as we move forward into a new era is to expect the unexpected.