NCAA College Football Conference Landscape in the Modern Era

The landscape of college football conferences is ever-evolving. The release of College Football 25 by EA Sports brings this dynamic world to the forefront, allowing fans to customize and reimagine conference alignments. This article delves into the current conference structures, recent realignments, and potential future setups, drawing inspiration from both historical configurations and forward-thinking adjustments.

Introduction: The Ever-Changing World of College Football

College football has witnessed significant transformations in recent years, primarily driven by conference realignments. These changes have not only altered the composition of conferences but also reshaped the competitive balance and traditional rivalries. As the 2025-2026 season approaches, understanding the current conference landscape is crucial for fans, analysts, and gamers alike.

The Foundations: A Hybrid Approach to Conference Alignment

One approach to creating a compelling conference setup involves blending elements from pre-2011 and post-2011 conference expansions, along with personal preferences. Key principles include:

Equal Conference Size: Ensuring that each power conference (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC) consists of 12 teams.
Divisional Structure: Implementing a two-division format within each conference, with eight conference games and a conference championship. This structure aims to balance organization with the potential for unexpected outcomes.
Logical Geographic Moves: Strategically placing teams in conferences that align geographically and maintain traditional rivalries.

Power Five Conferences: Restoring Balance and Rivalries

The Power Five conferences have undergone significant changes, with some returning to their former glory and others welcoming new members.

Big Ten

The Big Ten is a mix of traditional powerhouses and strategic additions. Adding Notre Dame to the Big Ten makes sense geographically, as some of their most storied rivalries (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue) are already there.

Read also: NCAA DII Conference Guide

Big 12

The Big 12 is supposed to look like this. The Big 12 was successful during last year’s conference realignment cycle, adding four teams in BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah joined the Big 12 after the Big Ten added both Oregon and Washington, shrinking the Pac-12 down to just Oregon State and Washington State.

SEC

Why would you ever mess with this? The SEC added two of college football’s mainstays in Texas and Oklahoma. Although the SEC’s expansion reiterates its argument as college football’s most dominant conference, the road to glory will only get harder for the two newcomers.

Pac-12

The OG Pac-10 is back, joined by Boise State and Utah. The Pac-12 effectively dissolved after 2023 due to realignment. RIP, Pac-12 as we once knew it. Stephen F. Rather than the video starting in Omaha, Nebraska, the 30-second ad began even farther west in Seattle, Washington for the Huskies.

ACC

We're bringing back Jefferson Pilot Sports with this one: ACC college football teams in 2025-26: Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), NC State, North Carolina, Pitt, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest. Stephen F. Both will be used in the same sentence now, though, as the ACC added Stanford, California and SMU. The transition epitomizes the drastic changes throughout the collegiate landscape.

Group of Five Conferences: Shakeups and Realignment

The Group of Five conferences (American Athletic, Conference USA, Sun Belt, MAC, Mountain West) have experienced major shakeups, with each conference comprising 14 teams.

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American Athletic Conference

To Cincinnati, Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, SMU, Syracuse, TCU, West Virginia, and UCF fans upset about being booted from their current-day conference: Sorry, but decisions had to be made for the greater health of college football. Here's the bright spot: This is a legitimate power conference, and the spiritual successor to the old Big East. New Mexico State finally finds a permanent conference to call home, while the addition of UTEP makes more sense than you think. El Paso is less than an hour away from Las Cruces (where NMSU is). Don’t call it the AAC. Now simply the American Conference, it could prove to be the class of the non-power leagues in 2025. Three of the American’s members won double-digit games last season, and surprisingly two of them were Army and Navy. Memphis went 11-2 a year ago, and has a chance to show off in a home date against SEC opponent Arkansas in late September. Tulane is getting serious consideration as the next Group of Six team that could earn College Football Playoff selection, hopes that look even more credible after the acquisition of former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who won 11 games last season.

MAC

Re-adding Marshall (1997-2004) and Temple (2007-2011) to a conference they've already played in made them the most reasonable choices for a 14-team MAC. Two seasons ago, the MAC produced three 10-win teams, but two of the best quarterbacks who piloted a pair of those squads -- Dequan Finn and Kurtis Rourke -- transferred out, Finn to Baylor and Rourke to Indiana and a playoff berth. As a result, MACtion had just one double-digit win team, the 11-win Ohio Bobcats who went on to win the conference championship. Finn is back in the MAC this year, with league runner-up Miami of Ohio. Northern Illinois earned some respect for the MAC a year ago after beating eventual national title runner-up Notre Dame on the road, and the league has 19 more chances to pull off another upset against a Power Four opponent this fall.

Sun Belt

I traded App State back from the American to the Sun Belt where they belong. James Madison and Louisiana are the prospective favorites from the East and West Divisions, respectively, when looking over the Sun Belt preseason poll. And while the former is coming off a highlight upset of North Carolina last fall, in total the Sun Belt put just eight of its 14 teams in a bowl game a year ago. One of them, James Madison, earned votes in the AP top 25 preseason rankings, although not enough to be one of the favored 25, and it has a chance to repeat last year’s exploits with a road date against Louisville.

Conference USA

C-USA has always felt like a grab-bag of southern/Texas teams, and I think this collection is reasonable enough. Liberty was the standard-bearer in CUSA last season, its first in the league, going 13-1 and winning the conference title, but the Flames slipped to an 8-4 mark and lost star quarterback Kaidon Salter, who transferred to Colorado this season. Jacksonville State won the CUSA crown a year ago, but Liberty could be a contender to win it back, returning more than 65 percent of last year’s production. But keep an eye on Western Kentucky, which could emerge after scoring a notable quarterback transfer, topping On SI’s Conference USA power rankings this offseason.

Mountain West

Enjoy the Mountain West while you can, as five of these schools will be in the Pac-12 starting next season, including consensus favorite Boise State. It’s that school which easily tops the conference power rankings heading into 2025 and could make another run as the Group of Five selection in the College Football Playoff again, even after losing all-world back Ashton Jeanty. But aside from the Broncos, it’s just UNLV that really stands out, even after losing Barry Odom, the coach who helped put it in that position. Dan Mullen steps in to maintain that standard, and boasts some promising transfer portal acquisitions to that end.

Read also: The Landscape of NCAA Conferences

Independents

Delaware and Missouri State are FBS' newest additions. Yes, both Army and Navy are included as independent teams. Note that "independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference.

Conference Power Rankings in 2025

As the 2025 season gets underway, here’s an early look at the conference power rankings across college football, from worst to first.

Pac-12
Conference USA
MAC
Sun Belt
Mountain West
American
ACC
Big 12
Big Ten
SEC

NCAA Division Structure

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is divided into three divisions based on scholarship allocation. Each division is made up of several conferences for regional league competition. At least six members must sponsor five women's sports other than basketball, including two other team sports. Conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision must meet a more stringent set of NCAA requirements than other conferences. Among these additional NCAA regulations, institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision must be "multisport conferences" and participate in conference play in at least six men's and eight women's sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, and at least two other women's team sports. Each school may count one men's and one women's sport not sponsored by its primary conference toward the above limits, as long as that sport competes in another Division I conference.

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