A Conference Realignment Plan That Makes Sense

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has been one of the most influential men in the conference realignment landscape.

Since 2009, we have been teased with rumors coming from university athletic departments to some guy on a computer in his mom's basement about major athletic programs moving from one conference to another. The first domino in the three year long wave was in June 2010 when the University of Nebraska left longtime rivals Oklahoma and others behind in the Big 12 by heading to the Big Ten, which they viewed as a land of more financial prosperity and institutional stability. Then an unprecedented movement of schools across the country ensued as schools and conferences were seeking the same thing: more money and stability. Schools made moves for a number of reasons including access to BCS bowls (later College Football Playoff), more lucrative television revenue, better athletic competition, stronger academic associations, geographic considerations, and much more. Major shifts took place until as recently as 2013, when the historically strong basketball-centric conference, the Big East, was separated into a basketball-only version and a new football and basketball conference, the American Athletic Conference.

On April 22, 2013, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced a grant of media rights that was signed by members, which effectively put conference realignment in the Power 5 conferences on hold. Aside from the Big 12 continuously flirting with adding two more schools to actually get back to a 12 team conference, every other major conference is standing pat. So we are now left with every major conference having endured changes, several new albatross television contracts and a new college football playoff system.

None of it makes any sense. Historic rivalries have been thrown away like paper and geographic considerations are non-existent. But what if there was a conference overhaul that did make sense? One that preserves most rivalries, sustains geographic integrity, and sets up for a behemoth of a college football playoff that everyone wants so badly? Here's what I have in mind.

There have been many issues at hand in this extended wave of realignment, nearly all of which have a significant place in my new structure. They include geographic continuity, number of schools per conference, current status in college athletics, historic rivalries and tradition and the ability to create a stable football and basketball playoff/tournament.

My plan calls for seven major conferences in Division 1 football, each consisting of ten schools. There will then also be six other "mid-major" or "non-power" conferences (also with ten teams each) consisting of the remaining Division 1 (current FBS) schools. This does not include the conferences such as the Big East or the Atlantic 10, which do not sponsor football but would still be included in Division 1 athletics for all other sports.

Here are the seven major conferences with an accompanying map showing the location of each conference's member schools: