Look no further than Danny Boy to agree with as stupid a take as this:
Danny clearly has a bias, and the solution to ending a bias isn’t to lead with another bias itself. Danny feeling that the ACC gets the ass end of the stick time and time again when the conference continues to sputter in football relevance is a hill he’s going to die on, but I digress.
Since the start of the BCS era in 1998, the national championships in football have belonged to:
- SEC – 15 – Alabama (6), LSU (3), Florida (2), Georgia (2), Auburn (1), Tennessee (1)
- ACC – 5 – Florida State (3), Clemson (2)
- B1G – 4 – Ohio State (3), Michigan (1)
- PAC 10/Big XII – 4 – USC (2), Oklahoma and Texas (1 each)
- Big East – 1 – Miami
Of course, conferences have changed, right? Adjust those numbers to current membership, and now the SEC has 17, the ACC has 6 (note: Miami has done literally nothing since joining the ACC), and the B1G now ties the ACC with 6. Also note that there is no independent team, particularly Notre Dame, listed here, though they were able to work their way into the championship game a couple of times in that span of play.
When one conference has more championships than the other conferences combined, and that the new Big XII conference has NONE, it makes the Tweet above seem even more asinine. This isn’t about bias, this about conference clumping and getting all of the power schools into one space, you know, for better competition. I mean, money.
Given the current state of the ACC, I wonder if the conference will ever see a team in the national championship again, as Clemson is the current favorite to win the ACC and I still can’t recall seeing anything in Clemson returning this year that would make them a clear favorite for a pathway to the National Championship. And I can’t think of any emerging team that’s going to do it anytime soon, either.
The pendulum swings of conference realignment has gotten us to this: a very real chance that the only national champions in college football could come from one of two conferences, and that’s it. The call will then come for the conferences to fraction, again, and make smaller conferences, or relegation and promotion, or some derivative of the two.
Today’s Thursday Thought Provoker question is this:
Focusing only on Georgia, if the conferences had to realign again, what conference would Georgia be in? What would it be called? Who would be in it?
When the thought of I could wave a magic wand and realign CFB with 8 10-team leagues, here’s where I had Georgia:
Georgia
Clemson
South Carolina
Georgia Tech
Florida
Florida State
Miami
UCF
South Florida
Auburn
If I could realign CFB using today’s conference structure (and money was equal), I would move Georgia, Florida and South Carolina out of the SEC and into a reformed ACC without the Yankee teams and with Maryland. The SEC is still “southern” but there’s no “eastern” about it now. If Maryland wanted to be a league formed by West Virginia plus the northeast (and Notre Dame), that would be fine.
I’ve posted this before. Take all the conferences back to the way they were in 1985. Pool the independents. Take the top 2 schools from each conference and the 2 best independents. Have a playoff. All the southern miss, UTEP and Boise states go back to a jr level of football.
Danny Kanell is an idiot.
As Ranger Russ would say
FTMF
tSEC
Georgia
ga tech
FSU
florida
Miami
clemson
south carolina
north carolina
auburn
bama
I had posted on this in the past in the event Auburn was not an annual game.
I’d be fine with UGA working to form a new conference out of a combination of the SEC East and ACC. 12 teams split it into divisions. Legacy SEC teams in 1 divisions, I’d include GT in that group and ACC in the other. 2 maybe 3 permanent cross division rivals. I’d dont care how long it takes for the SEC teams to play some of the other schools
UGA
GT
UF
FSU
UK
USCe
Clempson
UNC
Duke
NC State
UVa
I’d like to see the BigEast reform and keep a few games as annual nonConf Games. UK/L’ville. Miami/FSU, UVa/VaTech.
USF and UCF could join the BigEast.
A couple of thoughts,
Auburn and Bama are not on the lost as this is in the event UGA/Auburn is not an annual game.
Screw Bama, they’ve caused their own drama. If Auburn won’t fight for the rivalry and it goes away then let them deal with Bama and Texas.
Tennessee deserves Bama.
The BigEast is open to reform with much of the ACC reforming.
I’d like to see conferences limited to 12.
6 team playoff as the trade off as I’d prefer to bring back the BCS. Encourage out of conference scheduling with the 1st round bye and the threat of not getting in the playoff. Nothing is perfect, that was reason college football was so magical, the other sports have a playoff taking away a reason to have a pssionate argument about a prior season.
*Aub and Bama not on the list
When the National Champion comes from one or two conferences, they will keep expanding the tourney to grant more access. It is asinine, but that is what they will do.
and if TV will pay for it add to their Conference to change the landscape.
The SEC and Big Integer are almost the equivalent of the NFC and AFC. If they’re going to finish realigning CFB, then the SEC could add Clemmins and one of FSU/NC/GT and form three divisions of six teams each. UGA could be aligned with Clemmins, Cackalacky, UF, the Hillbillies and whichever of FSU/NC/GT. The other two divisions could be 1) Bama, UK, the Barn, Vandy, Ole Missy, Cowbells and 2) Horns, Cajuns, Aggies, Sooners, Mizzou, Arky.
I’m not advocating this but it does make geographic sense.
If the next realignment is about forming super-conferences, then I would go back to the first half of the 20th Century and re-form the Southern Conference. All 21st Century Division 1 schools would be included:
Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Duke
Florida
Georgia
Ga Tech
Kentucky
LSU
Maryland
Ole Miss
Mississippi St
UNC
NC State
South Carolina
Tennessee
Tulane
UVA
Va Tech
Wake Forest
It would actually be 21 schools because I left off Vanderbilt.
All of these schools are FBS football schools which I set as the standard to be a member of the conference. Schools without a football program or those that play in the FCS level or below would not be invited.
In addition, if they joined the conference after 1945 – not included.
Also schools that who have never had an affiliation with the SoCon would not be invited – so it puts FSU and Miami in a position to find a different conference.
The current and former SoCon schools who would not be included (year joining SoCon) are: UTC (1976), Citadel (1936), ETSU (2014), Furman (1936), Mercer (2014), Samford (2014), UNC-Greensboro (1997), VMI (2014), Western Carolina (1976), Wofford (1997)
The associate members or former full/associate members who would not be invited.
UAB (2016), App St (2014), Bellarmine (2020), Campbell (2011), College of Charleston (1998), Davidson (1936, 1992), East Carolina (1964), Elon (2003), Gardner-Webb (2011), George Washington (1941) Georgia Southern (1992), Liberty (2026), Marshall (1976), UNG (2016), Presbyterian (2019), Richmond (1936), Sewanee (1922), Washington & Lee (1921), West Virginia (1950), and William & Mary (1936).
The original pre-1945 SoCon members not invited because they are not currently playing FBS level football are Citadel (FCS), Furman (FCS), Davidson (FCS), George Washington (no football), Richmond (FCS), Sewanee (D3), Washington & Lee (D3), William & Mary (FCS).
Minor, but FSU has just two national championships since the BCS era began: ‘99 and ‘13. Their other one was in ‘93. Miami had one in ‘01, I think.
Derp. I think I included their hypothetical one that they achieved in 2023. I’ve been digesting too much Danny Kanell lately.
I vote for Georgia in a 10 team SEC without divisions. One can dream.
This topic causes my head to hurt. I wouldn’t let GT be a part of any conference we are in. SC either.