SMQ: A brief history of conference affiliation in college football
By Zach Bigalke
The birth of conferences in the late 19th century
Ever since the 1869 intercollegiate battle between Rutgers and Princeton, college football has been an indelible part of campus life that transcends generations. Evolving first in the northeastern part of the country, it spread across the nation relatively rapidly. Within a few decades, many universities in every region of the country were forming teams and arranging games against other local college squads.
As more teams coalesced in certain regions, they began to unite in statewide or regional affiliations. The first attempts at creating leagues rarely register on fans’ radars, as they long ago faded into obsolescence. The first truly transcendent collegiate sports league was the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which came to life in the 1895 football season.
Five southeastern teams — Alabama, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Georgia, and Sewanee — came together to form the SIAA. The Commodores won the first title in league history with a perfect 3-0-0 record in conference play. The following year, the five-team league grew to 16 members.
Eventually scale became the SIAA’s undoing, as some of its member teams left to form the ACC and others departed to create the SEC. The conference disbanded during World War II, but by the early 1920s it had already faded into a second-tier league for smaller schools. Over the course of its heyday, though, 27 of the current FBS members called it home at some point during the early 20th century.