SMQ: A brief history of conference affiliation in college football
By Zach Bigalke
The shifting sands of conference affiliation
While the Big Ten proved stable over time, not every conference enjoyed a solid core group of members. The SIAA, as previously mentioned, suffered from a crisis of scale as it incorporated more and more teams into its fold. Breakaway conferences that featured SIAA members helped cannibalize the oldest interstate conference in the bunch.
Throughout the first decades of the 20th century, college football continued to largely remain a free-for-all of independent programs. Conference affiliation for most schools was fluid and subject to change. Alignment and realignment have long been a tradition in a sport whose most enduring characteristic is change.
The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, forerunner to the Big Eight, was born in 1907 and brought together the best from the Plains states. The Rocky Mountain Conference was born in 1910 a bit further west. In 1915 the Southwest Conference came online, and a year later the Pacific Coast Conference arrived on the scene.
Over time, some of these conferences would grow and some would stagnate. Members came and went much as they do these days, shifting allegiances and alliances as it best suits each member school. All the while, affiliation became more and more significant as the years wore on deeper and deeper into the 20th century.