College Football: 5 teams that could compete in a Power Five conference

The focus of college football each year is primarily on Power Five teams, but are there teams on the outside looking in?

College football tends to be dominated by the Power Five conferences — SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and the Pac-12 — and that means they garner the most national attention.

In recent years, nearly every program has been eager to make an attempt to join a Power Five conference, although only a select few have succeeded. In the last decade, expansion has provided some teams the opportunity to join an elite conference.

Take the Pac-12 for example: In 2010, the conference added Colorado and Utah to expand to a 12-team conference. Or, more recently, look no further than the Big Ten. The additions of Rutgers and Maryland grew the conference to 14 teams.

There are also some programs, for various reasons, that have jumped ship to a different Power Five conference. Maryland is one example and another is Texas A&M, who left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012.

Perhaps one reason why many teams want to join a powerhouse conference is because a Group of Five school is unlikely to contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Other reasons point to financial implications that come with being a member of a top conference including lucrative media rights deals, shared revenues and the opportunity to make money from higher-end bowl games.

With that being said, there are some teams in college football that would not only benefit from a move to a Power Five conference but could also compete and in some cases, perhaps even be better than some current Power Five teams.

Here is a list (in no particular order) of Group of Five teams that could move up to a Power Five conference.