SMQ: Thinking radically about college football realignment in age of coronavirus
By Zach Bigalke
Midlands Conference
- Teams: Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Marshall, West Virginia
- States included: 4 (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia)
- Current P5 teams: 6 (Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia)
The Midlands Conference could also be known as the Lambert Conference, as it incorporates a large swath of schools affiliated with the historic Lambert Trophy. Awarded annually since 1936 to the top team in the East, five of the eight schools included in the Midlands realignment have won the Lambert Trophy a combined 55 times.
Top of that list is Penn State, the longtime independent that has now been part of the Big Ten for more than a quarter century. Their rivalry against Pittsburgh is maintained annually in this alignment. Also restored is the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia and former ACC matchups between Maryland and the Virginia schools. West Virginia and Marshall becomes an annual intrastate series as well in the Midlands Conference.
With six Power Five programs, this league would initially be Penn State’s to lose. But in a league where the longest journey between schools is the 325-mile journey between Annapolis and Huntington, everyone benefits from the creation of new rivalries and the renewal of dormant enmities all within a compact geographic footprint.