What would happen if college football decided to downsize and there were four power conferences instead of the current Power Five?
With the Big Ten and the Pac-12 going to conference-only schedules for 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the move also may have begun the process of there being only four power conferences as opposed to five.
College football continues to modify and change the way it operates and functions. Various events, changes in society and financial reasons have pushed college football to change in some way, shape or form. This pandemic has changed the way people live, work, and travel also has had a great effect on college athletics in 2020 with the canceling of the NCAA tournament and spring sports.
The novel coronavirus has also greatly impacted the college football landscape and may push for major conference alignment.
To understand college football realignment as it pertains to the creation of the current Power Five, you have to understand the history of more recent universities leaving one conference to go to another.
In 2004, Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East to join the ACC and the following year Boston College joined the ACC as well. This was the first major shift in a power conference like the ACC expanding to not only strengthen their conference but to clearly distinguish itself from similar leagues like the Big East. The ripple effects of these moves would eventually be the downfall of football in the Big East. It was just the beginning of college football realignment.
In 2011, the Pac-10, as it was called, added two schools in Utah from the Mountain West and Colorado from the Big 12. The conference would rename itself the Pac-12 where they were now able to split the league into two divisions of six teams each to have a conference championship game at the end of the regular season.
The Big Ten hurt the Big 12 as well when it added Nebraska to then do what the Pac-12 did with creating two divisions with a conference title game at the end of the regular season. The Big 12 needed to make a decision in order to continue moving forward as a power conference and they did but it would get worse before it would get better.
The following year in 2012, the Big 12 lost two more members in Texas A&M and Missouri to join the now 14-member SEC. In 2010, the Big 12 had 12 schools with two divisions and a conference title game at the end of the regular season. In 2012, it had lost Colorado, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Missouri.
Down to eight schools, the Big 12 decided to add TCU from the Mountain West and West Virginia from the Big East. The Big 12 survived the major conference realignment but was now down to only 10 teams with no divisions and no conference championship.
It could have been worse as there were rumors that four Big 12 teams tried to leave the conference to join the Big Ten. Conference realignment was not over though.
The year 2013 saw many schools changing conferences. A total of 17 BCS schools changed conferences that year. The first major conference to fall was the Big East. Syracuse and Pittsburgh left the conference to join the ACC to make the ACC the second major conference to have 14 schools, joining the SEC.
The Big East essentially became the American Athletic Conference by having Houston, Memphis, UCF and SMU from Conference USA. The WAC was the second league to no longer be a football conference before the start of the 2013 season as the recent realignment moves were too much for it to continue as a football conference. Major conference realignment was not done.
In 2014, the Big Ten added two new schools in Rutgers and Maryland to become the third major conference to have 14 programs. The ACC, with the loss of Maryland, added Louisville to keep its conference at 14 schools. These moves ended major conference realignment in college football.
The Pac-12 stayed at 12 schools as opposed to adding two more like the SEC, ACC and Big Ten did. The Big 12 remained at 10 schools but added a conference title game again in 2017.
Now, there is talk again of conference realignment as the pandemic has in some way reopened the discussions of power conferences going to 16 teams with only four leagues.