In an effort to stave off cherry-picking schools, Conference USA football executives have a radical proposal to end conference realignment once and for all for the Group of Five.
A prior report stated that the AAC was interested in inviting Air Force and Colorado State to join their conference, but that never materialized, according to CBS Sports.
A new report from CBS Sports says the C-USA will be pitching a total realignment for three out of the five non-power five conferences to work in concert and regionalize its conferences.
According to the report, the AAC, the Sun Belt, and Conference USA would take their 30-plus schools and draw regional boundaries around clusters of schools to cut costs and prevent CUSA and the Sun Belt from losing their best teams to the AAC.
The question then becomes, will it be worth it financially for the three conferences to realign? C-USA will have to have to make a convincing case that this is in everyone’s best interest.
Will they be pitching a super conference with three divisions? Or will the names of the conferences remain the same with just the teams changing affiliation?
Let’s explore what the three conferences may look like if they realign themselves, keeping their existing names.
If the Group of Five can pull this off, it may put an end to conference realignment — for now.