A solution for the college football realignment issue that few have considered

It started with Oklahoma and Texas, then it got worse with USC and UCLA. After that, everything fell apart. Today, the idea of five premier conferences sits as nothing more than a concept stuck in the pages of college football history.

With a total of 10 teams (so far) announcing relocation in the Power Five alone, it is safe to say that this ongoing realignment period will leave its mark on the sport we all hold dear, and that is a problematic realization to come to for a multitude of reasons.

Said reasons include the competitive gap between the conferences growing larger and larger, each one’s geographical relevance losing significant ground (there are many effects to consider from that on its own), and, of course, the teams that are at severe risk of getting left in the dust.

Currently, there are four Pac-12 universities that are still without new homes — California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State. Now that both the Big Ten and Big 12 appear to have ceased their pillaging of the Western safe haven, the fates of those squads are anything but certain from an affiliation standpoint after this season.

With that said, the question has to be asked: What options do the unclaimed schools have?

As even the most casual fans would assume, options are quite limited

Well, there is a very short list of answers to choose from, and that is especially so when considering that the chances of absorption from either of the other two “Power 4” leagues will be disregarded from here on out.

I am making that call due to a couple of factors. One is that the ACC is already being highlighted as a possible landing spot for California and Stanford, so covering that subject would single-handedly defeat the purpose of this article’s premise. The other is that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has already said that it’s done with expansion as well.

With all of that having been addressed, let’s take a look at the first of our whopping two options — becoming FBS Independents.

This would be a path that I imagine most if not all of the teams would be willing to trek only for a little while (if at all); they would agree to endure a rather negligible stint away from conference play on the dream of a Power 4 league growing desperate enough to reach out to them relatively soon afterward.

Something that gives this vision life for at least one of the schools in question is the discussion surrounding Stanford’s supposed humoring of the idea, but just because the Cardinal may be interested doesn’t mean any of the others are, nor does it mean that the idea would be executed in the best interest of college football overall. Also, I feel that if Stanford were to be serious about going solo, it probably wouldn’t already be in talks with the ACC (a conference on the other side of America). So let’s go ahead and scratch off the Independent route.

That leaves the only other option, one so controversial at face value, yet holds true practicality at its roots. In fact, it just might have the potential to produce one of the best outcomes achievable—heading down to the Group of Five, particularly the Mountain West.