Next year college football — and all of major college sports — will look radically different. During the last few months conference realignment has dramatically reshaped the landscape, shifting traditional powers, disrupting rivalries, and eschewing geographic logic in the quest for media dollars and relevance. This is hardly new. Conference realignment has remained a subplot within the world of college football since Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12 over a decade ago. Instability has lingered, inspiring preemptive action by savvy universities and desperation by others. The unspoken reality of the shifting landscape is that eventually some traditional powers will be on the outside looking in.
While the gravity of these changes may not be apparent to the average fan, they will have serious repercussions on the sport. With the dissolution of the Pac 12, the “Power 5 Conferences,” who once ruled college football, no longer exist. The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC survive as the kingmakers. Washington State and Oregon State, for example, the lone remaining members of the Pac 12 appear to be condemned to a lesser conference, which will impact their ability to earn media revenue, thus inhibiting the ability to compete with their former Power Conference peers. Moreover, they will no longer have access to strong schedules and playoff bids preferentially designed for Power Conference teams.
To be sure, the Power Conference arrangement is not new. The two-tiered structure of college football has more or less existed throughout the entire history of the game. So-called “blue blood” programs have historically benefited in scheduling, recruiting, AP and UPI poll voting, and TV appearances. Typically these were schools from the South and Midwest (and a few from the West Coast). Only remarkable performances, athletes, and sustained success could earn a university acceptance in the top tier. For example, it took 31 and 47-game winning streaks during the late-1940s and 1950s for the University of Oklahoma to gain respect. Similarly, multiple championships during the 1980s stabilized the Miami Hurricanes football program and provided them entry into the Big East and later the ACC.
Conference membership gained salience during the 1980s following the deregulation of television contracts following Oklahoma v. the NCAA in 1984. With the NCAA out of the picture, conferences became collective negotiating units for media rights. Although Notre Dame seized upon its unique brand to remain independence and secure its own contract, most other colleges opted to affiliate with a conference. Penn State, for example, joined the Big Ten in 1990. Similarly, Florida State entered the ACC in 1991. Conference membership gave them access to guaranteed scheduling arrangements, fixed geographic recruiting territories, and collective media rights. This secured their status as a top-tier program.
Conferences without “blue blood” programs and their lucrative fan bases, attracted less television revenue. Lesser revenue meant smaller budgets, impacting facilities, coaching salaries, and recruiting. Ultimately, this caused in programs to become less competitive and less relevant in national polls, diminishing their chances to play for a national championship.
Southern Methodist University (SMU) offers an illustration of school ahead of its time in football spending but left behind in conference realignment. During the early 1980s, SMU had a very active alumni club deeply invested in the success of its football team. Stories of the largesse spent on recruiting alone have become infamous, including tales of Cadillacs and envelops full of cash regularly making their way to players and recruits.
The alumni slush fund helped SMU compete in the highly competitive Southwest Conference. Facing the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston, Rice, TCU, and Arkansas, the Mustangs held their own. SMU claim’s National Championships for the 1981 and 1982 seasons. While these championships are disputed because neither the AP Poll nor the Coaches Poll voted them #1, they’re emblematic of the type of teams SMU produced. The small private college in Dallas, through its donors and alumni, routinely outclassed its larger state-school and blue-blood competitors. Then came the NCAA.
In 1987, the NCAA punished the SMU football program with the so-called “death penalty”; the harshest sanctions ever levied upon a college. SMU’s slush fund violated NCAA rules. The school’s repeated violations, including while on probation, inspired unprecedentedly severe restrictions on the program. This included suspending operations for the 1987 and 1988 football seasons, which inhibited the schools ability to field a competitive team. Indeed, SMU finished with a .500 record or better only twice over the next two decades.
While SMU tried to rebuild its program and comply with draconian NCAA rules, its peers left them behind. First, the Southwest Conference broke up. Arkansas left for the SEC in 1992, and then in 1996 the rest of the conference fractured as Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor joined the new created Big 12. SMU found itself on the outside looking in, punished not only by the NCAA but now stripped of its major conference power status. TCU, Houston, and Rice were also sentenced to mid-major conference irrelevance in the realignment.
SMU has consistently fought to reclaim its former status, but unlike TCU and Houston, who both have gained admittance to the Big 12, SMU continued to flounder. It is perhaps ironic, in a world where donor relations and big-time spending matter more than ever, that SMU has remained shut out. Indeed, in the era of where NIL payments to athletes is now legal, the college that most known for giving cash to players has been left behind.
Until now. This week the ACC voted to add SMU as a member starting in 2024. Nearly 40-years after the infamous Death Penalty, SMU is finally back among the blue-bloods in a power conference. The move did not come cheap for the Mustangs. SMU is reportedly forgoing its share or ACC TV revenue for 9-years. Harkening back to their heyday, they’re hoping that donors can fill-in, helping the make payroll during the interim.
The story of SMU football over the last 45-years serves as both a cautionary tale and redemption, highlighting the economic and political realities of college football’s two-tiered structure. It shows how important “big-time” status is to college leaders and alumni, and for the success of a program. Their willingness to sacrifice revenue (as well as geography and traditional rivalries) for status underscores the desperation of those fighting for inclusion, whether a mid-major program or one facing exclusion in the latest round of conference realignment.
Next year college football will look radically different. The Pac 12 will no longer compete. The Big 12 and the SEC will each field 16 teams while the Big Ten and ACC will have 18 members. The Power 5 has shrunk to four, calling into question how to assign bids for the expanded 12-team playoff. It is also unclear where Washington State and Oregon State will call home. While they don’t have the same baggage that SMU once had, they’ll likely face a similar uphill battle.
Andrew McGregor is a Dallas, TX based historian, writer, and community advocate. His research and writing focus on the intersection of race, sport and politics and has appeared on ESPN and several podcasts, and in the Washington Post. You can subscribe to his new Substack, where this post first appeared, here.
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