NCAA Begins New Chapter With End of Conference Realignment

The NCAA has undergone some major changes over the past few years with conference realignment playing the biggest role.  Prior to the Big Ten inviting Nebraska to join as the conference's 12th member in the summer of 2010, college athletics began to change in the early 1990s with Arkansas and South Carolina becoming the 11th and 12th members of the Southeastern Conference, and the Big Ten expanding past the Midwest with the addition of Penn State as its 11th member.  College athletics were very disorganized prior to the 1990s with multiple national champions crowned each year and schools represented as either independents or divided among many small regional conferences.  The 1990s would alter college athletics forever and college football became the driving force of the NCAA landscape.

The 1990 and 1991 football seasons resulted in co-national champions, so an organized postseason, known as the Bowl Coalition, was implemented in 1992 and became the original precursor to the BCS.  It included all the major conferences and independent Notre Dame, but the Pac-10 and Big Ten were excluded because they had previous agreements to send their yearly champions to play in the Rose Bowl.  The new system established a yearly national championship game with the nation's top two teams, but it was very flawed because the Big Ten, Pac-10 and mid-major conferences were not eligible to play in the set bowl games or national championship game.  It was eventually replaced after three seasons by Bowl Alliance in 1995.  It included the same entities as before and a lawsuit brought the end of this system, also after three years.  BYU was the #5 team in the nation but was passed over because it was a mid-major.  They finished the season with a 14-1 record and victory over Kansas State in the 1997 Cotton Bowl.  The development of the college football postseason during the decade resulted in adjustments for the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 and a scheduled 4-team playoff after the 2014 season.

The Big Ten is the oldest Division 1 college athletic conference and has always been one of the nation's most powerful conferences.  The conference from the Midwest has always been very active in strengthening its brand across the country with conference realignment.  The most recent conference realignment era began with this conference's recurring interest to expand to 12 members after it added the prestigious Penn State program in the early 90's.  Many rumors were prevalent around late 2009 regarding the conference's interest in many of the nation's top athletic programs, including Texas, Notre Dame and Nebraska.  Rumors heated up again in late May and early June when the conference announced a possible expansion to 14 or 16 teams with Notre Dame and the Big 12 North members as the main attractions, but Nebraska became the only addition for two years.  Towards the end of November 2012, the conference once again wanted to spread its brand and conference television network into other major media markets.  It eventually added Maryland and Rutgers, schools in neighboring states to a current Big Ten member Penn State, for the Baltimore, New York City and Washington DC media markets.  They will join and become the conference's 13th and 14th members on July 1, 2014.

The SEC became the first "superconference" in 1991 and was an innovator for college athletics in establishing divisions and a conference championship game for football.  It added Arkansas and South Carolina, but it swung and missed on their main target, Texas A&M, in the mid 90's.  The conference had high interest in the university because it would fit well with the other schools in history, tradition, persona and politics.  It would also expand the television market and recruiting region into Texas.  Texas A&M eventually passed on the offer and joined the newly-created Big 12 Conference instead of parting ways with their in-state rivals.  What they didn't know was they would be faced with the same situation just over a decade later when instability hit their conference again.  The university evaluated the situation again in the summer of 2010 when they faced three likely scenarios for their athletic future.  The Aggies had offers to remain in the Big 12 or take their talents to the Pac-10 or SEC, but decided to remain in the conference and keep it alive after Nebraska departed to the Big Ten and Colorado left for the Pac-10.  After much uncertainty, Texas A&M accepted the SEC's long-awaited invitation the following September, and left its heated rivalries in the Lone Star State.  Missouri, another Big 12 member, also joined college football's top conference later that fall and became the conference's 14th member.

In 1996, four schools from the Lone Star State (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor) left their longtime home, the Southwest Conference, and merged with the members of the Big 8 to create a powerhouse conference known as the Big 12.  The move by the Texas schools, as well as the departure of Arkansas a few years earlier, dissolved the conference and left the remaining members searching for a new conference (Houston to Conference USA; Rice, SMU and TCU to the WAC).  The newly formed Big 12 was expected to dominate like no conference before with powerhouse programs Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas representing the conference.  It succeeded as a 12-member conference until the summer of 2010 when Colorado and Nebraska announced they would leave the conference the following summer for the Pac-10 and Big Ten respectively.  There were many rumors surrounding the future of the Big 12 because it was the prime spot to pick from.  For a year and a half, the Big 12 was the focus of conference realignment with interest in its members coming from different conferences across the country.  Rumors ranged from an early death to a 16 team Big 12, but it ultimately added two new members (TCU and West Virginia) in the summer of 2012 after losing four original members (Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas A&M) in 2011 and 2012.

The Pac-12 was built from the ground up since its inception in 1915.  The conference, originally known as the Pacific Coast Conference, began with four members (California, Washington, Oregon and Oregon State) in the inaugural year and was an eight-member conference by the early 1960s.  The first major expansion occurred in the 1978 when the conference invited a pair or Arizona schools, Arizona and Arizona State, and became known as the Pac-10 for the next 33 years.  In the summer of 2010, the conference once again looked to expand and was an active suitor for the next two years.  Beginning in the 1990's, the conference had continued interest in the University of Texas and there was a bright possibility that the institution would be involved in its expanded future.  The summer of 2010 almost made it a reality when the Pac-10 initiated a plan for UT and friends to head west.  Along with Texas, there were plans to add Big 12 members Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and either Colorado or Baylor.  The plan ultimately fell though, but the conference added Colorado and Utah (of the Mountain West Conference) by summer's end and became known as the Pac-12.  With the Big 12 on life support, talks between the Pac-12 and members of the Big 12 resumed in the fall of 2011.  The future of the conference was bleak after Texas A&M became the third Big 12 school to depart from the conference when it accepted a bid to join the SEC on September 25th.  The Pac-12 continued its pursuit of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but fell short once again.  The smaller schools in the Big 12 have UT to thank for wanting to keep the conference members together because they could have been left out of the cold and ended up in a smaller-tear Division 1 conference, like the Big East, Conference USA, Mountain West, or WAC.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has never been perceived the major conference that the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC have throughout time.  Like many other conferences, the 1990's began a period of growth and expansion for the conference.  It was an eight-member conference before Florida State's inception in 1991 and would become the third major conference to institute a conference championship with additions Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech in the early 2000's.  Even at 12 members strong, the conference's future was undetermined when the next major conference realignment began in 2010 because many of its members expected invitations from the Big 12, Big Ten and SEC.  The conference only lost one member in Maryland and was more successful than the Big 12, who faced the same scare.  The conference invited Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the fall of 2011, and Louisville and Notre Dame the following year.  By July 1, 2014, the conference will consist of 14 full-time members and part-time member Notre Dame, but an announcement on April 22nd solidified the conference for a long time. The conference signed a grant of media rights deal to lock in its fifteen members from 2014 until 2027.  It looks to be the final straw for the current conference realignment era of college athletics, but that is yet to be seen after all the hoopla of the past three years.

The Big East Conference began as a non-football conference in 1979 with charter members Boston College, Connecticut, Georgetown, Providence, St, John's, Seton Hall and Syracuse, and would later add Villanova in 1980 and Pittsburgh in 1982.  The conference, known for its basketball dominance, would be changed forever with the addition of football for the 1991 season.  It added independents Miami, Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech and West Virginia to play alongside Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse for the inaugural football season, but it was only the beginning of the end for the conference. In 2004, the Atlantic Coast Conference invaded the Big East for additional members and took Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech the next two years.  In response, the Big East added Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida as full football members and added DePaul, Loyola (Maryland) and Marquette for other sports.  The conference became too unstable with the next set of conference realignment beginning in 2010 and couldn't keep up with the nation's top conferences.  It ultimately lost 20 members and the Big East name to the non-football members known as the "Catholic 7" (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova) and was renamed the American Athletic Conference.  An ultimate divide occurred because there was too much conflict and discrepancy between the football and non-football playing members to remain a united conference.

Conference USA is relatively a young conference, but has developed regional programs into national-recognized entities since its inception.  Members from the Metro Conference and Great Midwest Conference merged to create Conference USA in 1995.  The University of Houston was also invited, but remained a member of the Southwest Conference until it dissolved in 1996.  The conference began as a non-football conference in its inaugural year, but Houston was one of six members to offer football in 1996.  The conference expanded with additions of football-only members East Carolina and Army and full-time member TCU in 2001, but changes were soon-to-be with two stages of conference realignment.  In 2005, the conference lost five members to the Big East (Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida), two to the Atlantic 10 (Charlotte and St. Louis), TCU to the Mountain West, and Army became an independent.  They responded by adding  Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP from the WAC, and Central Florida and Marshall from the MAC.

The conference begins a new era today with Central Florida, Memphis, Houston and SMU departing for the new American Athletic Conference.  Three additional members, East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa, will depart for the same conference on July 1, 2014. Similar to 2005, the conference regrouped and invited Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, Old Dominion, UTSA, Western Kentucky, as well as former members Charlotte and Florida International.  Every invitee besides Charlotte, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky will be introduced as full-time members today as the conference begins a new chapter.  Old Dominion joins the conference today as a non-football member, but will feature a football team for the 2014 season.  Charlotte also joins the conference today, but their start-up football program won't be ready until 2015.  Western Kentucky will spend another athletic year in the Sun Belt before joining Conference USA as a full-time, football-playing member on July 1, 2014.

The Western Athletic Conference was an afterthought until the 1990s when it added seven members to become the largest conference in NCAA history at 16 members strong.  It added Fresno State in 1992, and San Jose State, Tulsa and the remnants of the dissolved Southwest Conference in 1996.  It changed the reality of conference realignments with a new definition of "superconference".  The radical move ultimately failed, as 8 of its members left to create the Mountain West Conference in 1999.  Two additional members have departed since the initial split, but the conference will lose seven current members (Denver, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State and Utah State) today.  The conference dropped football for the 2013-2014 athletic year with new additions Cal State Bakersfield, Chicago State, Grand Canyon University, Missouri-Kansas City, Texas-Pan American, and Utah Valley University.  The only remaining members for the upcoming athletic year include Idaho, New Mexico State and Seattle, but more changes are to come.  Idaho will depart from the conference on July 1, 2014 and rejoin the Big Sky Conference for all sports besides football, for which they'll play as an independent during the 2013 season before becoming an affiliate member of the Sun Belt next year.  New Mexico State is expected to remain in the WAC, but will also be an independent in 2013 and join the Sun Belt as an affiliate members the following season.  Seattle will be the only remaining full-time member from last year.

The Mountain West Conference began as an offshoot of it's geographic neighbor, the WAC, with eight members coming together in 1999.  The conference has found success in it's short history with four BCS bowl appearances and deep runs in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, so a bright future lies ahead.  After losing BYU, TCU and Utah, the conference added Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii (as a football-only member) and Nevada between 2011 and 2012. It will introduce San Jose State and Utah State today as the conference's newest members and hold its inaugural football conference championship game on December 7, 2013 after the conference splits into two divisions this fall.  The Mountain Division will consist of Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming, while Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State and UNLV will be in the West Division.