Ideal NCAA Power 6 Conferences

With all the talk with conference realignment, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what every major conference should look like. The six conferences I’ll name are the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, Big 16 (formerly known as Big 12), Pac-12, SEC, and Big East.

A massive influence in conference realignment is money. When you look at the current Big Ten, some of you may ask: “Why is Maryland in the Big Ten and not in the ACC?” The reason is money. That’s something I hate about the NCAA. These schools have a high priority to get as much money and recognition as possible. While it makes complete sense, it ruins college football and basketball for everyone. Money broke apart the Big East into the new Big East and the American Athletic Conference. Before the split, the Big East was known as the best basketball conference around. Now, it’s the ACC running the show in college basketball.

So, what would I want every conference to look like, taking money out of the question? Here is what I’m thinking:

Atlantic Coast Conference

The ACC was an interesting conference to mess around with. I wanted to keep rivals together and note the academic standards of the conference even though Louisville is an outlier. The ACC would have ten full members in this format:

1. Duke
2. Florida State
3. Georgia Tech
4. Maryland
5. Miami (FL)
6. North Carolina
7. NC State
8. Virginia
9. Virginia Tech
10. Wake Forest

I wanted to keep the Tobacco Road teams together, the Commonwealth Cup teams (Virginia and Virginia Tech), bring Maryland back to the ACC (where they belong), and add football schools in Miami and Florida State. The one that wasn’t as much of a fit was Georgia Tech, playing in the ACC since 1978. There’s only one rival they could be playing, which is Virginia Tech. However, the ACC would probably like GT in because of the Atlanta market.

Big East Conference

The Big East was probably the most complicated one to do. Why? Because I wanted to bring back Big East football. The format is eight full members, two football-only schools, and eight full members except football. So, there are ten teams in football, 16 in basketball.

Full members

1. Boston College
2. UConn
3. Memphis
4. Pittsburgh
5. Rutgers
6. Syracuse
7. Temple
8. West Virginia

Football only

1. Army
2. Navy

Full members except football

1. Butler
2. Georgetown
3. Marquette
4. Notre Dame (who’s always independent for football)
5. Providence
6. Seton Hall
7. St. John’s
8. Villanova

The Big East is known for basketball, so I made that a priority for the league. However, I also want to add former Big East teams (BC, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia) to bring back old rivalries and add some members to participate in football.

Big 16 Conference (used to be known as the Big 12)

In reality, the Big 12 is about to fall apart. But in this conference, the Big 16 is as good as it gets.

1. Arkansas
2. Baylor
3. Colorado
4. Houston
5. Iowa State
6. Kansas
7. Kansas State
8. Missouri
9. Nebraska
10. Oklahoma
11. Oklahoma State
12. SMU
13. Texas
14. Texas A&M
15. TCU
16. Texas Tech

This list of teams makes so much geographical sense, as well as bringing back old rivalries. I wanted to keep the core of the Big 12 while adding teams that used to be in the Big 12. Nebraska reignites rivalries with Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Missouri brings back rivalries with Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa State, and Oklahoma. Texas A&M would renew rivalries with Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, and Baylor, and the Arkansas-Texas rivalry also will begin again.

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten lost Maryland, Nebraska, and Rutgers, but they add one team to complete a 12 team league.

1. Cincinnati
2. Illinois
3. Indiana
4. Iowa
5. Michigan
6. Michigan State
7. Minnesota
8. Northwestern
9. Ohio State
10. Penn State
11. Purdue
12. Wisconsin

Cincinnati is the most deserving of being in a Power Five conference out of all schools not in a Power Five conference. They have good basketball, and football is going to be top ten in the past two seasons. Plus, I want to ignite a rivalry between Cincinnati and Ohio State. In reality, Ohio State wants to be the only Ohio team in the Big Ten. But this conference makes too much sense to obey Ohio State’s orders.

Pac-12 Conference

The Pac-12 will stay at 12 teams, one replacing Colorado. With the academic standards of the league, I made sure to replace Colorado with the right team.

1. Arizona
2. Arizona State
3. California
4. Oregon
5. Oregon State
6. San Diego State
7. Stanford
8. UCLA
9. USC
10. Utah
11. Washington
12. Washington State

The only difference here is that Colorado is gone, and San Diego State is in the league. I was also considering Boise State and BYU, as well as Gonzaga as a non-football member. San Diego State makes sense: they have good basketball and football programs, and the Pac-12 can add the San Diego market.

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

The SEC prioritizes football, which you can see below. I added schools that I think would fit perfectly for rivalries and geographic reasons.

1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. Central Florida (UCF)
4. Clemson
5. Florida
6. Georgia
7. Kentucky
8. Louisville
9. LSU
10. Ole Miss
11. Mississippi State
12. South Carolina
13. Tennessee
14. Vanderbilt

With the addition of Louisville, Kentucky-Louisville becomes more fierce, as they can play each other more. Clemson makes so much sense: they’re a football powerhouse and good at baseball. They’re also decent in basketball. They have rivalries with South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and LSU. They don’t have that many in the current ACC. UCF also makes so much sense. They’re a top football program in the Group of Five and can start a rivalry with Florida. The only thing that made this difficult was splitting UCF and USF, but they can always schedule out-of-conference games against each other.