College sports fans are gearing up for a very new world of college sports following some major changes in format, particularly conference realignment and CFP format changes.
This summer, the PAC-12 conference lost eight of its teams to the Big 10 and Big 12 overnight, as well as two more teams announcing their exodus for the ACC in early September. Only two teams remain in the PAC-12: Oregon State and Washington State. This, in addition to Oklahoma and Texas taking off for the SEC in 2024, will prove for a very different FBS in the coming years. After Oklahoma and Texas join, the SEC will have 16 teams. Because of the large size of the conference, the SEC decided to eliminate the division system. The two teams in the SEC Championship game will be the two teams with the best conference records rather than an SEC East champion and SEC West Champion.
Last year, the College Football Playoff board of directors decided to expand the CFP from four to 12 teams. This came after years of criticism of the FBS championship system because of the difficulty of selecting only four teams to compete for the national title. The top four Power 5 conference champions will have a first round bye while the fifth through twelfth seeds compete for spots in the quarterfinals. There has been debate about whether the four spots in the current CFP should be given to the four “best” teams or the four “most deserving” teams. The SEC will likely benefit from the expansion as they often dominate the top 12 and are the elite conference in college football. It is very possible for the SEC to send as many as five teams to the 12 team playoff.
