Realignment, NIL and Playoff Expansion: The New-Look College Football Is Here
Not long from now, the sport you know and love will look very different than it does today.
Sure, college football has been undergoing a massive renovation over the past decade. The only constant has been change. But the alterations that are set to take place before the 2024 season are about to completely reshape the sport.
We do, of course, have one more season until we get there. Georgia could win its third consecutive national title before then. EA Sports' NCAA football franchise could also be revived just in time before the seismic shift takes place.
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But the change that is on the doorstep of the sport will completely reshape the way we watch and experience football. And while we have more than a year to prepare, the magnitude of these tweaks will take some getting used to.
Here is what's coming sooner than later.
The Death of Divisions
This shouldn't come as a surprise. The sport has seen conferences drop divisions over the last few years. The Big 12 started the trend, largely out of necessity and departures, in 2011. Since then, others have followed—including the Pac-12 last fall.
The ACC will scrap divisions in 2023, and the SEC is openly discussing following the same formula with expansion set to hit soon. (More on that in a moment.)
In a sport as copy-cat as this one, it is possible that all divisions will be gone entirely by 2024. With plentiful conference movement on the horizon, the structure of divisions as you know it is about to change. The question is whether every conference follows suit and when.
This is a welcomed change, but it is a massive one. If the Big Ten adopts a similar layout, Ohio State and Michigan could compete in back-to-back weeks. Top-heavy conferences will play out differently, with no teams in down divisions sneaking into the conference title game.
This movement is fully endorsed, although it will certainly alter the way we watch the end of the year as more conferences opt in.
Settling in with NIL and the Transfer Portal
Name, image and likeness isn't going away. In fact, it's only likely to evolve in creative ways.
How will this change college football over the coming years? Only time will tell, although the result of this year's recruiting cycle tells a story.
Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State delivered the top five recruiting classes in the 2023 class, according to 247Sports. If that sounds familiar, it should.
At the very least, there doesn't seem to be a strong deviation to the top of the recruiting rankings when it comes to recent historical norms.
Still, the impact will be felt. NIL will continue to reshape the way recruiting evolves.
And the transfer portal is poised to have an even larger yearly impact on the sport. The ability for players to transfer without penalty—coupled with the addition of NIL—will create a frenzy toward the end of each season.
The direct, obvious impacts on the sport will be less than some of the tangible changes about to take place. But the evolution of roster management could likely have the largest impact of all on the sport in 2024 and beyond.
Texas and Oklahoma Head West
It won't feel as strange as other realignment taking place in 2024, but the SEC's addition of Texas and Oklahoma will certainly feel plenty different.
On the plus side, Texas and Texas A&M will play football games again, likely starting in the 2024 season. While realignment has taken so many meaningful rivalries away from us, the return of this matchup will be one of the most welcomed storylines of the season.
What the SEC decides from a scheduling standpoint will also be fascinating. We've gotten familiar with the East and the West, although it feels like that layout, as referenced above, is about to change.
With a new television deal looming, one thing is certain. Meaningful matchups—like Alabama vs. Tennessee, Georgia vs. Florida and others—will almost certainly exist everywhere. What happens after that remains a bit of a mystery, and the SEC doesn't seem to be in a rush to reveal what it has in store for the time being.
On the other side, Texas and Oklahoma will need to acclimate as well. We'll see how both teams stack up to tougher scheduling, although one thing is certain: The matchups against some of the conference's most storied programs, especially early on, will be must-see.
USC and UCLA Head East
It's going to take some getting used to; that much is clear.
USC and UCLA are heading to the Big Ten despite the news of the two California additions feeling still very raw and very fresh.
In terms of sheer geography, this will represent a groundbreaking moment for the sport. Whether you believe the groundbreaking nature of this arrangement is good or bad is a matter of interpretation, although the impact will be seismic.
The UCLA and Rutgers campuses are roughly 2,800 miles apart. These two teams aren't just going to play one another at some point; they will now compete for the same title. (You can insert your finest Rutgers' football joke here.)
Perhaps the larger change, however, is the impact this could have on the elites of the conference. Both USC and UCLA are poised to be in the upper echelon of Big Ten teams right away. That was not the case for Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers when it joined the conference.
This will look and feel different from any conference movement in recent memory. It will feature plenty of air travel, bizarre (but welcomed) scheduling matchups and an acclimation period that will take years to feel normal.
College Football Playoff Expansion
Without a doubt, College Football Playoff expansion will have the greatest impact on the way we consume football.
The four-team playoff will become a 12-team playoff in 2024. The selection committee's six highest-ranked conference champions will earn a spot along with the next six teams ranked highest in the final rankings.
In terms of bracketing, the top four conference champions will earn first-round byes. The remaining eight teams will then compete in games on the higher-ranked teams' campuses. (This last part is delightful.)
The bracket will then play out through the major bowls until a champion is crowned.
Opinions of this format obviously will vary. Regardless of where you stand on the matter, one thing is certain: more teams will be within striking distance of the playoff late in the season.
More games will matter, not less. More teams will have hope of crashing the bracket.
Oh, and we all get more football.
Conference championship games will finally mean something, especially with critical byes on the line. And the college environment, the greatest asset CFB has to offer, will inject itself into the postseason for the first time.
With so much change set to be introduced, no change will be greater than this one. More teams across the country will gain access to a postseason they likely wouldn't otherwise make, and the frenzy surrounding the season's final month will be something truly spectacular.
More change is coming, and these changes will greatly impact the entire CFB calendar. Sure, we've got a year before they set in. But the buzz and intrigue surrounding these moves is already starting to build.
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