UCLA HC Chip Kelly Wants a 64-Team Power 5 Conference for CFB amid Realignment Rumors

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly is an accelerationist when it comes to realignment in college football.

"I think we should all be independent in football," Kelly told reporters Friday. "You can have a 64-team conference that's in the Power 5 and you can have a 64-team conference in the Group of 5, and we separate it and we play each other."

His wider argument is that football should be separated from other college sports entirely. He alluded to the impending difficulties that will come with UCLA playing fellow Big Ten schools in non-revenue sports.

Kelly probably isn't alone in that thought at this point.

The most recent round of realignment has dramatically altered the landscape in college football and increasingly concentrated power in two conferences (Big Ten and SEC). College sports have undergone numerous changes across generations, but now they're entering uncharted territory to some degree.

With Florida State openly agitating for an exit from the ACC, it may not be long before the next wave of realignment arrives, too, one that could lead the ACC to go the way of the Pac-12. The Pac-12 went from being on the verge of building one of the biggest conferences in the country to dissolving within 12 years.

Even leaving that aside, the stratification in college football has only grown over the last decade or so to create another case for adopting something like Kelly proposed. Parity has never been a feature of the sport, but schools, particularly those in the Group of Five, are getting left behind because they simply don't have the resources to keep up.

If college football is going to cease largely being a regional enterprise, then pivoting toward a more pro-style structure with everybody playing under the same banner is arguably the most sensible approach.