Conference Realignment: Will Realignment Destroy Bowl Games?

Now that the Pac-12 has announced that there will be no further expansion at this time, the talk of college football realignment appears to have died down a little bit after weeks of intense speculation and wild rumors.

Still, just because the expansion stove has cooled down for now, that doesn’t mean it won’t heat back up some time in the near future.

The idea of a super-conference structure in college football is still very much a real possibility.

While we keep talking about what this will all mean for the different schools and conferences, not many people seem to be considering what this is going to do for college football’s bowl system, which includes 35 postseason games.

How drastically will possible super conferences change the current bowl system?

Let’s take a look.

The BCS

Right now, there are five BCS games: the national championship, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Orange Bowl.

The BCS championship game pits the two top-ranked teams against each other, while the rest of the games take the remaining conference winners and at-large teams.

Could this type of system still survive in a world of super conferences?

What will it be like to see three or four teams from one conference make it to a BCS bowl game in the same year?

How Many Bids Per Conference?

Each conference has specific tie-ins with various bowl games.

The SEC has the most with nine, the ACC and Big Ten each have eight, the Big 12 and Pac-12 each have seven and the Big East has six.

As we see the ACC go to 14 teams, and the SEC possibly follow the same path, you have to wonder how many bowl tie-ins will conferences eventually be allowed to have.

Will the SEC have a team in 10 different bowls?

Will there even be that many teams eligible?

What happens if we eventually move to 16-team conferences?

There are still many questions that need to be answered.

The Big 12

The Big 12 seems to be safe for now, but with just nine teams going forward, it’s obvious that the conference is going to have to do something to bring in more help.

The conference has seven automatic bids, and with just nine teams, it’s going to be mighty difficult to have seven schools bowl-eligible in a given season.

It’s quite possible that some bowls involved with the Big 12 might decide to find a loophole in the contract or void it all together.

Will the Big East Lose Its BCS Bid?

People had already been questioning whether or not the Big East deserves a bowl bid, and now that Pittsburgh and Syracuse are leaving for the ACC, those cries are only going to get louder.

The Big East is on life support now with six teams left: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia.

Out of those six teams, only West Virginia and Louisville have ever won a BCS bowl game.

The problem is, even if the Big East can find a way to survive, the pool of potential replacement targets isn’t very deep.

Will adding teams like Navy and Central Florida really be enough to convince the BCS brass to keep handing the Big East an automatic invitation every year?

What About the Independents?

There are currently four independent teams in college football: Army, BYU, Navy and Notre Dame.

All four schools have specific tie-ins with certain bowls that will guarantee them a spot if they’re bowl eligible.

If we move to super conferences, there’s a chance that those bowl bids could disappear.

That’s one of the reasons why schools like Notre Dame, Navy and BYU have to think about finding a stable conference home for the future.