College Football 26 realignment ideas
A quick-hitting refresher for release day
Welcome back, College Football video game fans!
If you remember correctly, I ran this post last year. I decided to push it back out again, just with some updates with our new schools: Delaware and Missouri State.
So, if you’re looking to spice up your Dynasty or Road to Glory and don’t know where to turn, I’ve got you covered with three fun, wacky ideas that will give you a unique playing experience.
Option 1 - Turn Back the Clock
We’ll start with the one most grounded in realism and get more fantastical as we go. Now, to get this straight: college football is not turning back the clock to 19-whatever or early-2000-whatever. But we can dream, right? Especially in a video game? This scenario recreates a ton of the elite conferences of yesteryear while maintaining historical rivalries.
The ACC is back to 10 teams, featuring only Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wake Forest. It’s a small conference that has a lot of parity. I’d expect Clemson and Florida State to lead the pack, but there’s no reason any of the others couldn’t take over. I’d recommend a nine-game conference schedule so you see everyone each year.
Here’s a big shakeup: let’s revive the Big East! We’ve got 13 teams here with a ton of history. Sure, it’s a basketball conference, but that doesn’t mean football can’t be fun, right? Rack up Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Miami, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, UCF, UConn, USF, Virginia Tech and West Virgina. The Backyard Brawl is back on the menu, and Sickos can finally make the Civil ConFLiCT a conference game.
The Big 10 should have never expanded, right? This iteration drops back to 11, featuring Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. No divisions needed here, and any longtime college football fan knows how this conference runs. Any standard Big 10 rebuild applies here.
Another ressurection of sorts has the SWC merging with the Big 12. You’ve got 15 teams here with a ton of rivalry history. Baylor-TCU? Check. Kansas-Kansas State? You bet. Red River? Sure thing. Lone Star Showdown? Back on the docket. Bedlam? Never left. Toss in former SWC opponent Arkansas and Big 12 mainstays Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska and you get a fun conference. For a rebuild, Arkansas and Nebraska are good picks, but SMU is intruiging too.
Our largest conference is a 20-team conglomeration of a bunch of random schools in Conference USA. Most of these are ones that have spent most of their football careers. There’s a decent top of the conference with Houston, UTSA, Memphis and Tulane, but the rest should bounce around. FBS newcomes Delaware and Missouri State land here.
There’s one conference that doesn’t need much editing: The MAC. Just forget that whole adding UMass thing, okay? Otherwise, keep the two divisions and 12 standard MAC teams and chef’s kiss.
The Mountain West also didn’t see much change, aside from some former schools and a regional rival entering. Take their current membership, toss in some Utah-BYU Holy War action and add New Mexico State and you get this iteration. Utah and BYU should be the front runners, but Boise, UNLV and Air Force could give them a run. Your standard MWC rebuilds apply here.
The PAC-12 survives, and bonus points if you got rid of George Kliavkoff! Well, PAC-10 because we don’t need two other schools, right? Another historical 10-team, nine-game schedule give us a solid lineup of Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Washington State. I’m partial to making Oregon State and Washington State run the show, but that’s me.
How about another 10-team show? That’s right, it’s SEC time! The usual culprits are here, but Vandy can’t hide behind some other additions. A Vandy rebuild is brutal with a guaranteed nine-game conference slate of Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Tennessee.
The final conference a strange iteration of the Sun Belt. It’s largely similar to today’s, but toss in Sun Belt stalwart Western Kentucky and remove the recent additions of Old Dominion and Southern Miss.
Finally, independents are usual suspects Notre Dame, Army and Navy. Recent independent runs from Liberty and UMass are here too, along with new additions Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State, and Kennesaw State.
Option 2 - The CST Proposal
If you haven’t yet read the College Sports Tomorrow idea to craft a super league, this one won’t make the most sense to you. Essentially, the proposal splits the FBS into two sub-tiers, the Upper and Lower tier. There’s a hint of European Football’s promotion and regulation thrown in for good measure too. While it’s not the most realistic in terms of actual implementation, it makes a fun exercise here.
One point we don’t know about the College Football dynasty mode is if there’s a customizable playoff. While it’s not necessary here, it’s incredibly helpful. Ideally, you’d have an 8-team playoff with autobids from each conference champion. With that said, let’s move on. For each Upper Tier program, the conferences are 10 teams and will play a round-robin nine-game conference schedule.
Upper Tier
The Upper Tier kicks off with the ACC, made up of Clemson, Duke, NC State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. This is a balanced conference with front-runners Clemson and Tennessee. Nothing is stopping the others from coming out, plus we gain the Commonwealth Cup that was missing in the last idea.
The American still has the Big East feel, just without the G5 schools. That leaves us with Boston College, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, and West Virginia. I feel like this one may be more rivalry-heavy, adding in Kentucky-Louisville, keeping the Backyard Brawl, and making Penn State-Pittsburgh a conference game. Penn State is the clear favorite, but other programs like Kentucky and Louisville can push them early.
The Big 10 actually has 10 teams! This iteration is super top heavy with Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. A Spoilermaker run could be a lot of fun, but the gauntlet at the top of Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame is as good as any in this scenario.
This Big 12 iteration keeps some of the SWC feel, but loses a ton of rivalries and picks up an unexpected friend. Here, we pit Baylor, Houston, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech for a title. LSU is a bit random, but the geographic placement sticks them in here. Still, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M is a solid competition piece, making a Houston or SMU rebuild a definite challenge.
The MAC takes Mid-American to the extreme, featuring Arkansas, BYU, Colorado, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Utah. There’s some heavy-hitting rivalries here, like the Holy War, Cyhawk, Sunflower Showdown, Battle Line rivalry, and Nebraska-Colorado. Kansas State, Missouri and Utah are probably the favorites, but with Coach Prime lurking, this could be a fun conference to play in.
We don’t need to change the PAC-10, right? Right. This is exactly the same as the last iteration, so I’ll spare you more details. Maybe an academic-heavy Cal or Stanford rebuild would be fun?
The SEC gets a bit more toxic here, too. Rivalries are galore with Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and UCF here. Pretty much everyone outside of UCF absolutely despises someone else. Imagine the message boards. And props to anyone who wants to run the gauntlet with UCF in this bloodbath.
Closing out the Upper Tier is the final conference: Conference USA. This one is a promotion-relegation conference based on AP Rankings. I’ll save you the details of who’s in here, since we discussed it heavily in my CST article. Instead, let’s talk Promotion and Relegation! The bottom two teams of CUSA would change each year, being replaced by the Mountain West and Sun Belt Champions.
Required Reading:
Lower Tier
We’re a bit limited here since we can’t add conferences, so instead we have two 20-team conferences in the Mountain West and Sun Belt. Promotion and relegation returns here, with the champions of each of our conferences moving to the Upper Tier CUSA. Additionally, the bottom team of each conference is relegated to independent status, with the top two independent teams promoted.
I’m not going to break down each of the conferences too much, since they’re all G5 schools that have rebuild potential. If you want a true challenge, take over an independent and build from absolutely nothing.
Mountain West
Arkansas State
Boise State
Colorado State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Louisiana
New Mexico
Northern Illinois
New Mexico State
North Texas
Sam Houston
San Diego State
San Jose State
South Alabama
Texas State
UAB
UNLV
Utah State
UTEP
Western Kentucky
Sun Belt
Appalachian State
Army
Ball State
Bowling Green
Buffalo
Central Michigan
Coastal Carolina
Eastern Michigan
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Jacksonville State
Middle Tennessee State
Navy
Ohio
Old Dominion
Connecticut
South Florida
Western Michigan
Independent
Akron
Charlotte
Delaware
East Carolina
Kennesaw State
Kent State
Louisiana Tech
Missorui State
Nevada
Southern Miss
Temple
Tulsa
Louisiana-Monroe
UMass
Option 3 - True Regional
What if the NCAA wanted to cut down on travel for all sports, including football? This is the least realistic, but a really fun way to play. I’ve used this for my most recent College Football Revamped dynasty and it’s a blast to play in these wild regional conferences and track how each school develops.
Here, playoff editing helps a ton. Ideally, you’d keep the 12-team format with 10 conference champion autobids and two at-large teams. Seeding is based on CFP rankings. Added bonus if you can get rid of divisions since there’s a few odd-numbered conferences here.
As usual, the ACC has a Carolina-heavy presence here. Actually, all of the Carolinas and most of Virginia. This conference is headlined by Clemson, South Carolina and North Carolina, but has a solid middle tier in Liberty, Appalachian State, Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Potential rebuilds include Virginia, Old Dominion, East Carolina, Charlotte and Coastal Carolina.
Our American iteration is another remake of the Big East, but with some freinds. Namely, the two expected to win the conference: Penn State and James Madison. There’s a robust mid-tier in this conference of Marland, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Boston College, Syracuse, and UConn. Rebuilds include both Army and Navy, alongside UMass, Buffalo, Rutgers, Temple, and Delaware.
The Big 10 has shrunk its footprint to three states, with all but one member in Ohio and Michigan. That makes The Game the de facto conference championship, at least in the early going. Toledo and Cincinnati are looming, looking for an avenue to grow, and the rest is a MACtion mess with the Ohio schools, directional Michigan schools, and old hated foe, Marshall.
The Big 12 take the moniker “Big” seriously as our largest conference, featuring 16 teams across Texas and Oklahoma. Big names are Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M. As always, there’s a healthy second tier in Oklahoma State, TCU, SMU, Houston, and UTSA. There’s even a third tier here with Texas Tech, Baylor and Texas State with the fourth level of rebuild worthy schools Tulsa, North Texas, UTEP, Sam Houston and Rice.
Conference USA is an interesting conglomeration in the heart of Tennessee and Kentucky, reaching up to Indiana. Tennessee and Notre Dame are probably the headliners, but Memphis, Louisville, Kentucky and Western Kentucky are quality schools. Rebuild-worthy teams Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State, Ball State, Purdue and Indiana round out the conference.
Ever feel like the Mid-American Conference should be more midwestern? Well, you’ve got your wish! There aren’t a ton of top-tier schools, with Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri competing for the crown. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, NIU, Illinois and Nebraska make up a balanced conference worthy of taking over the MACtion namesake. Toss in a newcomer in Missouri State for a fun, challenging rebuild opportunity.
The Mountain West makes up most of the Rocky Mountain region with the Holy War the likely conference championship. Upstart teams like Colorado, Air Force, Arizona and New Mexico State could make this a competitive conference. Rebuilds are a plenty here with Boise State, Wyoming, Colorado State, New Mexico and Arizona State ready to build.
For the first time in this exercise, we’ll shake up the PAC-12, focusin on the Pacific Coast and Nevada. The Big 10 defectors - Washington, Oregon, UCLA and USC are the clear headliners, with the rest of the conference making up a competitive second tier. It’s a mix of former PAC-12 and Mountain West schools in Washington State, Oregon State, California, Stanford, San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Nevada and UNLV.
The SEC is truly southeastern here, mostly in Florida and Georgia while still keeping the Iron Bowl. Georgia and Alabama are the clear favorites, with Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Auburn and Miami the second tier. From there, it’s a mess with Kennesaw State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, UCF, USF, FAU and FIU battling with each other.
The final conference, the Sun Belt, brings some interesting teams. LSU is the blue blood here, but Ole Miss could press them for titles. Our second tier is varied with Mississippi State, Tulane, Troy and Arkansas, while the third tier is made up of some G5 schools taht will battle with each other in Arkansas State, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, Southern Miss, South Alabama, UAB, Jacksonville State, and Troy.
Finally, we have the independent Hawaii that can play whoever they want to talk into vacationing on the islands, or fly to the West Coast.
So, there you have it. Three realignment ideas to consider for your dynasty. They’re not realistic, but they’ll be fun to play in if you’re not a fan of the current setup. We don’t know too much about the dynasty mode yet, but as we get closer to the release of the game, I do have some ideas for content here and perks for my Substack subscribers.
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The CST Time scenario feels real whacky, and I love it.