Collegiate American Football Conferences

For the main page, see Collegiate American Football.

Alignments listed are as of the 2012 season.

• Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) [Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest]: One of the six "power conferences", meaning they get an automatic bid to one of the major bowls, specifically the Orange Bowl (more on those below). Clemson has been the league's traditional football power, winning 13 of the league's titles. In the 1990s Florida State dominated this league winning the league championship (or a share of it) from 1992-2000 and again in 2002, 2003, and 2005. Virginia Tech, since joining the league in 2004, has been the dominant team lately. Miami is one of the more traditional football powerhouses, producing quite a few NFL superstars, though it's periodically held down by cheating scandals. Duke, despite having won 7 league championships, has been the Butt Monkey of ACC football since 1989. Traditionally known as a southern conference, the inclusion of Boston College and University of Miami (which are over a thousand miles apart) slightly changed its character.
• Big East [Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, Temple]: Another of the six "power conferences", though not tied to a specific bowl. Big East football has been something of a laughing stock lately, with many fans suggesting it should be stripped of its "power conference" status. It was once highly regarded, but then the ACC stole three of its top teams, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College. It rebounded somewhat, though no current member of the conference has made the BCS title game. However, its future is uncertain with Syracuse (a founding member) and Pittsburgh leaving for the ACC in 2014. The Big East has responded by to the loss of those two and West Virginia (which left for the Big 12) by inviting multiple other teams. Temple joined in 2012, and Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State, and Southern Methodist will join in 2013, decidedly making the name an Artifact Title.
  • The Big East began life as a basketball conference (where eight more schools, among them Notre Dame, in addition to those listed here participate as well) and is more known for that sport rather than football.
• Big Ten [Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin]: The name "Big Ten" is an Artifact Title - there have been 11 schools in the conference for awhile, and expanded to 12 in 2011 with the addition of Nebraska. After Penn State joined, the conference logo was redesigned to have a hidden "11" in the center. Obviously, it was changed yet again when Nebraska joined, though the number "12" is not hidden anywhere in the text this time. Yet another "power conference", this one tied to the Rose Bowl. There are plenty of historical powerhouses in the Big Ten: Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all have incredibly storied histories and have produced tons of NFL greats. One notable person in the Big Ten is Penn State's late former head coach Joe Paterno the longest-serving (over fifty years) and most-winning coach in NCAA history, who was recently fired from the school over failing to communicate with police during a university child-rape scandal by one of his former assistants. The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is probably one of the ten largest in the country.^[1] With the expansion to 12 teams, the Big Ten implemented divisional play for the first time in 2011. Unlike most conferences with 12 or more teams, which go with geographical division names, the Big Ten opted to name their divisions "Legends" and "Leaders"...a choice which (unsurprisingly) was almost universally ridiculed.
  • We should note that the Big Ten has an academic element--the Committee on Institutional Cooperation--in which the University of Chicago participates. This is a holdover from when UChicago was a full member of the conference; it withdrew from the sports element in 1946, when its sports teams were rather crappy (they still are), and were replaced in the lineup by Michigan State (which was expanding and improving rapidly at the time) in 1950.
• Big 12 [Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, West Virginia]: The name's now an Artifact Title - there are ten members nowadays. They're also a "power conference", tied to the Fiesta Bowl. There are also some very storied teams in this conference as well. The Texas-Oklahoma rivalry ranks right up there with Michigan-Ohio State. Formerly known as the Big Eight, until the fallout from the SMU "Death Penalty" led to the fragmentation of the former Southwest Conference (where the four Texas schools came from). Missouri and Texas A&M are leaving for the SEC in 2012, with Texas Christian and (despite the geographical oddity) West Virginia expected to replace them. It remains to be seen if the Big 12 will recruit any additional schools to get back to 12 teams, but for now they've averted the disintegration of the conference that once seemed inevitable. The Big 12 is also unusually insistent that their conference name not be written "Big Twelve" or "Big XII"...despite the official logo consisting primarily of a large "XII".
• Conference USA (C-USA) [Alabama-Birmingham, Central Florida, East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, Southern Methodist, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso, Tulane, Tulsa]: One of the newer conferences - they've been gaining some prestige as of late, throwing off the "SEC-Lite" nickname that came from the initially similar geographical footprint with the more prominent Southeastern Conference. Will merge with the Mountain West, possibly as soon as 2012. After the merger (officially described as an "alliance"), C-USA and Mountain West will act as separate conferences during the regular season, after which the C-USA champion will play the Mountain West champion for a combined championship. The ultimate goal is for the winner of this championship to receive a BCS automatic qualifier spot^[2], when the next BCS contract is negotiated in 2014.
• Mid-American Conference (MAC) [Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Massachusetts Miami-Ohio, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan]: Much like Conference USA, they haven't done too much of note. Like the Sun Belt, it's a conference that big-name teams look to for Padding their schedule with an easy win or two.
• Mountain West: [Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, San Diego State, Wyoming]: Write-up coming soon.
• Pacific-12 (Pac-12): [Arizona, Arizona State, Cal-Berkeley, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Southern California, UCLA, Utah, Washington, Washington State]: Another "power conference", this one also tied to the Rose Bowl. Several of these teams have incredibly storied histories, though the one most likely to be known by the casual fan right now is USC, which is well-known for both currently being one of the more dominant teams and for landing in hot water for allegedly paying players. Oregon has also grabbed a lot of attention in recent years for playing the best football in school history^[3] and perhaps even moreso for their flashy uniforms that are different for each game^[4]. Known as the Pac-10 until Utah and Colorado joined in 2011. Before that, they were the Pac-8 until Arizona and Arizona State joined in 1978.
• Southeastern Conference (SEC): [Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt]: Yet another "power conference" (the last of the six), this one tied to the Sugar Bowl (no, not that one). A lot of these teams are historical powerhouses - Florida has been one of the most dominant teams of late, and Alabama is the defending national champion. LSU has also been quite dominant as of late. Alabama-Auburn is considered one of the greatest rivalries in the sport. The SEC was the first conference to split into divisions ("East" and "West" in its case) and hold a conference championship game between the top teams of each division. This was implemented in 1992, after the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina made it impractical for all teams in the conference to play each other every year (doing so would have allowed only one non-conference game per season). Observers often consider this the strongest league, and it has held a monopoly on the national championship in recent years. Since the implementation of the BCS, SEC schools are 8-1 in the championship game, and the one loss was due to a matchup of two SEC members. Its fans are not reluctant to point this out. At great length. The conference gets a lot of games televised, especially on CBS, with whom it has an extraordinarily lucrative contract. Texas A&M and Missouri are joining in 2012, bringing the conference to a massive 14 teams.
• Sun Belt [Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, South Alabama, Troy, Western Kentucky]: The Butt Monkey among the current conferences. Most of these teams don't get winning records - and very few of their players go on to the pros. The exception is Troy, which has gotten some decent players to the next level (DeMarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora both played there). If you've ever heard of any of these schools, it's because these are the teams typically scheduled to get slaughtered on the road to some of the traditional powerhouses. When a team from a power conference is scheduling their homecoming game, this is where they look.
• Western Athletic Conference (WAC) [Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Utah State]: What was a sixteen-team conference as recently as 1998 is now down to seven, though only one school (San Jose State) remains from the "super-conference" era. The WAC is mostly regarded as not playing defense, leading to lots of very high-scoring games.

1. ↑ ESPN ran a commercial once where a guy in an Ohio State jersey and a girl in a Michigan jersey were kissing, with the tagline "If it wasn't for sports, this wouldn't be disgusting."
2. ↑ Either the one currently going to the Big East or a new, 7th AQ berth...which the BCS has indicated may be added in 2014
3. ↑ Including a ridiculously fast-paced offense; they basically spend the whole game as if they're in a 2-minute drill.
4. ↑ Famed shoe company & sports outfitter Nike is headquartered in Oregon and a major sponsor of the team, providing the uniforms for free.