Everything Changing About College Football In 2024: Conference Realignment, Playoff, More
As the game clock at NRG Stadium hit triple zeroes, the curtain fell on college football as we know it. The sport's undergone major changes before, but the 2024 college football season brings the most dramatic change seen in the modern era. For good or ill, its fundamental identity shifts this coming year.
But what exactly are all those changes? What will the landscape of college football look like come August 24?
Before we get started, the 2024 regular season extends a week and gives all teams two bye weeks. This is reportedly not a permanent change, but rather a quirk in this year's fall calendar. Teams should return to one bye week in 2025.
The Expanded Playoff
Since the four-team College Football Playoff (CFP) was introduced in 2014, fans and coaches found it flawed. Right from the get-go, the word "deserving" was run into the ground as 2014 TCU and 2023 Florida State became tentpoles for the argument of expanding the playoff field.
In 2024, that field grows from four teams to 12.
More postseason teams more postseason games. The CFP will now be a month-long affair, beginning Dec. 20 and concluding with the National Championship on Jan. 20 – two weeks later than the season previously ended.
First-round playoff games play out at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team. Quarterfinal games consist of four New Year's Six bowl games and the final two rounds (semifinals, championship) play out as they have for the last decade. The top six conference champions automatically get a seat at the table, and the top four selected teams get a first-round bye. (Note: The CFP and NCAA both are trying to change this format with the consolidation of conferences.)
While expanding to 12 teams gives new teams a realistic path to the National Championship, it also gives teams a second chance and somewhat dilutes regular-season games. In 2023, both Georgia and Ohio State would have received a CFP bid in spite of their loss; now, teams would have to again go through Georgia, potentially backfiring on the notion that the 12-team CFP gives more teams a chance to win a title. Also, the loser in this year's winner-takes-all Ohio State vs. Michigan blockbuster loses some of its luster, as the Buckeyes would have been in the CFP anyway.
Love it or hate it, this format is here to stay.
Major Conference Realignment
This offseason, we'll take a much closer look at all the teams playing in new leagues this next season. In terms of numbers, this is the sport's most major conference reshuffling since 2011-13. In terms of weight and brand, there's never been a more prominent change.
Oklahoma and Texas kicked off the conference realignment frenzy when they decided to depart the Big 12 for the SEC. This announcement came back in Summer 2021 and the day has finally arrived. It caused a cascading effect, the first phase we saw take place this past season.
UCLA and USC delivered the second blow, announcing their departure from the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. Oregon and Washington would follow a year later, causing irreparable cracks in the foundation of the Pac-12.
Following the departure of the Pac-12's four largest brands, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah all left the sinking ship for the Big 12. For Colorado, they rejoin a league they were an original member of back in 1948. These four schools were the newest members of the Pac-12 and sensibly expand the geographic footprint of the Big 12 Conference.
Aside from the Big Ten, perhaps the most nonsensical move (for more than just geographic reasons) was Cal and Stanford also jumping ship for the Atlantic Coast Conference. The two schools fit and improve the academic rigor of the ACC, joining schools like Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia. SMU also made the jump up from the Group of Five (American) to the Power Four (no longer Five!).
This reshuffling, particularly the ACC and Big Ten moves, tears down a foundation of college football: regional identity. Opposition to conference realignment argues that college is going the way of the NFL – a potentially ill-founded move. College football grew its popularity because it differs from the NFL, not because it follows its model.
What About The Other Two Schools?
Ten Pac-12 schools exit the league this year. After Cal and Stanford joined the ACC, that left Oregon State and Washington State alone in the now-Pac-2. This season, the two schools compete as a two-team league with a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West.
In other sports, those schools agreed to join the West Coast Conference. However, the WCC doesn't host football, leaving these two with open futures. Of course, the most obvious route would be to join the Mountain West, but both schools have reservations about stepping down a league.
For this year, the two operate on their own. They won legal battles claiming control of the Pac-12 and its assets (worth tens of millions in TV revenue). At the time of writing, there's no official word on if the schools will compete for a conference title.
Other Conference Realignment
The Group of Five saw its major reshuffle take place ahead of 2023. Four teams left the American for the Big 12; in turn, six teams departed Conference USA for the American. CUSA ended up adding new FBS members and two independents to even the numbers out.
This year, longtime independent Army joins the AAC. The Black Nights keep their famous rivalry with now-conference mate Navy on the same date after conference championship week – which was a part of their deal to join, but may cause some obvious scheduling conflicts.
Not to be buried under the avalanche of realignment moves, Kennesaw State becomes the FBS' 134th member and joins Conference USA.
(More) Transfer Madness
Like many college football issues for 2024, the court system got involved with the NCAA. A U.S. district judge in West Virginia placed a temporary ban on the NCAA's transfer waiver system, opening the door for anybody to transfer, no matter how many times they may have moved schools in the past. The NCAA's initial rule forced athletes on their second or higher transfer to sit a year.
At least for the final two weeks of 2023, multi-transfer athletes were allowed to transfer again without penalty.
This could become a permanent ruling by the court system, should the courts continue to pursue that avenue. This year, the winter transfer window saw over 1,000 players transfer; 500 hit the portal the day it opened alone. Forty-six FBS quarterbacks named their team's starter at some point this season transferred elsewhere.
Expect this trend to continue so long as restrictions on Name, Image, Likeness or the portal exist.
What Does All This Mean Moving Forward?
College football is changing. Many of its changes are adverse to the sport's fans. Love them or hate them, these changes are here to stay.
But college football only changes as much as you let it. Despite the expanded playoff, conference reshuffling, record number of players moving schools, and decreased regional identity across the country, the heart of college football lives on.
Come fall, things will look different. But the fundamentals of what makes college football, college football remain. The sport is what you make of it.
That said... change is not done.
The next wave of conference realignment is on the doorstep. Florida State briefly explored legal action against the ACC, writing another chapter of a tumultuous relationship between the league's top brands (Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, FSU) and the league itself. The current Grant of Rights is in place through 2036, but heavy doubts exist surrounding whether it really lasts that long.
Although FSU's endeavors were initially unsuccessful, expect these teams to continue to consider their options.
Currently, the general groupthink is that the top teams in the FBS (be it Power Four or more exclusive) join a new division controlled by a non-NCAA, non-CFP entity. While dramatic, news like that moves fast in college football. That change – which would then become the league's biggest ever – could be closer than expected.
College football in 2024 is going to look different. But it's just the latest iteration of the league, one that's bound to change again in the near future.
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