Beware the ides of March. No, not you Julius Ceasar. I’m talking to the conference commissioners of the Big 12, Big East and mid-major conferences everywhere. As of this writing, the Big 12 is mostly likely going to be down to the Small 4. The Big East has already lost 2 teams (Syracuse and Pittsburgh) to the ACC and could lose two more (Connecticut and Rutgers) in the coming months. The ripple effect of teams leaving the major conferences will endanger mid-majors everywhere as conference commissioners scramble to find replacements.
So far, the only mid-major conference affected by realignment is the Mountain West which lost Utah to the Pac-12 and Texas Christian to the (dying) Big East. Expect consistently relevant mid-majors such as Boise State, Fresno State, Houston, and some other mid-major teams I can’t name because I don’t watch them play to get a call from conference commissioners reeling from having their best teams poached.
What does the all the realignment mean?
Conference realignment is clearing the way for a potential playoff in college football which is reason for fans everywhere to rejoice. For years, the Big East winner has been scrutinized for its automatic BCS bowl bid because of the Big East’s status as an Automatic Qualifying (AQ) BCS conference. It’s hard to believe that the new, underwhelming Big East will receive any less scrutiny once the realignment dust settles. The Big 12 (or whatever they rename themselves when they settle on a number of teams) will be riding shotgun with the Big East in the car of AQ conferences with beyond questionable status as an automatic qualifier. The super conferences that result from realignment (most likely a PAC 16, a 16 team ACC, and a 16 team SEC) will have conference runner-ups (and even 3rd and 4th place finishers) that have a more legitimate claim to a BCS bowl than any team that wins the floundering Big East or Big Whatever 12.
Hopefully, these super conferences will pressure their college presidents to find the most fair way to determine BCS bowl bids and ultimately the national championship: a playoff system. Talk of a playoff system is almost as old as college football itself, but the dramatic changes from conference realignment may be the impetus that the college presidents need to finally opt-in to a playoff. Of course, this is all just rampant speculation here at Onions! (you can become an Onions! insider for speculation free posts) and conference realignment may not be a harbinger of a playoff system at all. Only time will tell. In the meanwhile, conference commissioners beware the Ides of March
