What’s Next in College Football Realignment and Conference Expansion?
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Everything that’s happening in college sports now stems from the massive tidal wave of expansion and realignment moves over the last few years.
The transfer portal. NIL chaos. College Football Playoff expansion. Private equity bids to infuse a boatload of cash into conferences.
Everything is out of control thanks to the SEC grabbing Texas and Oklahoma – and then the Big Ten demanding that everyone hold its beer as it took things to a whole other level.
Now, every conference not named the Big Ten or SEC is looking for stability, sustainability, and some sense of normalcy that isn’t returning.
With all of that in mind, what’s happening in every conference? Who’s playing where, what’s next, and what moves could each league make?
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ACC
Current Teams: Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Pitt, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Offseason Moves: None. Notre Dame isn’t becoming a full-time part of the football fun.
What Changed? Nothing, other than a kitten fight with Notre Dame over the ACC’s lobbying of the College Football Playoff for Duke and Miami.
The Irish – with their friends with benefits football deal with the ACC – responded with a stern tongue-lashing, everyone pretended their feelings were hurt, and in a weird way, the relationship is a bit stronger now, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.
Main Issue: There aren’t enough great ACC football teams.
Clemson and Florida State were not only unsuccessful in their fight to get out from under the Grant of Rights deal with the ACC, but 1) the Big Ten and SEC interest in these two appears to be lukewarm, and 2) they became mediocre on the field at the wrong time.
The ACC doesn’t have a ton of juice with the average national college football fan, even with Miami playing for the national title last season.
What Happens Next? The ACC will try to find new and creative ways to keep everyone both happy and locked down, and it starts with keeping North Carolina away from the Big Ten’s loving gaze.
American Conference
Current Teams: Army, Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Memphis, Navy, North Texas, Rice, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, USF, UTSA
Offseason Moves: None
What Changed? The league went from the American Athletic Conference to just the American Conference – and its champion, Tulane, made it into the College Football Playoff.
What’s the Main Issue? The negative can also be a positive – there aren’t any schools the big boys really want, and there’s no real geographic threat to be picked off by, say, the Mountain West or Pac-12.
It’s one of only two conferences in college football – the Pac-12 the other – without a University of (insert the name of any state you want to here) school
What Happens Next? UConn for football only – this is a projection, not anything true. The move would make too much geographic sense.
Big Ten
Current Teams: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Washington, Wisconsin
Offseason Moves: None. Everything is working.
What Changed? The Big Ten seemingly won everything in every sport.
With the media markets, coast-to-coast reach, and monster major universities and alumni bases, it flexed its revenue muscle as the dominant force in the game both on and off the field.
What’s the Main Issue? It’s a nice problem to have, but the Big Ten is almost too big.
As is, the 18-team conference has a massive football scheduling imbalance depending on who the top teams are each season, and there’s nowhere else to expand without creating divisions.
What Happens Next? The member schools won’t be all that excited about adding anyone else who makes the already impossible league even tougher.
But business-wise, go ahead and float any ideas you want about, say, North Carolina, Virginia, or Miami.
Exit fees are rounding errors to this league.
Big 12
Current Teams: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah, West Virginia
What Changed? The Big 12 can exhale a bit. There’s no imminent threat of getting poached for top schools – even though the SEC is insane if it doesn’t have a thought about trying to steal Arizona and Arizona State in the near future.
What’s the Main Issue? Basketball-wise, adding Arizona and Houston in recent expansion moves made the conference a powerhouse.
When it comes to football, the respect isn’t there because it hasn’t been earned yet by the CFP types, with two one-and-done performances in the two 12-team expanded playoff.
BYU didn’t get any process-break from the College Football Playoff committee, which didn’t hold Alabama to the same standard it set for the Big 12 Championship loser.
What Happens Next? The Big 12 can’t sit still. At the moment, the problem isn’t losing programs to the Big Ten or SEC. It’s not picking off schools that the Pac-12 will soon go after.
San Diego State is just getting going with the new Pac-12, but the timing would be right to get in on a school on the rise.
It’s been ridiculous that it didn’t grab USF and the Tampa market, and UNLV and UConn are immediate musts.
Conference USA
Current Teams: Delaware, FIU, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Middle Tennessee, Missouri State, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, WKU
What Changed? UTEP is gone to the Mountain West in a huge move for the program.
Okay, fine, but losing Louisiana Tech to the Sun Belt was a hit – complete with CUSA’s horribly sad hold-my-breath-turn-I-turn-blue moment of including the school in the 2026 football schedule.
What’s the Main Issue? Conference USA is like an FCS-Plus league. The new guys have worked out great, though.
The conference has managed to survive and advance by being a landing spot for good FCS programs.
Delaware, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Missouri State, and Sam Houston might not be national title contenders, but they’ve made the league more fun. But …
Middle Tennessee and New Mexico State are the conference’s only programs that have been at an FBS level since before 2018.
What Happens Next? Lean into it. Sacramento State dropped a lot of money to be in the MAC, and North Dakota State is in the Mountain West.
Going forward, Conference USA should do whatever it can to welcome in FCS power programs like Illinois State, Montana, Montana State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Villanova, and any others who want to make the next step up.
Independent
Current Teams: Notre Dame, UConn
What Changed? Notre Dame had its rift with the ACC just as the program solidified itself as a national championship-level program that appears to be getting even better.
UConn is coming off another amazing basketball season – both men’s and women’s – and the football team was excellent.
What’s the Main Issue? Fair or not, a whole lot of fans, media types, and main players are sick – or jealous, if everyone is honest – of Notre Dame having so much power as its own kingdom that lives outside of the conference norms.
For UConn, it’s geography. It would be an absolutely perfect fit for the new Pac-12, except for that being thousands of miles on the other side of the country thing.
What Happens Next? Notre Dame’s performance art anger at the ACC talking up Duke and Miami for the College Football Playoff only made both sides realize that they actually love their current situation that much more – at least for right now.
UConn is doing okay as an independent, and the relationship with the Big East in basketball makes things tough, but the ACC and Big 12 will have to keep trying to figure out how to make this work – even though it apparently doesn’t, or it would’ve happened by now.
MAC
Current Teams: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami University, Ohio, Sacramento State, Toledo, UMass, Western Michigan
What Changed? Things just got weird.
After seeing its dream of getting a call from the Big 12 dashed ten years ago, Northern Illinois bailed for the Mountain West.
Meanwhile, Sacramento State – who has gone 18-19 over the last three years, but would’ve been a perfect geographic fit for the Mountain West or Pac-12 – is paying the MAC $18 million to be invited into its club.
That’s like giving the Applebee’s hostess a 50 to get a table, but okay, Sac State – let’s do this.
What’s the Main Issue? The whole late-season “MACtion” thing has found its place in the college football world, but mostly just for betting types looking for something to invest in on a weeknight.
If this Northern Illinois move works, Toledo, Western Michigan, and Miami University will be among those who’d be crazy not to explore other possibilities.
What Happens Next? Keep an eye out for how all the aspects of Sacramento State’s move go. From the travel and attention to whether or not this expands the footprint and profile, like the school is hoping for, there’s a lot riding on this seemingly wacky move.
Illinois State, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Dakota State – there are far more FCS schools out there that make sense for the MAC – especially if they’re willing to play for it.
Mountain West
Current Teams: Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP, Wyoming
What Changed? The conference certainly knows how to take a punch.
It lost Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State to the new Pac-12, but the conference is still alive, and things could’ve been a whole lot worse.
In comes North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, and UTEP to at least put a Band-Aid on the bleeding.
If nothing else, the Bison will bring a whole new energy, and the Huskies and Miners help make this among the most eclectic conferences going.
What’s the Main Issue? How long can the Mountain West keep pace with the Pac-12, considering the loss of so many top programs?
Things are okay for the moment, but this was a massive step back for the conference with no legitimate hope of getting back to the 2025 form.
What Happens Next? The Mountain West has to be way more proactive, because the vultures are circling.
The options are limited, though, considering the couch-cushion change the member schools will be getting paid is (likely) around $4 million a year each.
There are moves to make.
At some point – yes, there are exit fees involved – UNLV is a prize for the city, market, location, and vibe, but Montana, Montana State, North Dakota, South Dakota, and South Dakota State make too much sense.
Pac-12
Current Teams: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State, Washington State
What Changed? Oregon State and Washington State found some friends to play with.
The Pac-12 is a real conference now, even if it’s only an eight-team league. It’s not even close to its former self after being raided by the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12, but now there’s momentum.
Now it’s for real that the conference is back, at least in some legitimate form.
What’s the Main Issue? It’s not the Pac-12.
There’s no replacing Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, and Washington.
Boise State is nice, and San Diego State is a rising power as a university, but like the American, there’s no University OF (put a state name here), even though Boise State has a bigger football program than the University of Idaho.
What Happens Next? This is tricky because expansion just to get larger doesn’t work here. No, the Pac-12 isn’t a Power Five conference now.
It’s at the third tier behind the Big Ten and SEC, and then the ACC and Big 12, and then there’s the American and Mountain West, along with the Pac-12.
The new media rights deal will be worth just over $13 million per school after signing on with CBS, USA Sports, and The CW
SEC
Current Teams: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
What Changed? The SEC 1) stopped winning big things and 2) finally woke up and realized that the Big Ten media payouts are really, really big.
It’s all cyclical, and one heater SEC team making a College Football Playoff championship run will change just about everything perspective-wise.
However – as I screamed from the rooftops several years ago that this was coming – it’s the Big Ten, then a big drop, and then the SEC, and then a drop to the ACC and Big 12, and then everyone else.
What’s the Main Issue? Revenue – sort of.
Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, and Auburn are among the SEC athletic departments that generate more total revenue than just about everyone else.
There’s no need to hold any bake sales for SEC schools, but the Big Ten schools are getting payouts of $80 million-plus, and the SEC teams are getting around $70ish million.
What Happens Next? The SEC should’ve expanded harder when it had a chance. Now the Big Ten has the coast-to-coast media markets.
Clemson and Florida State don’t really help. The Big 12 programs the SEC should’ve grabbed – Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado – appear to be locked in, and there aren’t a ton of big expansion whales out there that make sense other than North Carolina and Notre Dame.
Sun Belt
Current Teams: EAST: App State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion
WEST: Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, ULM
What Changed? Texas State left for the new Pac-12, Louisiana Tech came aboard and filled the void, and now, it’s a conference that not only has two divisions, but it put a team in the College Football Playoff with James Madison getting the shot in the spotlight last season.
What’s the Main Issue? The league is about as maxed out as it can be, but it needs to keep being proactive.
The American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Pac-12 will keep on searching for options and right fits, and the Sun Belt has an interesting mix of schools to consider.
What Happens Next? The conference has things geographically worked out, but now it’s about strengthening what it has in place.
Could the Sun Belt get a FIU, or a Western Kentucky, or anyone else from Conference USA? Right now, it’s about keeping as many programs as possible from bolting.
Really, What’s Next in College Football Expansion Overall in 2026?
Outside of the Group of Six conferences trying to steal each other’s members, there probably won’t be a lot happening, with all of the focus being on the College Football Playoff expansion idea, NIL, and what has turned into history’s greatest monster – at least if you’re on social media – the transfer portal.
All it takes is one expansion and realignment domino to fall, though. If one conference tries to make a move, the FOMO will kick in triple-hard, and here we go.
This story was originally published by College Football News on May 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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