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Power Five conferences

February 16, 2024

"Power Five" redirects here. For other uses, see Power five (disambiguation).

The Power Five conferences (or P5) are the five most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation, and are considered the most elite conferences within that tier. The Power Five conferences have provided nearly all of the participants in the College Football Playoff since its inception, and generally have larger revenue, budgets, and television viewership than other college athletic programs.

Michigan (in white) and Ohio State, members of the Big Ten, one of the Power Five conferences, playing in November 2008

The Power Five conferences are the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC). The FBS consists of the Power Five, five other conferences known as the Group of Five (G5), and a small number of independent schools. The term Power Five is not defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but the Power Five conferences are identified individually under NCAA rules as "autonomy conferences," which grants them some independence from standard NCAA rules to provide additional resources for the benefit of student-athletes.

Each of the power conferences existed for decades before the establishment of the College Football Playoff, with the oldest power conference, the Big Ten, founded in 1896. Prior to the establishment of the College Football Playoff in 2014, the Power Five conferences, as well as the original incarnation of the Big East Conference, received an automatic berth in one of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games. The power conferences also compete in numerous sports outside of football, but are not necessarily the most prominent conferences in each individual sport. For example, in men's college basketball, the modern Big East Conference is also generally considered to be a power conference, with the media referring to it and the rest of the Power Five as the "Power Six."

Amid the broader early-2020s NCAA conference realignment, it remains to be seen if the Pac-12 Conference remains part of the Power Five, as ten of that conference's 12 current schools plan to move to other Power Five conferences before the 2024–25 school year.[1]

Current conferences and teams edit

For a full list of FBS football programs, see List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs.

The ten FBS conferences as of the 2023-2024 academic year are listed below. For the Power Five, the member universities of each conference are also listed.

  Members departing for the Big Ten in 2024.
  Members departing for the Big 12 in 2024.
  Members departing for the ACC in 2024.
  Members departing for the SEC in 2024.

* The University of Notre Dame is a full voting member of the ACC, and although its football team does not participate in ACC football and competes as a football independent, it is obligated to play an average of five football games a year against ACC opponents.[2] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Notre Dame entered into a full ACC football schedule and was eligible for the conference's championship.[3] Notre Dame fields 24 other varsity sports that compete in the ACC, as well as men's ice hockey which competes in the Big Ten Conference.

Map of Power Five teams edit

 
 
Notre Dame
 
Arizona
 
Arizona State
 
California
 
UCLA
 
Oregon
 
Oregon State
 
USC
 
Stanford
 
Washington
 
Washington State
 
Colorado
 
Utah
 
Texas A&M
 
Arkansas
 
Florida
 
Kentucky
 
Georgia
 
Tennessee
 
Vanderbilt
 
Alabama
 
Auburn
 
LSU
 
Ole Miss
 
Mississippi State
 
Missouri
 
South Carolina
 
Penn State
 
Rutgers
 
Nebraska
 
Indiana
 
Michigan
 
Michigan State
 
Ohio State
 
Illinois
 
Iowa
 
Minnesota
 
Northwestern
 
Purdue
 
Wisconsin
 
Maryland
 
BYU
 
Cincinnati
 
Houston
 
Iowa State
 
Kansas
 
Kansas State
 
Oklahoma
 
Oklahoma State
 
Texas Tech
 
Texas
 
Baylor
 
TCU
 
UCF
 
West
Virginia
 
Georgia Tech
 
Wake
Forest
 
Virginia
 
NC State
 
North
Carolina
 
Duke
 
Clemson
 
Boston College
 
Syracuse
 
Pittsburgh
 
Miami (FL)
 
Virginia Tech
 
Florida State
 
Louisville
class=notpageimage|
Teams for each of the Power Five conferences during the 2023 season.
SEC  
ACC  
Big Ten  
Big 12  
Big 12 - Departing for SEC  
Pac-12  
Pac-12 - Departing for Big Ten  
Pac-12 - Departing for Big 12  
Pac-12 - Departing for ACC  
Power Five independent  

Power Five conferences in the College Football Playoff era edit

Position within college football and the FBS edit

The power conferences are all part of NCAA Division I, which contains most of the largest and most competitive collegiate athletic programs in the United States, and the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is the higher level of college football within NCAA Division I.[4] Since the demise of the original Big East Conference in 2013 and the establishment of the College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, the top conferences in the college football are known as the "Power Five conferences": the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Pac-12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In 2014, the NCAA gave the Power Five conferences greater autonomy in regard to issues such as stipends and recruiting rules.[5][6][A] It is unknown where the term "Power Conference" originated from; it is not officially documented anywhere by the NCAA,[citation needed] though the term has been used in its current meaning since at least 2006.[7]

Roughly half of the schools in the FBS play in one of the Power Five conferences. The remaining schools are either independent or play in one of the conferences known as the Group of Five conferences, which consists of the American Athletic Conference (AAC or "The American"), Conference USA (CUSA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference (MW), and the Sun Belt Conference (SBC).[8] The term "Power Five conferences" is often shortened to "P5", while the Group of Five Conferences are often referred to as the "G5".[9] The FBS has four independents as of the 2023 season: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Army Black Knights, the UConn Huskies, and the UMass Minutemen. Notre Dame is currently considered equal to the Power Five schools, being a full (with the exception of football) member of the ACC with an annual five-game football scheduling agreement with that conference; Notre Dame also has its own national television contract and its own arrangement for access to the CFP-affiliated bowl games should it meet stated competitive criteria. The other independents are generally considered to be on the same level as the G5 conferences.

Compared to the Group of Five, Power Five schools have significantly higher revenues, in large part because of television deals with major networks and streaming services.[10] In 2022, the Power Five conferences generated a combined $3.3 billion in revenue.[11] College football games often draw strong television ratings, and, along with the NFL, college football was one of the few television properties to grow in live ratings between 2013 and 2023.[12] In 2022, college football games between Power Five teams made up five of the ten most-watched non-NFL sporting events among U.S. viewers. With 22.56 million viewers, the 2022 national championship game ranked as the most watched college football game of the year, and as the 33rd most-watched sporting event in the United States; only NFL games ranked higher.[13] Almost every Power Five school has a home stadium capacity of at least 40,000,[14] and the Power Five conferences all had an average attendance of at least 44,000 in 2022. This compares to an FBS average attendance of just under 42,000 and Group of Five average attendance that ranged between 14,000 and 29,000 for each conference.[15] This revenue advantage allows Power Five conferences to pay higher salaries to coaches[10] and invest in expensive athletic facilities and amenities.[16] Although schools cannot directly pay student athletes,[17] since 2021 school boosters and other third parties can pay student athletes for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Much of this NIL money goes to Power Five conference athletes, although numerous athletes from other conferences have also received NIL compensation.[18]

Scheduling and college football playoff edit

Teams in the Power Five conferences play an eight or nine-game conference schedule, and additionally play either three or four non-conference games to fill out their 12-game regular season schedule.[19][B] Teams from the Power Five and the Group of Five often play non-conference games against each other during the season, and sometimes also play against teams from the FCS, the lower tier of division one football.[21] However, many coaches of Power Five schools have argued that Power Five schools should only be allowed to schedule games against other Power Five schools.[8] All Power Five conferences that require their members to schedule at least one Power Five team in nonconference play (currently the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12)[citation needed] consider Notre Dame to be a Power Five opponent for such purposes. Before BYU joined the Big 12, the ACC, Big Ten, and SEC also counted it as a Power Five opponent for scheduling purposes, and the Big Ten and SEC continue to count Army as such.[22][23][24] Though not required to do so, all Power Five conferences hold conference championship games following the conclusion of the regular season and prior to the College Football Playoff. The power conferences previously each had two divisions and matched the winner of each division in the conference championship game, but all of the Power Five conferences have scrapped divisions or plan to disband them following the 2023 season; conference championship games instead take place between the two highest-ranking teams.[25]

The College Football Playoff takes place after the conference championship games and contemporaneously with several other bowl games. The CFP rotates among six bowl games, collectively known as the "New Year's Six" bowl games. Beginning with the 2024 season, the playoff will expand to 12 teams, with the top six conference champions receiving automatic bids to the playoffs. With the exodus of numerous Pac-12 schools, the College Football Playoff management committee has proposed reducing the number of automatic bids, but this proposal has not been formally adopted.[26] Under the new system, the four highest-ranked conference champions will receive first-round byes, while the remaining eight teams will play at the home fields of the higher seeds. The New Year's Six bowls will host the quarterfinals and semifinals on a rotating basis, and the championship game will continue to be held at a separately determined neutral site. Amid the broader early-2020s NCAA conference realignment, it remains to be seen if the Pac-12 Conference remains part of the Power Five, as ten of that conference's 12 current schools plan to move to other Power Five conferences before the 2024–25 school year.[1] Some sources have also discussed the possible emergence of a “Power Two” consisting solely of the Big Ten and the SEC, both of which have added some of the most successful and well-regarded football programs in the country in recent rounds of realignment.[27][28][29]

History edit

Further information: College football § History

Origins of the power conferences edit

College football originated in the Northeastern United States in the final third of the 19th century, with the 1869 Princeton vs. Rutgers football game often considered to be the first college football game.[30] The schools that would eventually form the Ivy League dominated college football in the 19th century and for parts of the 20th century, claiming numerous national championships.[31] Motivated in large part by fatalities and injuries sustained in college football, President Theodore Roosevelt worked with various collegiate athletic programs to establish the NCAA in 1906.[32] The NCAA was preceded by the earliest athletic conferences, including the Big Ten, which was founded in 1896 as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives and was often referred to as the "Western Conference". The conference became known as the Big Ten after expanding to ten teams in 1917. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA), founded in 1894, at its peak consisted of 28 schools across almost every Southern state, and was the predecessor to both the SEC and the ACC.[33]

The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was formed in 1907, and in 1928 the MVIAA split into two conferences, with the larger schools from the MVIAA forming the Big Six Conference.[34] The Big Six later expanded to eight teams in 1957, becoming known as the Big Eight Conference. The Southwest Conference (SWC) was formed in 1914 by several schools in Texas and neighboring states, and after some early defections would maintain stable membership into the 1990s. The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded in 1915, but disbanded in 1959 following a "pay-for-play" scandal. Some of the former members of the Pacific Coast Conference formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) that same year, and by 1968 the AAWU had renamed itself as the Pac-8 and contained most of the former members of the PCC.[35] Several of the larger schools split off from the SIAA in 1921 to form the Southern Conference, and the SIAA ultimately dissolved in 1942. The Southern Conference in turn later experienced the departure of its most prominent teams, first with the secession of 12 schools located south or west of the Appalachians to form the SEC in 1932. Most of the remaining large schools departed the Southern Conference in 1953 to form the ACC, and after losing its top programs, the Southern Conference ultimately became part of the FCS.[33] The Ivy League was officially founded in the 1950s, but the football programs of Ivy League schools declined in stature after World War II, and the conference ultimately dropped down to Division I-AA in 1982.[31]

Until the 1990s, many top programs, particularly in the Northeast, played as football independents.[36] Many of these independents were affiliated with the Big East Conference, the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10), or the Metro Conference, each of which were founded in the 1970s as non-football conferences. In 1962, several members of the Skyline Conference and the Border Conference founded the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Although generally not considered a power conference, four of the six founding WAC members would ultimately join one of the Power Five conferences, and the 1984 BYU Cougars football team won the national championship.[37][38][39] NCAA divisions were created in 1973 when the largest schools were placed in Division I, and in 1978, Division I football programs were further sub-divided into Division I-A (later Division I FBS) and Division I-AA (later Division I FCS).[40]

Rise of bowl games and precursors to the BCS edit

The Rose Bowl, a postseason game matching top teams from the West with top teams from the East, was first played in 1902 and became a yearly tradition in 1916. As college football grew beyond its regional affiliations in the 1930s, it garnered increased national attention. Four new bowl games were created: the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Sun Bowl in 1935, and the Cotton Bowl in 1937. In lieu of an actual national championship, these bowl games provided a way to match up teams from distant regions of the country that did not otherwise play. In 1936, the Associated Press began its weekly poll of prominent sports writers, ranking all of the nation's college football teams. Since there was no national championship game, the final version of the AP poll was used to determine who was crowned the national champion of college football.[41]

The first college football game was televised in 1938, and as universities began to widely televise their games after World War II, the NCAA took control of television broadcast rights in 1951 and restricted the number of games that a program could air on television.[42] The 1984 Supreme Court case NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma spurred a round of conference realignment by ending the NCAA's monopoly on television rights of college football games, instead granting the rights to individual schools and conferences.[27] With the exception of Notre Dame, all of the major independent programs joined a conference in the early 1990s.[43] Many of the independents in the Northeast and elsewhere on the Eastern Seaboard joined the Big East, which began playing football in 1991.[35] Other independent schools joined the Big Ten, the ACC, or the SEC, and in 1992 the SEC became the first Division I conference to hold a conference championship game for football.[25] The Southwest Conference dissolved in the wake of a series of scandals and concerns over an insufficiently large television market, and four teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 to create the Big 12 Conference in 1994.[35] The remaining SWC schools joined the WAC or the newly-formed Conference USA, though most would later join one of the Power Five conferences;[C] other future power conference schools such as Louisville and BYU also played in the WAC or Conference USA during the 1990s.

By the middle of the 20th century, the Rose Bowl matched up the Big Ten champion against the champion of the PCC and its successors, the Sugar Bowl generally hosted the conference champion of the SEC, and the Cotton Bowl generally hosted the conference champion of the SWC. The Orange Bowl often hosted the champion of the Big Eight, though it would later develop close ties with the ACC. The Fiesta Bowl was initially founded in 1971 to host the WAC champion, but later rose to prominence in the 1980s while frequently hosting games involving independents, including the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, which served as the de facto national championship game for that season. From 1968 to 1992, the number one and number two ranked teams in the AP poll met only eight times in a bowl game, frequently leading to situations in which multiple teams claimed the national championship. Seeking a more definitive way to determine the national champion, the SEC, Big 8, SWC (prior to its dissolution), ACC, Big East, and independent Notre Dame joined with several bowls to form the Bowl Coalition, which was later succeeded by the similar Bowl Alliance. The Big Ten and Pac-10 declined to join either group in favor of continuing to send their respective champion to the Rose Bowl, contributing to split national championships during some seasons in the 1990s.[44]

Under the BCS system edit

In 1998, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was created by the Big 10, Pac-12, and the former members of the Bowl Alliance.[45] The Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl all took part in the system, with a national championship game either rotating among the four bowl sites (prior to the 2006 season) or played as a separate game. The BCS succeeded in bringing an end to split national championships, except in the 2003 season, when LSU won the national championship game and was crowned national champion by the Coaches Poll, but USC was selected as the national champion by the AP poll. While the number of AQ conferences was technically variable,[46] the BCS always had six AQ conferences for its entire history between 1998 and 2013. Following the departure of several Big East members to the ACC, the non-football schools of the Big East known as the "Catholic 7" chose to withdraw from the conference, ultimately creating a new conference that took on the Big East name.[47] The rump Big East renamed itself as the American Athletic Conference and took the Big East's automatic bid for the 2013 season.[48] The Mountain West Conference, formed in 1998 by several former WAC members, was perhaps the closest of the other conferences to getting AQ status, but its request for AQ status was denied in 2012.[49]

In addition to creating a national championship game, the BCS also created a set format for other major bowls. After the two top teams in the BCS rankings were matched up in the BCS National Championship Game, the other three or (after the 2005 season) four bowls selected other top teams. The BCS ranking formula used a combination of polls and computer selection methods to determine team rankings, though conference championships also affected game selection.[45] The term "BCS conference" was used by many fans to refer to one of the six conferences whose champions received an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games, although the BCS itself used the term "automatic qualifying conference" (AQ conference).[50] Each of the bowls had a historical link with one or more of the six BCS conferences with the exception of the former Big East, and the bowl games selected a team from each of these conferences if it was eligible for a BCS bowl and not playing in the national title game. Notre Dame remained an independent in football, but had guaranteed access to the BCS bowls when it met certain defined performance criteria.[51] The conferences automatic qualifying conferences and their traditional bowl links were:

Map of automatic qualifying conference schools in 2013
 
A map of every university in the automatic qualifying conferences in 2013.

The other conferences (listed below) were non-AQ conferences because they did not receive an annual automatic bid to a BCS bowl game. The highest ranked champion of any non-AQ conference received an AQ bid if they ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS poll or ranked in the top 16 and higher than a champion of an AQ conference.[52] The conferences in this group were:[53]

Under the four-team College Football Playoff system edit

The BCS faced several controversies throughout its tenure, driven largely by teams and fans dissatisfied at being left out of the championship game. The presence of two SEC teams in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game brought the opposition to the BCS to a head, and helped spur the adoption of the College Football Playoff beginning with the 2014 season.[45] Like the BCS and the planned twelve-team CFP, the four-team College Football Playoff took place after the conference championship games and contemporaneously with several other bowl games. It rotated among six bowl games, with two bowl games used each year as the national semi-finals, and four other bowls matching the remaining top teams in the country. These six bowl games were collectively labeled as the "New Year's Six" bowl games. The New Year's Six consisted of the four BCS bowls, the Cotton Bowl, and the Peach Bowl, the latter of which was established in 1968 but had been considered a minor bowl for much of its history.[54][55] Each conference champion from the Power Five and the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion were guaranteed a spot in a New Year's Six Bowl.[56] Because there were four spots in the playoffs and five power conferences, at least one Power Five champion was always left out of the playoff. In some seasons only two or three P5 champions were selected to the playoff, though the 2023 Florida State Seminoles were the lone undefeated P5 champion to be passed over for selection.[57]

The new playoff system drew strong television ratings, helping to boost the profile of college football and specifically to the Power Five conferences, who constituted all but one of the CFP participants in the four-team era, and the remaining FBS programs.[58] The CFP also led to changes in stature among the Power Five, and the Pac-12's failure to place a team in the CFP for seven years contributed to the planned exodus of most of its programs following the 2023 season.[59] Bowl games declined in prestige as more focus went to the playoff, and even the New Year's Six bowls frequently saw top players opt out.[58] Like the BCS, the new system endured a series of controversies related to teams being left out of the championship process, both among the Power Five and the Group of Five, leading many to call for a playoff.[45] The 2021 Cincinnati Bearcats were the only Group of Five team[E] to ever play in the College Football Playoff prior to the playoff's planned expansion to twelve teams following the 2023 season; the Bearcats were defeated in the semi-final 2021 Cotton Bowl Classic.[61] Another Group of Five team, the 2017 UCF Knights,[E] was left out of the CFP, but proclaimed themselves the national champion after going undefeated in the regular season and winning the 2018 Peach Bowl.[F][45] In 2022, the College Football playoff board voted to expand the playoff to twelve teams, with the new system set to take effect for the 2024 season.[62]

Realignment since the 1990s edit

The FBS has undergone several waves of realignment since the 1990s, when the Bowl Coalition was established. The first realignment occurred in the 1990s, and resulted in the demise of the Southwest Conference, which was a member of the Bowl Coalition and at times considered equal to some of the Power Five conferences; as well as many schools giving up independent status to join conferences. In the early 1990s, Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC; the original Big East Conference began sponsoring football, with eight former football independents joining either for all sports or football only; and other major independents such as Florida State (to the ACC), Penn State (to the Big Ten), and South Carolina (to the SEC) joined major conferences. In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment, the SWC dissolved, and four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference.[35]

During another phase of realignment in 2005, three schools (Boston College, Miami-FL and Virginia Tech) jumped from the Big East to the ACC, and Temple also left the conference (before eventually returning in 2013). The Big East responded by adding former basketball-only member Connecticut and three schools from C-USA.[63][35]

College football underwent another major conference realignment from 2010 to 2014, as the Big Ten and Pac-10 sought to become large enough to stage championship games. Members of the original Big East left the conference to join the Big 12, Big Ten, and ACC. The Big 12 lost members to the SEC, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten, while the Big Ten also gained one former ACC member. The remaining members of the Big East split into two conferences: the American Athletic Conference (the American) and a new Big East Conference that does not sponsor football (only three of the original 10 members of the current Big East sponsor football, all at the second-tier Division I FCS level). The American, the football successor to the Big East, is no longer considered a power conference. Despite the major conference realignment from 2010 to 2014, relatively few schools dropped out of or joined the ranks of the power conferences. Two of the three non-AQ schools that had appeared in multiple BCS bowls left the Mountain West Conference and joined a power conference, as Utah joined the Pac-12 and TCU joined the Big 12. Former Big East members Temple and South Florida are now part of The American; another former Big East member, UConn, left American Conference football after the 2019 season to become an FBS independent while otherwise joining the current Big East. Of these, only Temple was a founding member of the Big East in football.[63][64]

The most recent major realignment is currently ongoing. During a period of less than two months in 2021, the Big 12 both gained and lost members. First, on July 30, the conference lost two of its mainstays when Oklahoma and Texas announced that they would leave for the SEC no later than 2025;[65] the two schools later reached a buyout agreement that will allow them to join the SEC in 2024.[66] The Big 12 reloaded by announcing four new members on September 10, initially announcing that American members Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF plus FBS independent BYU would join no later than 2024.[67] BYU's initial announcement stated that it would join in 2023,[68] and the other three schools' 2023 entry date was officially confirmed after they reached a buyout agreement with The American.[69] On June 30, 2022, Pac-12 mainstays UCLA and USC announced they would move to the Big Ten in 2024.[70] The Pac-12 would lose another member a little more than a year later when Colorado announced it would return to the Big 12 in 2024 after an absence of 13 years.[71] A further five schools announced their departure from the Pac-12 on August 4, 2023; Oregon and Washington would join the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah would join the Big 12.[72][73] Less than a month after this exodus, California and Stanford announced their departure from the Pac-12 to join the ACC in 2024, with American Conference member SMU also joining the ACC at that time.[74] This realignment fueled discussion that the Big Ten and the SEC would emerge as the "Power Two" conferences,[75][76] or that the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 would form a new group of "Power Four" conferences.[77]

List of schools by tenure in their current Power Five conference edit

This list shows institutions who started an uninterrupted association with their current conference prior to 1998.

  Members departing for the Big Ten in 2024.
  Members departing for the Big 12 in 2024.
  Members departing for the ACC in 2024.
  Members departing for the SEC in 2024.

Institution Joined Conference Previous conference
Illinois 1896 Big Ten None
Minnesota 1896 Big Ten None
Northwestern 1896 Big Ten None
Purdue 1896 Big Ten None
Wisconsin 1896 Big Ten None
Indiana 1899 Big Ten None
Iowa 1899 Big Ten None
Kansas 1907 MVIAA/Big 8/Big 12[a] None
Iowa State 1908 MVIAA/Big 8/Big 12[a] None
Ohio State 1912 Big Ten None
Kansas State 1913 MVIAA/Big 8/Big 12[a] None
California 1915 PCC/Pac-12[b] None
Washington 1915 PCC/Pac-12[b] None
Michigan 1917 Big Ten None
Stanford 1918 PCC/Pac-12[b] None
Oklahoma 1919 MVIAA/Big 8/Big 12[a] None
USC 1922 PCC/Pac-12[b] None
UCLA 1928 PCC/Pac-12[b] SCIAC
Florida 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Georgia 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Kentucky 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Tennessee 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Vanderbilt 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Alabama 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Auburn 1932 SEC Southern Conference
LSU 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Ole Miss 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Mississippi State 1932 SEC Southern Conference
Michigan State 1950 Big Ten None
Clemson 1953 ACC Southern Conference
Duke 1953 ACC Southern Conference
NC State 1953 ACC Southern Conference
North Carolina 1953 ACC Southern Conference
Virginia 1953[c] ACC None
Wake Forest 1953 ACC Southern Conference
Oklahoma State 1958 Big 8/Big 12[a] None
Washington State 1962 Pac-12 None[b]
Oregon 1964 Pac-12 None[b]
Oregon State 1964 Pac-12 None[b]
Arizona 1978 Pac-12 WAC
Arizona State 1978 Pac-12 WAC
Georgia Tech 1979[d] ACC Metro/Independent[e]
Arkansas 1991 SEC SWC
Florida State 1991 ACC Metro/Independent[e]
Penn State 1991 Big Ten A-10/Independent[e]
South Carolina 1991 SEC Metro/Independent[e]
Baylor 1996 Big 12 SWC
Texas 1996 Big 12 SWC
Texas Tech 1996 Big 12 SWC
  1. ^ a b c d e The Big 8 split off from the MVIAA in 1928. Although all members of the Big 8 joined the Big 12 with that conference's formation in 1996, the Big 8 was dissolved in 1996. The Big 12 was a new conference, not a direct continuation of the Big 12.[78]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the forerunner of the Pac-12, was founded in 1915 and disbanded in 1959. California, Washington, Stanford, USC, and UCLA, which had all been members of the PCC, founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (now known as the Pac-12) immediately after the dissolution of the PCC. Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State had also been members of the PCC, but each played several seasons as independents before joining the Athletic Association of Western Universities.
  3. ^ Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953, seven months after the ACC was founded and after the conclusion of Virginia's 1953 season.[79]
  4. ^ While Georgia Tech joined the ACC in 1979, it did not play ACC football until 1983.
  5. ^ a b c d The Metro Conference and the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) did not sponsor football. Georgia Tech, Florida State, Penn State, and South Carolina football all competed as independents while members of those conferences.

List of schools that moved among power conferences since 1998 edit

See also: List of NCAA Division I conference changes since 2010

  Indicates a football-only move.
  Indicates a non-football move.

This list includes any and all institutions who have either left or have announced that they will depart from the ACC, Big East,[a] Big 12, Pac-12, Big 10, or SEC after the establishment of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998.

Institution Year moved From conference To conference
Virginia Tech 2000 A-10/Big East[b] Big East[b]
Miami 2004 Big East ACC
Virginia Tech 2004 Big East ACC
Boston College 2005 Big East ACC
Temple 2005 A-10/Big East[c] A-10/Independent[c]
Colorado 2011 Big 12 Pac-12
Nebraska 2011 Big 12 Big Ten
Missouri 2012 Big 12 SEC
Texas A&M 2012 Big 12 SEC
West Virginia 2012 Big East Big 12
Notre Dame 2013 Big East/Independent[d] ACC/Independent[d]
Pittsburgh 2013 Big East ACC
Syracuse 2013 Big East ACC
Louisville 2014 AAC[a] ACC
Maryland 2014 ACC Big Ten
Rutgers 2014 AAC[a] Big Ten
Texas 2024 Big 12 SEC
Oklahoma 2024 Big 12 SEC
USC 2024 Pac-12 Big Ten
UCLA 2024 Pac-12 Big Ten
Oregon 2024 Pac-12 Big Ten
Washington 2024 Pac-12 Big Ten
Colorado 2024 Pac-12 Big 12
Utah 2024 Pac-12 Big 12
Arizona 2024 Pac-12 Big 12
Arizona State 2024 Pac-12 Big 12
California 2024 Pac-12 ACC
Stanford 2024 Pac-12 ACC
  1. ^ a b c Louisville and Rutgers are also listed in the table because they departed from the American Athletic Conference after the 2013 season, when the AAC inherited the Big East's automatic qualifying status.[80]
  2. ^ a b Virginia Tech had joined the Big East as a football-only member in 1991.
  3. ^ a b Temple was a football-only member of the Big East. It was primarily affiliated with the Atlantic 10 Conference.
  4. ^ a b Notre Dame was a non-football member of the Big East, and Notre Dame football maintained independence after the school joined the ACC.

List of schools that joined power conferences since 1998 edit

  Indicates a football-only move.
  Indicates a non-football move.

This list includes any and all institutions that joined or have announced that they will join the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, Big 10, or SEC after the establishment of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, and that had previously been independent or had affiliated with a non-power conference. It also includes all institutions that joined the original Big East between 1998 and 2013, and teams that joined the AAC for the 2013 season, since that conference inherited the Big East's BCS automatic qualifying status for that season.[81]

Institution Year moved From conference To conference
Connecticut 2004 Big East/Independent[a] Big East
Cincinnati 2005 Conference USA Big East
Louisville 2005 Conference USA Big East
South Florida 2005 Conference USA Big East
Utah 2011 MW Pac-12
TCU 2012 MW Big 12
Temple 2012 A-10/MAC[b] Big East
Houston 2013 Conference USA American
Memphis 2013 Conference USA American
SMU 2013 Conference USA American
UCF 2013 Conference USA American
BYU 2023 WCC/Independent[c] Big 12
Cincinnati 2023 American Big 12
Houston 2023 American Big 12
UCF 2023 American Big 12
SMU 2024 American ACC
  1. ^ Connecticut had previously been a Big East member for most sports, but played as a football independent prior to 2004.
  2. ^ Temple had previously been an Atlantic 10 member for most sports, but played football in the Mid-American Conference prior to 2012.
  3. ^ BYU was a football independent prior to joining the Big 12.

Bowl game results edit

See also: College Football Playoff § Selections by year

New Year's Six and BCS Bowl Game appearances by conference edit

The following table lists the number of times that a member of each conference appeared was selected to appear in a BCS bowl game (from 1998 to 2013), a New Year's Six bowl game (from 2014 to 2023), or the College Football Playoff (since 2014). From the 1998 to 2005 seasons eight teams were selected, from 2006 to 2013 ten teams were selected, and since 2014 twelve teams have been selected to appear in these games.

A * indicates a team from that conference won the national championship as determined by the BCS or the College Football Playoff,[G] while a ^ indicates a team from that conference was the runner-up in the national championship game. Statistics reflect conference membership at the time of the game. Note that the American filled the Big East's automatic bid in 2013.

Power conferences Other conferences and independents
Season ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Big East ND MW AAC Others
2023 1 1 3* 2^ 4 n/a - - - 1
2022 1 2^ 3 2 3* n/a - - 1 -
2021 1 2 3 1 3*^ n/a 1 - 1 -
2020 2 2 1^ 1 4* n/a 1 - 1 -
2019 2^ 2 3 1 3* n/a - - 1 -
2018 1* 2 2 1 4^ n/a 1 - 1 -
2017 2 1 3 2 3*^ n/a - - 1 -
2016 2* 1 4 2 2^ n/a - - - 1
2015 2^ 2 3 1 2* n/a 1 - 1 -
2014 2 2 2* 2^ 3 n/a - 1 - -
2013 2* 2 2 1 2^ n/a - - 1 -
2012 1 1 1 2 2* 1 1^ - n/a 1
2011 2 1 2 2 2*^ 1 - - n/a -
2010 1 1 2 2^ 2* 1 - 1 n/a -
2009 1 1^ 2 1 2* 1 - 1 n/a 1
2008 1 2^ 2 1 2* 1 - 1 n/a -
2007 1 2 2^ 1 2* 1 - - n/a 1
2006 1 1 2^ 1 2* 1 1 - n/a 1
2005 1 1* 1 2^ 1 1 1 - n/a -
2004 1 2^ 1 1* 1 1 - 1 n/a -
2003 1 2^ 2 1 1* 1 - - n/a -
2002 1 1 2* 2 1 1^ - - n/a -
2001 1 2^ 1 1 2 1* - - n/a -
2000 1^ 1* 1 2 1 1 1 - n/a -
1999 1* 1 2 1 2 1^ - - n/a -
1998 1^ 1 2 1 2* 1 - n/a n/a -
Total 34 39 54 37 58 15 8 5 8 6
Champs 4 2 3 1 15 1 0 0 0 0

BCS games involving non-automatic qualifying conferences edit

Ten "non-AQ" teams appeared in the nine following BCS games, with an overall record of 5-3:

Of these appearances, all were via automatic qualifying bids, except Boise State's participation in the highly controversial 2010 Fiesta Bowl in which the Broncos were selected via at-large bid and played fellow BCS Buster TCU.

Power Five vs Group of Five New Year's Six Games edit

College Football Playoff semifinal in bold. Group of Five team in italics. Asterisks denotes years in which Group of Five teams won the game.

Season Bowl Winner Loser
*2014 2014 Fiesta Bowl No. 20 Boise State (MW) 38 No. 10 Arizona (Pac-12) 30
*2015 2015 Peach Bowl No. 18 Houston (American) 38 No. 9 Florida State (ACC) 24
2016 2017 Cotton Bowl No. 8 Wisconsin (Big Ten) 24 No. 15 Western Michigan (MAC) 16
*2017 2018 Peach Bowl No. 12 UCF (American) 34 No. 7 Auburn (SEC) 27
2018 2019 Fiesta Bowl No. 11 LSU (SEC) 40 No. 8 UCF (American) 32
2019 2019 Cotton Bowl No. 10 Penn State (Big Ten) 53 No. 17 Memphis (American) 39
2020 2021 Peach Bowl No. 9 Georgia (SEC) 24 No. 8 Cincinnati (American) 21
2021 2022 Cotton Bowl No. 1 Alabama (SEC) 27 No. 4 Cincinnati (American) 6
*2022 2023 Cotton Bowl No. 16 Tulane (American) 46 No. 10 USC (Pac-12) 45
2023 2024 Fiesta Bowl No. 8 Oregon (Pac-12) 45 No. 23 Liberty (CUSA) 6

Table of revenues, television sports rights, and average attendance edit

Total revenue in Fiscal Year 2022
Conference Total Revenue [82] Distribution
Per School[83]
Big Ten Conference $845.6 million $58.8 million
Southeastern Conference $802.0 million $49.9 million
Atlantic Coast Conference $617.0 million $41.3 million
Pac-12 Conference $581.0 million $37.0 million
Big 12 Conference $480.6 million $44.9 million
U.S. television sports rights
Conference National
TV contract		 TV Revenue
(Per Year)		 Ref
March Madness CBS, Turner $8.8bn ($1.1bn)
College Football Playoff ESPN $5.6bn ($470m)
Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) Fox, ESPN $3.0bn ($250m)
Big Ten Conference (Big Ten) Fox, ESPN $2.6bn ($440m) [84]
Big 12 Conference (Big 12) Fox, ESPN $2.6bn ($200m)
Southeastern Conference (SEC) ESPN, CBS $2.25bn[85] ($55m)[H]
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) ESPN $1.86bn ($155m)[86]
Average football attendance by conference in 2022[15]
Conference Attendance
Atlantic Coast Conference 48,714
Big Ten Conference 67,295
Big 12 Conference 59,783
Pac-12 Conference 44,458
Southeastern Conference 76,667
FBS average 41,840

Outside of football edit

In sports outside of football edit

Each Power Five conference sponsors at least 21 sports, with the Big Ten sponsoring the largest number of sports with 28; among all NCAA conferences, only the Ivy League sponsors more sports.[87] Among team sports, all of the Power Five schools sponsor football, men's basketball, and women's basketball, while the vast majority of Power Five schools also sponsor baseball, softball, women's soccer, and women's volleyball. Wrestling, men's soccer, men's lacrosse, women's rowing, women's lacrosse, and women's field hockey are all sponsored by between two and four of the Power Five conferences. Among individual sports, all or the vast majority of Power Five schools sponsor men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, women's tennis, and outdoor track and field for men and women. All of the Power Five conferences also sponsor men's tennis, women's gymnastics, and swimming and diving programs for men and women, while every conference other than the Pac-12 sponsors indoor track and field for men and women.

The Big Ten is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor men's ice hockey and men's gymnastics, the Pac-12 is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor women's beach volleyball, and the ACC is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor fencing. Only the Big 12 and SEC sponsor women's equestrian. Schools are free to compete as independents or in another conference if their main conference does not sponsor a sport; for example, Missouri's wrestling program competes in the Big 12 because the SEC does not sponsor wrestling. Some Power Five conferences have affiliate members that primarily compete in non-power conferences; one example is Johns Hopkins University, which competes at the Division III level for most sports, but affiliates with the Big Ten in men's and women's lacrosse.

Beach volleyball will see significant changes in conference sponsorship in 2024–25. The schools that are leaving the Pac-12 include all of the conference's beach volleyball programs. Most will join the new beach volleyball league of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), which sponsors a broad array of non-revenue sports. At the same time, the Big 12 will add beach volleyball.

All of the NCAA sports that are not sponsored by at least one Power Five conference are part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, or are National Collegiate sports, meaning that schools are not separated into divisions for the purpose of NCAA championships. Various Power Five schools sponsor men's water polo, women's water polo, women's ice hockey, women's bowling, men's volleyball, rifle, or skiing, but all of these programs compete as independents or under the aegis of other conferences such as the MPSF. Some Power Five schools also have varsity teams in sports such as men's rowing that are not governed by the NCAA.

Power Five schools dominate the list of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships; of the top fifteen schools, only the University of Denver, which last played football in 1960, does not play in a Power Five conference.[88] Power Five schools also generally dominate the standings in the Division I NACDA Directors' Cup and the Capital One Cup, two awards honoring schools with the greatest collegiate athletic success across all sports. For example, the top ten of the 2022-2023 Division I NACDA Directors' Cup standings consisted entirely of Power Five programs.[89] Nonetheless, the Power Five conferences are not necessarily the most prominent conferences in all sports in which they compete. For example, in men's college basketball, the Big East Conference is also generally considered to be a power conference.[90][91]

List of NCAA team sports sponsored by Power Five schools edit

  Indicates a sport sponsored by the conference.
  Indicates individual members of the conference sponsor the sport but the conference itself does not. The number of schools sponsoring the sport are indicated in parentheses.
+ prior to a number indicates the number of affiliate members for the conference in that sport
† Indicates a National Collegiate sport

Men's team sports
Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Total P5[a] Total D1[b]
Football 14[c] 14 14 12 14 68 253
Basketball 15 14 14 12 14 69 350
Baseball 14 13 13 11 14 65 293
Soccer 12 (2) 9 5+1 (2) 26+1+(4) 202
Lacrosse 5 — 5+1 (1) — 11+1+(1) 72
Ice hockey (2) — 6+1 (1) — 6+1+(2)[d] 57
Volleyball† — (1) (2) (3) — (6) 25
Water polo† — — — (4) — (4) 25
Women's team sports
Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Total P5[a] Total D1[b]
Basketball 15 14 14 12 14 69 348
Beach volleyball† (1) (1) (1) 9 (2) 9+(5) 62
Field hockey 7 — 9 (2) — 16+(2) 77
Ice hockey† (2) — (4) — — (6) 34
Lacrosse 8 (1) 6+1 6 (2) 20+1+(3) 119
Rowing 9 6+2 8 7 (2) 30+2[e] 87
Soccer 14 14 14 12 14 68 335
Softball 13 10 14 9 13 59 293
Volleyball 15 13 14 12 13 67 332
Water polo† — — (2) (5) — (7) 34
  1. ^ a b The "Total P5" column shows the number of P5 programs that play the sport in their main conference, followed by (if applicable) the number of affiliates of P5 conferences in that sport, followed by (if applicable, and wrapped in parentheses) the number of P5 programs that play the sport outside of a P5 conference.
  2. ^ a b The "Total D1" column shows the total number of NCAA Division I programs sponsoring each sport for the 2021-2022 academic year.[92]
  3. ^ Notre Dame is a full member of the ACC, but plays football as an independent. Notre Dame football is obligated to play an average of five football games a year against ACC opponents.[2]
  4. ^ Notre Dame is a member of the ACC and an affiliate of the Big Ten for men's ice hockey.
  5. ^ Alabama and Tennessee are members of the SEC and affiliate with the Big 12 for women's rowing.

Football:

  • ACC: Notre Dame is an independent and not an ACC member in the sport. It is generally considered to be on the level of the P5 conferences.

Men's Soccer:

  • Big 12: The only current conference members that sponsor men's soccer, UCF and West Virginia, play in the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). None of the schools joining in 2024 sponsor the sport.
  • Pac-12: Five of the conference's 12 full members sponsor men's soccer. They are joined by single-sport member San Diego State, otherwise a member of the Mountain West Conference (MW). Four of the 10 schools leaving the Pac-12 in 2024 sponsor men's soccer: California, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington. Oregon State has since announced that it will house most of its non-football sports, including men's soccer, in the non-football and mid-major West Coast Conference in 2024–25 and 2025–26.
  • SEC: Only two members, Kentucky and South Carolina, sponsor soccer for men. Since the 2022 season, both have housed these teams in the SBC, and their rivalry is the SEC Derby.

Men's Ice Hockey:

Men's Lacrosse:

  • Big 12: As a Pac-12 member, future Big 12 member Utah became the first Pac-12 school, and also the first Division I school west of the Continental Divide, to sponsor men's lacrosse as a varsity sport, launching its team in the 2018–19 school year (2019 season). Utah men's lacrosse joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in July 2021.
  • Big Ten: Five of the 14 full members sponsor men's lacrosse. A sixth team, Johns Hopkins, is a Division III member, but plays both men's and women's lacrosse in Division I and the Big Ten. Before a Division III rule change in early 2022, it was also one of five D-III schools specifically allowed by the NCAA to offer scholarships in its Division I sports. (Division III schools that play selected Division I sports are now allowed to offer scholarships in Division I sports.)
  • Pac-12: See Big 12 above.

Men's Volleyball: As of the current 2024 NCAA men's volleyball season (2023–24 school year), 29 Division I members will sponsor varsity men's volleyball, with a large majority being mid-major programs. In fact, D-I men's volleyball schools are outnumbered by Division II schools; members of both divisions compete under identical scholarship limits for a single national championship. Before 2012, this championship was also open to Division III schools, but explosive growth in the sport at that level in the 21st century led to the creation of a separate D-III championship. The only D-I all-sports leagues to sponsor the sport are the mid-major Big West Conference and Northeast Conference. With that in mind, the five Power Five schools with men's volleyball programs are aligned as follows:

  • Big Ten: Ohio State and Penn State both play in single-sport leagues, respectively in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
  • Big 12: The only member that sponsors men's volleyball, BYU, competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF).
  • Pac-12: All three members with men's volleyball programs—Stanford, UCLA, and USC—compete in the MPSF. Even with UCLA and USC leaving for the Big Ten in 2024, the latter conference will have only four men's volleyball schools, two short of the minimum needed for an automatic bid to the combined D-I/D-II championship (and for official Big Ten sponsorship), making it likely that both will remain in MPSF men's volleyball. The same holds true for Stanford, which will become the only ACC member with a varsity men's volleyball team.

Men's Water Polo: Only 25 Division I members sponsor varsity men's water polo. As with men's volleyball, a large majority of the D-I schools that sponsor the sport are mid-major programs. The NCAA conducts a single national championship open to all member schools, regardless of division.

  • Pac-12: The only Power Five schools that sponsor the sport are the California members of the Pac-12—California, Stanford, UCLA, and USC. All compete in the MPSF, and will likely remain in that conference for men's water polo after their moves to the ACC (California, Stanford) and Big Ten (UCLA, USC).

Beach Volleyball: A women-only sport at the NCAA level, beach volleyball is sponsored by only one Power Five conference, the Pac-12. Nine of that conference's schools sponsor the sport (with the exceptions being Colorado, Oregon State, and Washington State). Other Power Five schools that sponsor the sport are aligned as follows:

  • ACC: Florida State competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA), a league that now sponsors only beach volleyball (the CCSA's swimming & diving operations were effectively taken over by the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023–24). Both schools joining from the Pac-12 in 2024, California and Stanford, also sponsor the sport. They will move beach volleyball to the MPSF, which will start sponsoring that sport in 2024–25.
  • Big Ten: Nebraska competes as an independent. All four schools joining from the Pac-12 in 2024—Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington—sponsor the sport. However, this remains one short of the six sponsoring members required under Big Ten bylaws for official sport sponsorship. Accordingly, all four West Coast schools will play in the newly established MPSF beach volleyball league.
  • Big 12: TCU competes in Conference USA, and departing member Texas is an independent. Three of the four schools joining from the Pac-12 in 2024 sponsor the sport—Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. The Big 12 will add beach volleyball starting in 2024–25.
  • SEC: LSU and South Carolina compete in the CCSA, and future member Texas is independent. Mississippi State has been approved by the NCAA to compete, but has yet to do so.

Women's Field Hockey:

  • Pac-12: The two Pac-12 members that sponsor field hockey, California and Stanford, play in the America East Conference. Both will join the field hockey-sponsoring ACC in 2024.

Women's Ice Hockey:

Women's Lacrosse:

  • Big Ten: Six of the 14 full members sponsor women's lacrosse, as do future members Oregon and USC. Johns Hopkins, as noted previously, is a Division III school that plays lacrosse in Division I.
  • Big 12: Cincinnati, the only current member that sponsors women's lacrosse, remained in its former full-time home of the American Athletic Conference as a single-sport member. Future Big 12 members Arizona State and Colorado also sponsor the sport. The Big 12 has announced it will start sponsoring women's lacrosse once Arizona State and Colorado join for the 2025 season (2024–25 school year); it plans to add at least one associate member in that sport before starting play.
  • Pac-12: Six of the 12 full members sponsor women's lacrosse, all of which will leave for other conferences in 2024: Arizona State and Colorado for the Big 12; California and Stanford for the ACC; and Oregon and USC for the Big Ten. The Pac-12 added two women's lacrosse associates for the 2024 season: San Diego State, already a Pac-12 men's soccer member, and UC Davis.
  • SEC: The only two members that sponsor women's lacrosse, Florida and Vanderbilt, compete in The American.

Women's Rowing:

  • Big 12: Six of the 14 full members sponsor women's rowing. They are joined by Alabama and Tennessee, the only two SEC schools to sponsor the sport.
  • SEC: See Big 12 above. However, future SEC members Oklahoma and Texas both sponsor the sport. While the SEC has not announced any plans to launch a women's rowing league, SEC bylaws allow the conference to hold a championship event in any sport in which four members compete. Currently, the SEC sponsors a championship in women's equestrian, part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, with four participating schools.

Women's Soccer:

  • ACC: Georgia Tech is the only Power Five school that does not sponsor women's soccer.

Women's Volleyball:

  • Big 12: Oklahoma State is the only current Power Five school that neither sponsors women's volleyball nor has announced plans to add the sport.
  • SEC: The only current or future SEC member that does not sponsor women's volleyball, Vanderbilt, will add the sport in the 2025 season (2025–26 school year).

Women's Water Polo: Only 33 Division I members sponsor varsity women's water polo. As with men's water polo, a large majority of the D-I schools that sponsor the sport are mid-major programs. The NCAA conducts a single national championship open to all member schools, regardless of division.

  • Big Ten: The only two Big Ten schools that sponsor the sport, Indiana and Michigan, respectively compete in the MPSF and the varsity division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association.
  • Pac-12: Five Pac-12 schools—the four California members, plus Arizona State—compete in the MPSF. All are likely to remain in MPSF women's water polo after joining their new primary conferences. Arizona State will be the only Big 12 member to sponsor the sport, and California and Stanford will be the only ACC members to do so. UCLA and USC will join Indiana and Michigan as Big Ten members that sponsor varsity women's water polo, but that conference will still be two short of the six sponsoring members required under conference bylaws for official sports sponsorship.

List of NCAA individual sports sponsored by Power Five conferences edit

  Indicates a sport sponsored by the conference.
  Indicates individual members of the conference sponsor the sport but the conference itself does not. The number of schools sponsoring the sport are indicated in parentheses.
+ prior to a number indicates the number of affiliate members in that sport
† Indicates a National Collegiate sport
‡ Indicates an NCAA Emerging Sports for Women sport sponsored by at least one Power Five conference

Men's individual sports
Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Total P5[a] Total D1[b]
Cross country 15 12 12 9 13 61 315
Golf 12 14 14 12 14 66 292
Gymnastics† — (1) 5 (2) — 5+(3) 12
Swimming & diving 12 5 10 8 10 45 130
Tennis 13 8 12 8 13 54 233
Track and field (indoor) 15 12 11 (10) 13 51+(10) 264
Track and field (outdoor) 15 12 13 10 13 63 287
Wrestling[c] 6 4+9 14 3+3 (1) 27+12[d] 76
Women's individual sports
Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Total P5[a] Total D1[b]
Bowling† — — (1) — (1) (2) 34
Cross country 15 14 14 12 14 69 347
Equestrian‡ — 3+1 — — 4 7+1 19
Golf 12 13 14 11 14 64 262
Gymnastics† 4 4+1 10 8 8 34+1 61
Swimming & diving 12 8 13 9 12 54 190
Tennis 14 14 14 11 14 67 300
Track and field (indoor) 15 14 13 (12) 14 56+(12) 331
Track and field (outdoor) 15 14 13 12 14 68 339
Co-ed individual sports
Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac-12 SEC Total P5 Total D1[b]
Fencing† 4 — (3) (1) — 4+(4) 20/27
Rifle† — (2) (1) — (2) (5) 22/17
Skiing† (1) — — (2) — (3) 10/10
  1. ^ a b The "Total P5" column shows the number of P5 programs that play the sport in their main conference, followed by (if applicable) the number of affiliates of P5 conferences in that sport, followed by (if applicable, and wrapped in parentheses) the number of P5 programs that play the sport outside of a P5 conference.
  2. ^ a b c The "Total D1" column shows the total number of NCAA Division I programs sponsoring each sport for the 2021-2022 academic year. For co-ed sports, the first figure represents the sum of men's and co-ed teams for that sport, and the second figure represents the sum of women's and co-ed teams for that sport.[92]
  3. ^ The NCAA classifies wrestling as an individual sport, but crowns both individual and team champions in all three divisions.
  4. ^ Missouri is a member of the SEC and an affiliate of the Big 12 for wrestling.

Equestrian:

Women's gymnastics:

  • Big 12: Denver is a Big 12 affiliate for women's gymnastics.

Wrestling:

  • Big 12: Four of the 10 full members sponsor wrestling, as does future member Arizona State. As of the current 2023–24 season, they are joined by nine single-sport associates—Air Force and Wyoming (both MW); California Baptist and Utah Valley (both in the Western Athletic Conference); Missouri (SEC); North Dakota State and South Dakota State (both in the Summit League); Northern Colorado (in the Big Sky Conference); and Northern Iowa (in the Missouri Valley Conference). Oklahoma's wrestling affiliation once it leaves for the SEC has yet to be determined.
  • Pac-12: Three full members sponsor wrestling, two of which (Arizona State and Stanford) will leave in 2024. They are joined by single-sport members Bakersfield, Cal Poly, and Little Rock. The two California single-sport members are otherwise members of the Big West Conference, while Little Rock is a full member of the Ohio Valley Conference.
  • SEC: Missouri, the only SEC school to sponsor the sport, competed in the MAC through the 2020–21 season, after which it returned to its former full-time home of the Big 12 as a single-sport member.

Institutional profiles and academics edit

The overall institutional profiles and academic prestige of colleges and universities have a major influence on collegiate athletics conference membership,[93][94][95] and athletic conference membership can impact a university's fundraising, academics, and overall reputation.[96][97] Membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), a 71-member organization consisting of many of the largest and most prestigious research universities in the United States and Canada, has frequently been discussed as a factor in conference realignment, particularly for the Big Ten.[93][98][99][100] About half of the Power Five schools are in the AAU, with most of those schools in the ACC, Big Ten, or Pac-12, although several are members of the Big 12 or the SEC. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, a classification system of universities based on research activity,[101] lists nearly all Power Five schools as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity"; the exceptions are Wake Forest, TCU, and BYU, each of which are listed as "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" (future ACC member SMU is also an R2 school). Of the 30 U.S. universities with the greatest research expenditures in 2022, nearly two-thirds were members of one of the Power Five conferences.[102] Some of the Power Five conferences share academic resources among conference members through related academic consortiums such as the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Consortium.[103][96]

A majority of the Power Five schools are public universities, and many of these public schools are flagship universities, often being the largest, oldest, most selective, most research-intensive, most well-financed, and best-known public universities in their respective states. Many of these public schools are also land-grant universities. About one-fifth of Power Five schools are private colleges or universities, with about half of those schools belonging to or planning to join the ACC. Many of the private schools are nonsectarian; of the remainder, Boston College and Notre Dame are affiliated with the Catholic Church, Baylor is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, BYU is affiliated with the LDS Church, and TCU is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ.[104] In 2023, ten of the fifteen U.S. universities with the highest enrollment were members of one of the Power Five conferences,[105] and the vast majority of Power Five schools have an enrollment of at least 20,000 students. Geographically, using the four statistical regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, there are 34 Southern Power Five schools (35 once SMU joins the ACC), 17 Midwestern Power Five schools, 13 Western Power Five schools, and five Northeastern Power Five schools. Connecticut[106] and Nevada are the most populous states without a Power Five school, followed by New Mexico and Idaho.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Section 5.3.2.1 of the NCAA Constitution grants the five conferences autonomy "to permit the use of resources to advance the legitimate educational or athletics-related needs of student-athletes and for legislative changes that will otherwise enhance student-athlete well-being". Eleven areas of autonomy are listed, including promotional activities unrelated to athletics participation, pre-enrollment expenses and support, and financial aid.
  2. ^ Hawaii and teams that play at Hawaii are allowed to schedule a thirteenth regular-season game.[20]
  3. ^ Of the former long-term members of the SWC, all but Rice University are currently in a Power Five conference.
  4. ^ The WAC dropped football following a near-complete membership turnover that saw the league stripped of all but two of its football-sponsoring schools. The conference would reinstate football in 2021, but as part of the second-tier Division I FCS; it has since merged its football league with that of the Atlantic Sun Conference, creating the current United Athletic Conference.
  5. ^ a b The Cincinnati Bearcats and UCF Knights later joined the Big 12 in 2023, thereby becoming Power Five teams.[60]
  6. ^ UCF was also recognized as national champion by the Colley Matrix, but the AP poll and the Coaches Poll both selected Alabama as the national champion after it won the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship.
  7. ^ Since 1998, there has been one instance where either the BCS or College Football Playoff chose a different national championship than the AP poll or the Coaches Poll. In the 2003 season, the LSU Tigers won that season's BCS National Championship game and were chosen as the champion by the Coaches Poll, but the AP poll selected USC as the national champion after their victory in the 2004 Rose Bowl.
  8. ^ This amount is only for the SEC's CBS deal, which is minimal compared to their ESPN deal. The ESPN payout (encompassing the SEC network) is determined on a yearly basis based on revenue. When combined, the SEC payouts are comparable to other conferences on this list.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Forde, Pat (August 6, 2023). "Potential Power Five Exclusion of Stanford, Cal Is a Bad Sign for Team USA's Olympic Prospects". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Bishop, Greg (September 12, 2012). "A.C.C. to Add Notre Dame, but Not Its Football Team". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  3. ^ "ACC sets 11-game slate, includes Notre Dame". ESPN.com. July 30, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  4. ^ "American football: Sarah Fuller makes history as first woman in a Power 5 game". BBC.com. November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020. The Power 5 refers to five conferences, including the SEC, considered the elite of collegiate football.
  5. ^ Bennett, Brian (August 8, 2014). "NCAA board votes to allow autonomy". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  6. ^ "5.3.2.1 Process for Areas of Autonomy" (PDF). 2017–18 NCAA Division I Manual. August 1, 2017. p. 33. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  7. ^ Lindsey, John (November 1, 2006). "BCS race already is getting ugly". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Scripps Howard News Service. p. F-2. Retrieved March 9, 2019 – via newspapers.com. Even though the system is usually stacked in their favor, the haves — schools from the traditional power five conferences, the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 — are already bent out of shape.
  8. ^ a b McMurphy, Brett (August 7, 2014). "Power Five coaches polled on games". ESPN. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  9. ^ Russo, Ralph D. (October 16, 2023). "AP Top 25 Reality Check: Group of 5 teams struggling to break into rankings with lack of P5 upsets". Associated Press.
  10. ^ a b Russo, Ralph D. (March 4, 2020). "Is a revenue gap keeping top coaches away from G5 schools?". Fox Sports.
  11. ^ Witz, Billy (September 1, 2023). "Conferences Are Changing. The Sport Is, Too". The New York Times.
  12. ^ Shaw, Lucas (November 19, 2023). "Live TV Has Been Collapsing for a Decade. Why Hasn't Football?". Bloomberg.
  13. ^ Lewis, Jon (January 7, 2023). "2022 ratings wrap: Another dominant year for NFL". Sports Media Watch.
  14. ^ Kaduk, Kevin (September 30, 2023). "College football: The Power 5's smallest stadiums". Yahoo Sports.
  15. ^ a b Dodd, Dennis (March 8, 2023). "College football attendance rose in 2022 with largest year-over-year increase since 1982". CBS News.
  16. ^ Hobson, Will; Rich, Steven (December 23, 2015). "Colleges spend fortunes on lavish athletic facilities". Chicago Tribune.
  17. ^ Associated Press (December 5, 2023). "NCAA president wants colleges to directly pay some student athletes". NBC News.
  18. ^ Hunziger, Erica (July 6, 2022). "One year of NIL: How much have athletes made?". AP.
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February 16, 2024
power, five, conferences, power, five, redirects, here, other, uses, power, five, disambiguation, five, most, prominent, athletic, conferences, college, football, united, states, they, part, football, bowl, subdivision, ncaa, division, highest, level, collegia. Power Five redirects here For other uses see Power five disambiguation The Power Five conferences or P5 are the five most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision FBS of NCAA Division I the highest level of collegiate football in the nation and are considered the most elite conferences within that tier The Power Five conferences have provided nearly all of the participants in the College Football Playoff since its inception and generally have larger revenue budgets and television viewership than other college athletic programs Michigan in white and Ohio State members of the Big Ten one of the Power Five conferences playing in November 2008The Power Five conferences are the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC Big Ten Conference Big 12 Conference Pac 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference SEC The FBS consists of the Power Five five other conferences known as the Group of Five G5 and a small number of independent schools The term Power Five is not defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA but the Power Five conferences are identified individually under NCAA rules as autonomy conferences which grants them some independence from standard NCAA rules to provide additional resources for the benefit of student athletes Each of the power conferences existed for decades before the establishment of the College Football Playoff with the oldest power conference the Big Ten founded in 1896 Prior to the establishment of the College Football Playoff in 2014 the Power Five conferences as well as the original incarnation of the Big East Conference received an automatic berth in one of the Bowl Championship Series BCS bowl games The power conferences also compete in numerous sports outside of football but are not necessarily the most prominent conferences in each individual sport For example in men s college basketball the modern Big East Conference is also generally considered to be a power conference with the media referring to it and the rest of the Power Five as the Power Six Amid the broader early 2020s NCAA conference realignment it remains to be seen if the Pac 12 Conference remains part of the Power Five as ten of that conference s 12 current schools plan to move to other Power Five conferences before the 2024 25 school year 1 Contents 1 Current conferences and teams 1 1 Map of Power Five teams 2 Power Five conferences in the College Football Playoff era 2 1 Position within college football and the FBS 2 2 Scheduling and college football playoff 3 History 3 1 Origins of the power conferences 3 2 Rise of bowl games and precursors to the BCS 3 3 Under the BCS system 3 4 Under the four team College Football Playoff system 4 Realignment since the 1990s 4 1 List of schools by tenure in their current Power Five conference 4 2 List of schools that moved among power conferences since 1998 4 3 List of schools that joined power conferences since 1998 5 Bowl game results 5 1 New Year s Six and BCS Bowl Game appearances by conference 5 2 BCS games involving non automatic qualifying conferences 5 3 Power Five vs Group of Five New Year s Six Games 6 Table of revenues television sports rights and average attendance 7 Outside of football 7 1 In sports outside of football 7 1 1 List of NCAA team sports sponsored by Power Five schools 7 1 2 List of NCAA individual sports sponsored by Power Five conferences 7 2 Institutional profiles and academics 8 See also 9 Notes 10 ReferencesCurrent conferences and teams editFor a full list of FBS football programs see List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs The ten FBS conferences as of the 2023 2024 academic year are listed below For the Power Five the member universities of each conference are also listed Members departing for the Big Ten in 2024 Members departing for the Big 12 in 2024 Members departing for the ACC in 2024 Members departing for the SEC in 2024 Power Five conferences and member universities ACC Big Ten Big 12 Pac 12 SECBoston College Illinois Baylor Arizona AlabamaClemson Indiana BYU Arizona State ArkansasDuke Iowa Cincinnati California AuburnFlorida State Maryland Houston UCLA FloridaGeorgia Tech Michigan Iowa State Colorado GeorgiaLouisville Michigan State Kansas Oregon KentuckyMiami FL Minnesota Kansas State Oregon State LSUNorth Carolina Nebraska Oklahoma USC Ole MissNC State Northwestern Oklahoma State Stanford Mississippi StatePittsburgh Ohio State TCU Utah MissouriSyracuse Penn State Texas Washington South CarolinaVirginia Purdue Texas Tech Washington State TennesseeVirginia Tech Rutgers UCF Texas A amp MWake Forest Wisconsin West Virginia VanderbiltNotre Dame The University of Notre Dame is a full voting member of the ACC and although its football team does not participate in ACC football and competes as a football independent it is obligated to play an average of five football games a year against ACC opponents 2 In 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic Notre Dame entered into a full ACC football schedule and was eligible for the conference s championship 3 Notre Dame fields 24 other varsity sports that compete in the ACC as well as men s ice hockey which competes in the Big Ten Conference Group of Five Conferences ConferencesAmerican Athletic ConferenceConference USAMid American ConferenceMountain West ConferenceSun Belt Conference Map of Power Five teams edit nbsp nbsp Notre Dame nbsp Arizona nbsp Arizona State nbsp California nbsp UCLA nbsp Oregon nbsp Oregon State nbsp USC nbsp Stanford nbsp Washington nbsp Washington State nbsp Colorado nbsp Utah nbsp Texas A amp M nbsp Arkansas nbsp Florida nbsp Kentucky nbsp Georgia nbsp Tennessee nbsp Vanderbilt nbsp Alabama nbsp Auburn nbsp LSU nbsp Ole Miss nbsp Mississippi State nbsp Missouri nbsp South Carolina nbsp Penn State nbsp Rutgers nbsp Nebraska nbsp Indiana nbsp Michigan nbsp Michigan State nbsp Ohio State nbsp Illinois nbsp Iowa nbsp Minnesota nbsp Northwestern nbsp Purdue nbsp Wisconsin nbsp Maryland nbsp BYU nbsp Cincinnati nbsp Houston nbsp Iowa State nbsp Kansas nbsp Kansas State nbsp Oklahoma nbsp Oklahoma State nbsp Texas Tech nbsp Texas nbsp Baylor nbsp TCU nbsp UCF nbsp WestVirginia nbsp Georgia Tech nbsp Wake Forest nbsp Virginia nbsp NC State nbsp North Carolina nbsp Duke nbsp Clemson nbsp Boston College nbsp Syracuse nbsp Pittsburgh nbsp Miami FL nbsp Virginia Tech nbsp Florida State nbsp Louisvilleclass notpageimage Teams for each of the Power Five conferences during the 2023 season SEC nbsp ACC nbsp Big Ten nbsp Big 12 nbsp Big 12 Departing for SEC nbsp Pac 12 nbsp Pac 12 Departing for Big Ten nbsp Pac 12 Departing for Big 12 nbsp Pac 12 Departing for ACC nbsp Power Five independent nbsp Power Five conferences in the College Football Playoff era editPosition within college football and the FBS edit The power conferences are all part of NCAA Division I which contains most of the largest and most competitive collegiate athletic programs in the United States and the Football Bowl Subdivision FBS which is the higher level of college football within NCAA Division I 4 Since the demise of the original Big East Conference in 2013 and the establishment of the College Football Playoff CFP in 2014 the top conferences in the college football are known as the Power Five conferences the Big Ten Conference the Big 12 Conference the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC the Pac 12 Conference and the Southeastern Conference SEC In 2014 the NCAA gave the Power Five conferences greater autonomy in regard to issues such as stipends and recruiting rules 5 6 A It is unknown where the term Power Conference originated from it is not officially documented anywhere by the NCAA citation needed though the term has been used in its current meaning since at least 2006 7 Roughly half of the schools in the FBS play in one of the Power Five conferences The remaining schools are either independent or play in one of the conferences known as the Group of Five conferences which consists of the American Athletic Conference AAC or The American Conference USA CUSA the Mid American Conference MAC the Mountain West Conference MW and the Sun Belt Conference SBC 8 The term Power Five conferences is often shortened to P5 while the Group of Five Conferences are often referred to as the G5 9 The FBS has four independents as of the 2023 season the Notre Dame Fighting Irish the Army Black Knights the UConn Huskies and the UMass Minutemen Notre Dame is currently considered equal to the Power Five schools being a full with the exception of football member of the ACC with an annual five game football scheduling agreement with that conference Notre Dame also has its own national television contract and its own arrangement for access to the CFP affiliated bowl games should it meet stated competitive criteria The other independents are generally considered to be on the same level as the G5 conferences Compared to the Group of Five Power Five schools have significantly higher revenues in large part because of television deals with major networks and streaming services 10 In 2022 the Power Five conferences generated a combined 3 3 billion in revenue 11 College football games often draw strong television ratings and along with the NFL college football was one of the few television properties to grow in live ratings between 2013 and 2023 12 In 2022 college football games between Power Five teams made up five of the ten most watched non NFL sporting events among U S viewers With 22 56 million viewers the 2022 national championship game ranked as the most watched college football game of the year and as the 33rd most watched sporting event in the United States only NFL games ranked higher 13 Almost every Power Five school has a home stadium capacity of at least 40 000 14 and the Power Five conferences all had an average attendance of at least 44 000 in 2022 This compares to an FBS average attendance of just under 42 000 and Group of Five average attendance that ranged between 14 000 and 29 000 for each conference 15 This revenue advantage allows Power Five conferences to pay higher salaries to coaches 10 and invest in expensive athletic facilities and amenities 16 Although schools cannot directly pay student athletes 17 since 2021 school boosters and other third parties can pay student athletes for their name image and likeness NIL rights Much of this NIL money goes to Power Five conference athletes although numerous athletes from other conferences have also received NIL compensation 18 Scheduling and college football playoff edit Teams in the Power Five conferences play an eight or nine game conference schedule and additionally play either three or four non conference games to fill out their 12 game regular season schedule 19 B Teams from the Power Five and the Group of Five often play non conference games against each other during the season and sometimes also play against teams from the FCS the lower tier of division one football 21 However many coaches of Power Five schools have argued that Power Five schools should only be allowed to schedule games against other Power Five schools 8 All Power Five conferences that require their members to schedule at least one Power Five team in nonconference play currently the ACC Big Ten Big 12 SEC and Pac 12 citation needed consider Notre Dame to be a Power Five opponent for such purposes Before BYU joined the Big 12 the ACC Big Ten and SEC also counted it as a Power Five opponent for scheduling purposes and the Big Ten and SEC continue to count Army as such 22 23 24 Though not required to do so all Power Five conferences hold conference championship games following the conclusion of the regular season and prior to the College Football Playoff The power conferences previously each had two divisions and matched the winner of each division in the conference championship game but all of the Power Five conferences have scrapped divisions or plan to disband them following the 2023 season conference championship games instead take place between the two highest ranking teams 25 The College Football Playoff takes place after the conference championship games and contemporaneously with several other bowl games The CFP rotates among six bowl games collectively known as the New Year s Six bowl games Beginning with the 2024 season the playoff will expand to 12 teams with the top six conference champions receiving automatic bids to the playoffs With the exodus of numerous Pac 12 schools the College Football Playoff management committee has proposed reducing the number of automatic bids but this proposal has not been formally adopted 26 Under the new system the four highest ranked conference champions will receive first round byes while the remaining eight teams will play at the home fields of the higher seeds The New Year s Six bowls will host the quarterfinals and semifinals on a rotating basis and the championship game will continue to be held at a separately determined neutral site Amid the broader early 2020s NCAA conference realignment it remains to be seen if the Pac 12 Conference remains part of the Power Five as ten of that conference s 12 current schools plan to move to other Power Five conferences before the 2024 25 school year 1 Some sources have also discussed the possible emergence of a Power Two consisting solely of the Big Ten and the SEC both of which have added some of the most successful and well regarded football programs in the country in recent rounds of realignment 27 28 29 History editFurther information College football History Origins of the power conferences edit College football originated in the Northeastern United States in the final third of the 19th century with the 1869 Princeton vs Rutgers football game often considered to be the first college football game 30 The schools that would eventually form the Ivy League dominated college football in the 19th century and for parts of the 20th century claiming numerous national championships 31 Motivated in large part by fatalities and injuries sustained in college football President Theodore Roosevelt worked with various collegiate athletic programs to establish the NCAA in 1906 32 The NCAA was preceded by the earliest athletic conferences including the Big Ten which was founded in 1896 as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives and was often referred to as the Western Conference The conference became known as the Big Ten after expanding to ten teams in 1917 The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association SIAA founded in 1894 at its peak consisted of 28 schools across almost every Southern state and was the predecessor to both the SEC and the ACC 33 The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association MVIAA was formed in 1907 and in 1928 the MVIAA split into two conferences with the larger schools from the MVIAA forming the Big Six Conference 34 The Big Six later expanded to eight teams in 1957 becoming known as the Big Eight Conference The Southwest Conference SWC was formed in 1914 by several schools in Texas and neighboring states and after some early defections would maintain stable membership into the 1990s The Pacific Coast Conference PCC was founded in 1915 but disbanded in 1959 following a pay for play scandal Some of the former members of the Pacific Coast Conference formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities AAWU that same year and by 1968 the AAWU had renamed itself as the Pac 8 and contained most of the former members of the PCC 35 Several of the larger schools split off from the SIAA in 1921 to form the Southern Conference and the SIAA ultimately dissolved in 1942 The Southern Conference in turn later experienced the departure of its most prominent teams first with the secession of 12 schools located south or west of the Appalachians to form the SEC in 1932 Most of the remaining large schools departed the Southern Conference in 1953 to form the ACC and after losing its top programs the Southern Conference ultimately became part of the FCS 33 The Ivy League was officially founded in the 1950s but the football programs of Ivy League schools declined in stature after World War II and the conference ultimately dropped down to Division I AA in 1982 31 Until the 1990s many top programs particularly in the Northeast played as football independents 36 Many of these independents were affiliated with the Big East Conference the Atlantic 10 Conference A 10 or the Metro Conference each of which were founded in the 1970s as non football conferences In 1962 several members of the Skyline Conference and the Border Conference founded the Western Athletic Conference WAC Although generally not considered a power conference four of the six founding WAC members would ultimately join one of the Power Five conferences and the 1984 BYU Cougars football team won the national championship 37 38 39 NCAA divisions were created in 1973 when the largest schools were placed in Division I and in 1978 Division I football programs were further sub divided into Division I A later Division I FBS and Division I AA later Division I FCS 40 Rise of bowl games and precursors to the BCS edit The Rose Bowl a postseason game matching top teams from the West with top teams from the East was first played in 1902 and became a yearly tradition in 1916 As college football grew beyond its regional affiliations in the 1930s it garnered increased national attention Four new bowl games were created the Orange Bowl Sugar Bowl and Sun Bowl in 1935 and the Cotton Bowl in 1937 In lieu of an actual national championship these bowl games provided a way to match up teams from distant regions of the country that did not otherwise play In 1936 the Associated Press began its weekly poll of prominent sports writers ranking all of the nation s college football teams Since there was no national championship game the final version of the AP poll was used to determine who was crowned the national champion of college football 41 The first college football game was televised in 1938 and as universities began to widely televise their games after World War II the NCAA took control of television broadcast rights in 1951 and restricted the number of games that a program could air on television 42 The 1984 Supreme Court case NCAA v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma spurred a round of conference realignment by ending the NCAA s monopoly on television rights of college football games instead granting the rights to individual schools and conferences 27 With the exception of Notre Dame all of the major independent programs joined a conference in the early 1990s 43 Many of the independents in the Northeast and elsewhere on the Eastern Seaboard joined the Big East which began playing football in 1991 35 Other independent schools joined the Big Ten the ACC or the SEC and in 1992 the SEC became the first Division I conference to hold a conference championship game for football 25 The Southwest Conference dissolved in the wake of a series of scandals and concerns over an insufficiently large television market and four teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 to create the Big 12 Conference in 1994 35 The remaining SWC schools joined the WAC or the newly formed Conference USA though most would later join one of the Power Five conferences C other future power conference schools such as Louisville and BYU also played in the WAC or Conference USA during the 1990s By the middle of the 20th century the Rose Bowl matched up the Big Ten champion against the champion of the PCC and its successors the Sugar Bowl generally hosted the conference champion of the SEC and the Cotton Bowl generally hosted the conference champion of the SWC The Orange Bowl often hosted the champion of the Big Eight though it would later develop close ties with the ACC The Fiesta Bowl was initially founded in 1971 to host the WAC champion but later rose to prominence in the 1980s while frequently hosting games involving independents including the 1987 Fiesta Bowl which served as the de facto national championship game for that season From 1968 to 1992 the number one and number two ranked teams in the AP poll met only eight times in a bowl game frequently leading to situations in which multiple teams claimed the national championship Seeking a more definitive way to determine the national champion the SEC Big 8 SWC prior to its dissolution ACC Big East and independent Notre Dame joined with several bowls to form the Bowl Coalition which was later succeeded by the similar Bowl Alliance The Big Ten and Pac 10 declined to join either group in favor of continuing to send their respective champion to the Rose Bowl contributing to split national championships during some seasons in the 1990s 44 Under the BCS system edit In 1998 the Bowl Championship Series BCS was created by the Big 10 Pac 12 and the former members of the Bowl Alliance 45 The Rose Bowl the Sugar Bowl the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl all took part in the system with a national championship game either rotating among the four bowl sites prior to the 2006 season or played as a separate game The BCS succeeded in bringing an end to split national championships except in the 2003 season when LSU won the national championship game and was crowned national champion by the Coaches Poll but USC was selected as the national champion by the AP poll While the number of AQ conferences was technically variable 46 the BCS always had six AQ conferences for its entire history between 1998 and 2013 Following the departure of several Big East members to the ACC the non football schools of the Big East known as the Catholic 7 chose to withdraw from the conference ultimately creating a new conference that took on the Big East name 47 The rump Big East renamed itself as the American Athletic Conference and took the Big East s automatic bid for the 2013 season 48 The Mountain West Conference formed in 1998 by several former WAC members was perhaps the closest of the other conferences to getting AQ status but its request for AQ status was denied in 2012 49 In addition to creating a national championship game the BCS also created a set format for other major bowls After the two top teams in the BCS rankings were matched up in the BCS National Championship Game the other three or after the 2005 season four bowls selected other top teams The BCS ranking formula used a combination of polls and computer selection methods to determine team rankings though conference championships also affected game selection 45 The term BCS conference was used by many fans to refer to one of the six conferences whose champions received an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games although the BCS itself used the term automatic qualifying conference AQ conference 50 Each of the bowls had a historical link with one or more of the six BCS conferences with the exception of the former Big East and the bowl games selected a team from each of these conferences if it was eligible for a BCS bowl and not playing in the national title game Notre Dame remained an independent in football but had guaranteed access to the BCS bowls when it met certain defined performance criteria 51 The conferences automatic qualifying conferences and their traditional bowl links were Big East Conference The American in 2013 not tied to any specific BCS bowl Atlantic Coast Conference Orange Bowl Big 12 Conference Fiesta Bowl Big Ten Conference Rose Bowl Pac 12 Conference Rose Bowl Southeastern Conference Sugar Bowl Map of automatic qualifying conference schools in 2013 nbsp A map of every university in the automatic qualifying conferences in 2013 The other conferences listed below were non AQ conferences because they did not receive an annual automatic bid to a BCS bowl game The highest ranked champion of any non AQ conference received an AQ bid if they ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS poll or ranked in the top 16 and higher than a champion of an AQ conference 52 The conferences in this group were 53 Big West Conference BWC stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season Conference USA CUSA Mid American Conference MAC Mountain West Conference MW Sun Belt Conference SBC began sponsoring football in 2001 Western Athletic Conference WAC dropped football after the 2012 season D Under the four team College Football Playoff system edit The BCS faced several controversies throughout its tenure driven largely by teams and fans dissatisfied at being left out of the championship game The presence of two SEC teams in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game brought the opposition to the BCS to a head and helped spur the adoption of the College Football Playoff beginning with the 2014 season 45 Like the BCS and the planned twelve team CFP the four team College Football Playoff took place after the conference championship games and contemporaneously with several other bowl games It rotated among six bowl games with two bowl games used each year as the national semi finals and four other bowls matching the remaining top teams in the country These six bowl games were collectively labeled as the New Year s Six bowl games The New Year s Six consisted of the four BCS bowls the Cotton Bowl and the Peach Bowl the latter of which was established in 1968 but had been considered a minor bowl for much of its history 54 55 Each conference champion from the Power Five and the highest ranked Group of Five conference champion were guaranteed a spot in a New Year s Six Bowl 56 Because there were four spots in the playoffs and five power conferences at least one Power Five champion was always left out of the playoff In some seasons only two or three P5 champions were selected to the playoff though the 2023 Florida State Seminoles were the lone undefeated P5 champion to be passed over for selection 57 The new playoff system drew strong television ratings helping to boost the profile of college football and specifically to the Power Five conferences who constituted all but one of the CFP participants in the four team era and the remaining FBS programs 58 The CFP also led to changes in stature among the Power Five and the Pac 12 s failure to place a team in the CFP for seven years contributed to the planned exodus of most of its programs following the 2023 season 59 Bowl games declined in prestige as more focus went to the playoff and even the New Year s Six bowls frequently saw top players opt out 58 Like the BCS the new system endured a series of controversies related to teams being left out of the championship process both among the Power Five and the Group of Five leading many to call for a playoff 45 The 2021 Cincinnati Bearcats were the only Group of Five team E to ever play in the College Football Playoff prior to the playoff s planned expansion to twelve teams following the 2023 season the Bearcats were defeated in the semi final 2021 Cotton Bowl Classic 61 Another Group of Five team the 2017 UCF Knights E was left out of the CFP but proclaimed themselves the national champion after going undefeated in the regular season and winning the 2018 Peach Bowl F 45 In 2022 the College Football playoff board voted to expand the playoff to twelve teams with the new system set to take effect for the 2024 season 62 Realignment since the 1990s editThe FBS has undergone several waves of realignment since the 1990s when the Bowl Coalition was established The first realignment occurred in the 1990s and resulted in the demise of the Southwest Conference which was a member of the Bowl Coalition and at times considered equal to some of the Power Five conferences as well as many schools giving up independent status to join conferences In the early 1990s Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC the original Big East Conference began sponsoring football with eight former football independents joining either for all sports or football only and other major independents such as Florida State to the ACC Penn State to the Big Ten and South Carolina to the SEC joined major conferences In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment the SWC dissolved and four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference 35 During another phase of realignment in 2005 three schools Boston College Miami FL and Virginia Tech jumped from the Big East to the ACC and Temple also left the conference before eventually returning in 2013 The Big East responded by adding former basketball only member Connecticut and three schools from C USA 63 35 College football underwent another major conference realignment from 2010 to 2014 as the Big Ten and Pac 10 sought to become large enough to stage championship games Members of the original Big East left the conference to join the Big 12 Big Ten and ACC The Big 12 lost members to the SEC the Pac 12 and the Big Ten while the Big Ten also gained one former ACC member The remaining members of the Big East split into two conferences the American Athletic Conference the American and a new Big East Conference that does not sponsor football only three of the original 10 members of the current Big East sponsor football all at the second tier Division I FCS level The American the football successor to the Big East is no longer considered a power conference Despite the major conference realignment from 2010 to 2014 relatively few schools dropped out of or joined the ranks of the power conferences Two of the three non AQ schools that had appeared in multiple BCS bowls left the Mountain West Conference and joined a power conference as Utah joined the Pac 12 and TCU joined the Big 12 Former Big East members Temple and South Florida are now part of The American another former Big East member UConn left American Conference football after the 2019 season to become an FBS independent while otherwise joining the current Big East Of these only Temple was a founding member of the Big East in football 63 64 The most recent major realignment is currently ongoing During a period of less than two months in 2021 the Big 12 both gained and lost members First on July 30 the conference lost two of its mainstays when Oklahoma and Texas announced that they would leave for the SEC no later than 2025 65 the two schools later reached a buyout agreement that will allow them to join the SEC in 2024 66 The Big 12 reloaded by announcing four new members on September 10 initially announcing that American members Cincinnati Houston and UCF plus FBS independent BYU would join no later than 2024 67 BYU s initial announcement stated that it would join in 2023 68 and the other three schools 2023 entry date was officially confirmed after they reached a buyout agreement with The American 69 On June 30 2022 Pac 12 mainstays UCLA and USC announced they would move to the Big Ten in 2024 70 The Pac 12 would lose another member a little more than a year later when Colorado announced it would return to the Big 12 in 2024 after an absence of 13 years 71 A further five schools announced their departure from the Pac 12 on August 4 2023 Oregon and Washington would join the Big Ten and Arizona Arizona State and Utah would join the Big 12 72 73 Less than a month after this exodus California and Stanford announced their departure from the Pac 12 to join the ACC in 2024 with American Conference member SMU also joining the ACC at that time 74 This realignment fueled discussion that the Big Ten and the SEC would emerge as the Power Two conferences 75 76 or that the Big Ten SEC ACC and Big 12 would form a new group of Power Four conferences 77 List of schools by tenure in their current Power Five conference edit This list shows institutions who started an uninterrupted association with their current conference prior to 1998 Members departing for the Big Ten in 2024 Members departing for the Big 12 in 2024 Members departing for the ACC in 2024 Members departing for the SEC in 2024 Institution Joined Conference Previous conferenceIllinois 1896 Big Ten NoneMinnesota 1896 Big Ten NoneNorthwestern 1896 Big Ten NonePurdue 1896 Big Ten NoneWisconsin 1896 Big Ten NoneIndiana 1899 Big Ten NoneIowa 1899 Big Ten NoneKansas 1907 MVIAA Big 8 Big 12 a NoneIowa State 1908 MVIAA Big 8 Big 12 a NoneOhio State 1912 Big Ten NoneKansas State 1913 MVIAA Big 8 Big 12 a NoneCalifornia 1915 PCC Pac 12 b NoneWashington 1915 PCC Pac 12 b NoneMichigan 1917 Big Ten NoneStanford 1918 PCC Pac 12 b NoneOklahoma 1919 MVIAA Big 8 Big 12 a NoneUSC 1922 PCC Pac 12 b NoneUCLA 1928 PCC Pac 12 b SCIACFlorida 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceGeorgia 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceKentucky 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceTennessee 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceVanderbilt 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceAlabama 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceAuburn 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceLSU 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceOle Miss 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceMississippi State 1932 SEC Southern ConferenceMichigan State 1950 Big Ten NoneClemson 1953 ACC Southern ConferenceDuke 1953 ACC Southern ConferenceNC State 1953 ACC Southern ConferenceNorth Carolina 1953 ACC Southern ConferenceVirginia 1953 c ACC NoneWake Forest 1953 ACC Southern ConferenceOklahoma State 1958 Big 8 Big 12 a NoneWashington State 1962 Pac 12 None b Oregon 1964 Pac 12 None b Oregon State 1964 Pac 12 None b Arizona 1978 Pac 12 WACArizona State 1978 Pac 12 WACGeorgia Tech 1979 d ACC Metro Independent e Arkansas 1991 SEC SWCFlorida State 1991 ACC Metro Independent e Penn State 1991 Big Ten A 10 Independent e South Carolina 1991 SEC Metro Independent e Baylor 1996 Big 12 SWCTexas 1996 Big 12 SWCTexas Tech 1996 Big 12 SWC a b c d e The Big 8 split off from the MVIAA in 1928 Although all members of the Big 8 joined the Big 12 with that conference s formation in 1996 the Big 8 was dissolved in 1996 The Big 12 was a new conference not a direct continuation of the Big 12 78 a b c d e f g h The Pacific Coast Conference PCC the forerunner of the Pac 12 was founded in 1915 and disbanded in 1959 California Washington Stanford USC and UCLA which had all been members of the PCC founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities now known as the Pac 12 immediately after the dissolution of the PCC Oregon Oregon State and Washington State had also been members of the PCC but each played several seasons as independents before joining the Athletic Association of Western Universities Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953 seven months after the ACC was founded and after the conclusion of Virginia s 1953 season 79 While Georgia Tech joined the ACC in 1979 it did not play ACC football until 1983 a b c d The Metro Conference and the Atlantic 10 Conference A 10 did not sponsor football Georgia Tech Florida State Penn State and South Carolina football all competed as independents while members of those conferences List of schools that moved among power conferences since 1998 edit See also List of NCAA Division I conference changes since 2010 Indicates a football only move Indicates a non football move This list includes any and all institutions who have either left or have announced that they will depart from the ACC Big East a Big 12 Pac 12 Big 10 or SEC after the establishment of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 Institution Year moved From conference To conferenceVirginia Tech 2000 A 10 Big East b Big East b Miami 2004 Big East ACCVirginia Tech 2004 Big East ACCBoston College 2005 Big East ACCTemple 2005 A 10 Big East c A 10 Independent c Colorado 2011 Big 12 Pac 12Nebraska 2011 Big 12 Big TenMissouri 2012 Big 12 SECTexas A amp M 2012 Big 12 SECWest Virginia 2012 Big East Big 12Notre Dame 2013 Big East Independent d ACC Independent d Pittsburgh 2013 Big East ACCSyracuse 2013 Big East ACCLouisville 2014 AAC a ACCMaryland 2014 ACC Big TenRutgers 2014 AAC a Big TenTexas 2024 Big 12 SECOklahoma 2024 Big 12 SECUSC 2024 Pac 12 Big TenUCLA 2024 Pac 12 Big TenOregon 2024 Pac 12 Big TenWashington 2024 Pac 12 Big TenColorado 2024 Pac 12 Big 12Utah 2024 Pac 12 Big 12Arizona 2024 Pac 12 Big 12Arizona State 2024 Pac 12 Big 12California 2024 Pac 12 ACCStanford 2024 Pac 12 ACC a b c Louisville and Rutgers are also listed in the table because they departed from the American Athletic Conference after the 2013 season when the AAC inherited the Big East s automatic qualifying status 80 a b Virginia Tech had joined the Big East as a football only member in 1991 a b Temple was a football only member of the Big East It was primarily affiliated with the Atlantic 10 Conference a b Notre Dame was a non football member of the Big East and Notre Dame football maintained independence after the school joined the ACC List of schools that joined power conferences since 1998 edit Indicates a football only move Indicates a non football move This list includes any and all institutions that joined or have announced that they will join the ACC Big 12 Pac 12 Big 10 or SEC after the establishment of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 and that had previously been independent or had affiliated with a non power conference It also includes all institutions that joined the original Big East between 1998 and 2013 and teams that joined the AAC for the 2013 season since that conference inherited the Big East s BCS automatic qualifying status for that season 81 Institution Year moved From conference To conferenceConnecticut 2004 Big East Independent a Big EastCincinnati 2005 Conference USA Big EastLouisville 2005 Conference USA Big EastSouth Florida 2005 Conference USA Big EastUtah 2011 MW Pac 12TCU 2012 MW Big 12Temple 2012 A 10 MAC b Big EastHouston 2013 Conference USA AmericanMemphis 2013 Conference USA AmericanSMU 2013 Conference USA AmericanUCF 2013 Conference USA AmericanBYU 2023 WCC Independent c Big 12Cincinnati 2023 American Big 12Houston 2023 American Big 12UCF 2023 American Big 12SMU 2024 American ACC Connecticut had previously been a Big East member for most sports but played as a football independent prior to 2004 Temple had previously been an Atlantic 10 member for most sports but played football in the Mid American Conference prior to 2012 BYU was a football independent prior to joining the Big 12 Bowl game results editSee also College Football Playoff Selections by year New Year s Six and BCS Bowl Game appearances by conference edit The following table lists the number of times that a member of each conference appeared was selected to appear in a BCS bowl game from 1998 to 2013 a New Year s Six bowl game from 2014 to 2023 or the College Football Playoff since 2014 From the 1998 to 2005 seasons eight teams were selected from 2006 to 2013 ten teams were selected and since 2014 twelve teams have been selected to appear in these games A indicates a team from that conference won the national championship as determined by the BCS or the College Football Playoff G while a indicates a team from that conference was the runner up in the national championship game Statistics reflect conference membership at the time of the game Note that the American filled the Big East s automatic bid in 2013 Power conferences Other conferences and independentsSeason ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Big East ND MW AAC Others2023 1 1 3 2 4 n a 12022 1 2 3 2 3 n a 1 2021 1 2 3 1 3 n a 1 1 2020 2 2 1 1 4 n a 1 1 2019 2 2 3 1 3 n a 1 2018 1 2 2 1 4 n a 1 1 2017 2 1 3 2 3 n a 1 2016 2 1 4 2 2 n a 12015 2 2 3 1 2 n a 1 1 2014 2 2 2 2 3 n a 1 2013 2 2 2 1 2 n a 1 2012 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 n a 12011 2 1 2 2 2 1 n a 2010 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 n a 2009 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 n a 12008 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 n a 2007 1 2 2 1 2 1 n a 12006 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 n a 12005 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 n a 2004 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 n a 2003 1 2 2 1 1 1 n a 2002 1 1 2 2 1 1 n a 2001 1 2 1 1 2 1 n a 2000 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 n a 1999 1 1 2 1 2 1 n a 1998 1 1 2 1 2 1 n a n a Total 34 39 54 37 58 15 8 5 8 6Champs 4 2 3 1 15 1 0 0 0 0BCS games involving non automatic qualifying conferences edit Ten non AQ teams appeared in the nine following BCS games with an overall record of 5 3 2005 Fiesta Bowl Utah MW 35 Pittsburgh 7 2007 Fiesta Bowl Boise State WAC 43 Oklahoma 42 OT 2008 Sugar Bowl Georgia 41 Hawaiʻi WAC 10 2009 Sugar Bowl Utah MW 31 Alabama 17 2010 Fiesta Bowl Boise State WAC 17 TCU MW 10 2011 Rose Bowl TCU MW 21 Wisconsin 19 2013 Orange Bowl Florida State 31 Northern Illinois MAC 10Of these appearances all were via automatic qualifying bids except Boise State s participation in the highly controversial 2010 Fiesta Bowl in which the Broncos were selected via at large bid and played fellow BCS Buster TCU Power Five vs Group of Five New Year s Six Games edit College Football Playoff semifinal in bold Group of Five team in italics Asterisks denotes years in which Group of Five teams won the game Season Bowl Winner Loser 2014 2014 Fiesta Bowl No 20 Boise State MW 38 No 10 Arizona Pac 12 30 2015 2015 Peach Bowl No 18 Houston American 38 No 9 Florida State ACC 242016 2017 Cotton Bowl No 8 Wisconsin Big Ten 24 No 15 Western Michigan MAC 16 2017 2018 Peach Bowl No 12 UCF American 34 No 7 Auburn SEC 272018 2019 Fiesta Bowl No 11 LSU SEC 40 No 8 UCF American 322019 2019 Cotton Bowl No 10 Penn State Big Ten 53 No 17 Memphis American 392020 2021 Peach Bowl No 9 Georgia SEC 24 No 8 Cincinnati American 212021 2022 Cotton Bowl No 1 Alabama SEC 27 No 4 Cincinnati American 6 2022 2023 Cotton Bowl No 16 Tulane American 46 No 10 USC Pac 12 452023 2024 Fiesta Bowl No 8 Oregon Pac 12 45 No 23 Liberty CUSA 6Table of revenues television sports rights and average attendance editTotal revenue in Fiscal Year 2022 Conference Total Revenue 82 DistributionPer School 83 Big Ten Conference 845 6 million 58 8 millionSoutheastern Conference 802 0 million 49 9 millionAtlantic Coast Conference 617 0 million 41 3 millionPac 12 Conference 581 0 million 37 0 millionBig 12 Conference 480 6 million 44 9 millionU S television sports rights Conference National TV contract TV Revenue Per Year RefMarch Madness CBS Turner 8 8bn 1 1bn College Football Playoff ESPN 5 6bn 470m Pac 12 Conference Pac 12 Fox ESPN 3 0bn 250m Big Ten Conference Big Ten Fox ESPN 2 6bn 440m 84 Big 12 Conference Big 12 Fox ESPN 2 6bn 200m Southeastern Conference SEC ESPN CBS 2 25bn 85 55m H Atlantic Coast Conference ACC ESPN 1 86bn 155m 86 Average football attendance by conference in 2022 15 Conference AttendanceAtlantic Coast Conference 48 714Big Ten Conference 67 295Big 12 Conference 59 783Pac 12 Conference 44 458Southeastern Conference 76 667FBS average 41 840Outside of football editIn sports outside of football edit Each Power Five conference sponsors at least 21 sports with the Big Ten sponsoring the largest number of sports with 28 among all NCAA conferences only the Ivy League sponsors more sports 87 Among team sports all of the Power Five schools sponsor football men s basketball and women s basketball while the vast majority of Power Five schools also sponsor baseball softball women s soccer and women s volleyball Wrestling men s soccer men s lacrosse women s rowing women s lacrosse and women s field hockey are all sponsored by between two and four of the Power Five conferences Among individual sports all or the vast majority of Power Five schools sponsor men s and women s cross country men s and women s golf women s tennis and outdoor track and field for men and women All of the Power Five conferences also sponsor men s tennis women s gymnastics and swimming and diving programs for men and women while every conference other than the Pac 12 sponsors indoor track and field for men and women The Big Ten is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor men s ice hockey and men s gymnastics the Pac 12 is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor women s beach volleyball and the ACC is the lone Power Five conference to sponsor fencing Only the Big 12 and SEC sponsor women s equestrian Schools are free to compete as independents or in another conference if their main conference does not sponsor a sport for example Missouri s wrestling program competes in the Big 12 because the SEC does not sponsor wrestling Some Power Five conferences have affiliate members that primarily compete in non power conferences one example is Johns Hopkins University which competes at the Division III level for most sports but affiliates with the Big Ten in men s and women s lacrosse Beach volleyball will see significant changes in conference sponsorship in 2024 25 The schools that are leaving the Pac 12 include all of the conference s beach volleyball programs Most will join the new beach volleyball league of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation MPSF which sponsors a broad array of non revenue sports At the same time the Big 12 will add beach volleyball All of the NCAA sports that are not sponsored by at least one Power Five conference are part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program or are National Collegiate sports meaning that schools are not separated into divisions for the purpose of NCAA championships Various Power Five schools sponsor men s water polo women s water polo women s ice hockey women s bowling men s volleyball rifle or skiing but all of these programs compete as independents or under the aegis of other conferences such as the MPSF Some Power Five schools also have varsity teams in sports such as men s rowing that are not governed by the NCAA Power Five schools dominate the list of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships of the top fifteen schools only the University of Denver which last played football in 1960 does not play in a Power Five conference 88 Power Five schools also generally dominate the standings in the Division I NACDA Directors Cup and the Capital One Cup two awards honoring schools with the greatest collegiate athletic success across all sports For example the top ten of the 2022 2023 Division I NACDA Directors Cup standings consisted entirely of Power Five programs 89 Nonetheless the Power Five conferences are not necessarily the most prominent conferences in all sports in which they compete For example in men s college basketball the Big East Conference is also generally considered to be a power conference 90 91 List of NCAA team sports sponsored by Power Five schools edit Indicates a sport sponsored by the conference Indicates individual members of the conference sponsor the sport but the conference itself does not The number of schools sponsoring the sport are indicated in parentheses prior to a number indicates the number of affiliate members for the conference in that sport Indicates a National Collegiate sport Men s team sports Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Total P5 a Total D1 b Football 14 c 14 14 12 14 68 253Basketball 15 14 14 12 14 69 350Baseball 14 13 13 11 14 65 293Soccer 12 2 9 5 1 2 26 1 4 202Lacrosse 5 5 1 1 11 1 1 72Ice hockey 2 6 1 1 6 1 2 d 57Volleyball 1 2 3 6 25Water polo 4 4 25Women s team sports Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Total P5 a Total D1 b Basketball 15 14 14 12 14 69 348Beach volleyball 1 1 1 9 2 9 5 62Field hockey 7 9 2 16 2 77Ice hockey 2 4 6 34Lacrosse 8 1 6 1 6 2 20 1 3 119Rowing 9 6 2 8 7 2 30 2 e 87Soccer 14 14 14 12 14 68 335Softball 13 10 14 9 13 59 293Volleyball 15 13 14 12 13 67 332Water polo 2 5 7 34 a b The Total P5 column shows the number of P5 programs that play the sport in their main conference followed by if applicable the number of affiliates of P5 conferences in that sport followed by if applicable and wrapped in parentheses the number of P5 programs that play the sport outside of a P5 conference a b The Total D1 column shows the total number of NCAA Division I programs sponsoring each sport for the 2021 2022 academic year 92 Notre Dame is a full member of the ACC but plays football as an independent Notre Dame football is obligated to play an average of five football games a year against ACC opponents 2 Notre Dame is a member of the ACC and an affiliate of the Big Ten for men s ice hockey Alabama and Tennessee are members of the SEC and affiliate with the Big 12 for women s rowing Football ACC Notre Dame is an independent and not an ACC member in the sport It is generally considered to be on the level of the P5 conferences Men s Soccer Big 12 The only current conference members that sponsor men s soccer UCF and West Virginia play in the Sun Belt Conference SBC None of the schools joining in 2024 sponsor the sport Pac 12 Five of the conference s 12 full members sponsor men s soccer They are joined by single sport member San Diego State otherwise a member of the Mountain West Conference MW Four of the 10 schools leaving the Pac 12 in 2024 sponsor men s soccer California Stanford UCLA and Washington Oregon State has since announced that it will house most of its non football sports including men s soccer in the non football and mid major West Coast Conference in 2024 25 and 2025 26 SEC Only two members Kentucky and South Carolina sponsor soccer for men Since the 2022 season both have housed these teams in the SBC and their rivalry is the SEC Derby Men s Ice Hockey ACC Boston College plays in Hockey East and Notre Dame plays in the Big Ten Conference Big 12 No current member sponsors the sport for either men or women Arizona State which joins the Big 12 in 2024 will join the single sport National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time Pac 12 Arizona State is competing as an independent in 2023 24 its last season as a full member of the Pac 12 Men s Lacrosse Big 12 As a Pac 12 member future Big 12 member Utah became the first Pac 12 school and also the first Division I school west of the Continental Divide to sponsor men s lacrosse as a varsity sport launching its team in the 2018 19 school year 2019 season Utah men s lacrosse joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in July 2021 Big Ten Five of the 14 full members sponsor men s lacrosse A sixth team Johns Hopkins is a Division III member but plays both men s and women s lacrosse in Division I and the Big Ten Before a Division III rule change in early 2022 it was also one of five D III schools specifically allowed by the NCAA to offer scholarships in its Division I sports Division III schools that play selected Division I sports are now allowed to offer scholarships in Division I sports Pac 12 See Big 12 above Men s Volleyball As of the current 2024 NCAA men s volleyball season 2023 24 school year 29 Division I members will sponsor varsity men s volleyball with a large majority being mid major programs In fact D I men s volleyball schools are outnumbered by Division II schools members of both divisions compete under identical scholarship limits for a single national championship Before 2012 this championship was also open to Division III schools but explosive growth in the sport at that level in the 21st century led to the creation of a separate D III championship The only D I all sports leagues to sponsor the sport are the mid major Big West Conference and Northeast Conference With that in mind the five Power Five schools with men s volleyball programs are aligned as follows Big Ten Ohio State and Penn State both play in single sport leagues respectively in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Big 12 The only member that sponsors men s volleyball BYU competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation MPSF Pac 12 All three members with men s volleyball programs Stanford UCLA and USC compete in the MPSF Even with UCLA and USC leaving for the Big Ten in 2024 the latter conference will have only four men s volleyball schools two short of the minimum needed for an automatic bid to the combined D I D II championship and for official Big Ten sponsorship making it likely that both will remain in MPSF men s volleyball The same holds true for Stanford which will become the only ACC member with a varsity men s volleyball team Men s Water Polo Only 25 Division I members sponsor varsity men s water polo As with men s volleyball a large majority of the D I schools that sponsor the sport are mid major programs The NCAA conducts a single national championship open to all member schools regardless of division Pac 12 The only Power Five schools that sponsor the sport are the California members of the Pac 12 California Stanford UCLA and USC All compete in the MPSF and will likely remain in that conference for men s water polo after their moves to the ACC California Stanford and Big Ten UCLA USC Beach Volleyball A women only sport at the NCAA level beach volleyball is sponsored by only one Power Five conference the Pac 12 Nine of that conference s schools sponsor the sport with the exceptions being Colorado Oregon State and Washington State Other Power Five schools that sponsor the sport are aligned as follows ACC Florida State competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association CCSA a league that now sponsors only beach volleyball the CCSA s swimming amp diving operations were effectively taken over by the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023 24 Both schools joining from the Pac 12 in 2024 California and Stanford also sponsor the sport They will move beach volleyball to the MPSF which will start sponsoring that sport in 2024 25 Big Ten Nebraska competes as an independent All four schools joining from the Pac 12 in 2024 Oregon UCLA USC and Washington sponsor the sport However this remains one short of the six sponsoring members required under Big Ten bylaws for official sport sponsorship Accordingly all four West Coast schools will play in the newly established MPSF beach volleyball league Big 12 TCU competes in Conference USA and departing member Texas is an independent Three of the four schools joining from the Pac 12 in 2024 sponsor the sport Arizona Arizona State and Utah The Big 12 will add beach volleyball starting in 2024 25 SEC LSU and South Carolina compete in the CCSA and future member Texas is independent Mississippi State has been approved by the NCAA to compete but has yet to do so Women s Field Hockey Pac 12 The two Pac 12 members that sponsor field hockey California and Stanford play in the America East Conference Both will join the field hockey sponsoring ACC in 2024 Women s Ice Hockey ACC Boston College plays alongside its men s team in Hockey East Syracuse plays in College Hockey America CHA a league that sponsors only women s ice hockey CHA will merge with the men only Atlantic Hockey Association after the 2023 24 season the branding of the merged entity has not yet been announced Big Ten Four Big Ten members sponsor women s ice hockey Minnesota Ohio State and Wisconsin play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association which became women only in 2021 after most of its former men s members left to reestablish the Central Collegiate Hockey Association while Penn State plays in CHA Women s Lacrosse Big Ten Six of the 14 full members sponsor women s lacrosse as do future members Oregon and USC Johns Hopkins as noted previously is a Division III school that plays lacrosse in Division I Big 12 Cincinnati the only current member that sponsors women s lacrosse remained in its former full time home of the American Athletic Conference as a single sport member Future Big 12 members Arizona State and Colorado also sponsor the sport The Big 12 has announced it will start sponsoring women s lacrosse once Arizona State and Colorado join for the 2025 season 2024 25 school year it plans to add at least one associate member in that sport before starting play Pac 12 Six of the 12 full members sponsor women s lacrosse all of which will leave for other conferences in 2024 Arizona State and Colorado for the Big 12 California and Stanford for the ACC and Oregon and USC for the Big Ten The Pac 12 added two women s lacrosse associates for the 2024 season San Diego State already a Pac 12 men s soccer member and UC Davis SEC The only two members that sponsor women s lacrosse Florida and Vanderbilt compete in The American Women s Rowing Big 12 Six of the 14 full members sponsor women s rowing They are joined by Alabama and Tennessee the only two SEC schools to sponsor the sport SEC See Big 12 above However future SEC members Oklahoma and Texas both sponsor the sport While the SEC has not announced any plans to launch a women s rowing league SEC bylaws allow the conference to hold a championship event in any sport in which four members compete Currently the SEC sponsors a championship in women s equestrian part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program with four participating schools Women s Soccer ACC Georgia Tech is the only Power Five school that does not sponsor women s soccer Women s Volleyball Big 12 Oklahoma State is the only current Power Five school that neither sponsors women s volleyball nor has announced plans to add the sport SEC The only current or future SEC member that does not sponsor women s volleyball Vanderbilt will add the sport in the 2025 season 2025 26 school year Women s Water Polo Only 33 Division I members sponsor varsity women s water polo As with men s water polo a large majority of the D I schools that sponsor the sport are mid major programs The NCAA conducts a single national championship open to all member schools regardless of division Big Ten The only two Big Ten schools that sponsor the sport Indiana and Michigan respectively compete in the MPSF and the varsity division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association Pac 12 Five Pac 12 schools the four California members plus Arizona State compete in the MPSF All are likely to remain in MPSF women s water polo after joining their new primary conferences Arizona State will be the only Big 12 member to sponsor the sport and California and Stanford will be the only ACC members to do so UCLA and USC will join Indiana and Michigan as Big Ten members that sponsor varsity women s water polo but that conference will still be two short of the six sponsoring members required under conference bylaws for official sports sponsorship List of NCAA individual sports sponsored by Power Five conferences edit Indicates a sport sponsored by the conference Indicates individual members of the conference sponsor the sport but the conference itself does not The number of schools sponsoring the sport are indicated in parentheses prior to a number indicates the number of affiliate members in that sport Indicates a National Collegiate sport Indicates an NCAA Emerging Sports for Women sport sponsored by at least one Power Five conference Men s individual sports Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Total P5 a Total D1 b Cross country 15 12 12 9 13 61 315Golf 12 14 14 12 14 66 292Gymnastics 1 5 2 5 3 12Swimming amp diving 12 5 10 8 10 45 130Tennis 13 8 12 8 13 54 233Track and field indoor 15 12 11 10 13 51 10 264Track and field outdoor 15 12 13 10 13 63 287Wrestling c 6 4 9 14 3 3 1 27 12 d 76Women s individual sports Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Total P5 a Total D1 b Bowling 1 1 2 34Cross country 15 14 14 12 14 69 347Equestrian 3 1 4 7 1 19Golf 12 13 14 11 14 64 262Gymnastics 4 4 1 10 8 8 34 1 61Swimming amp diving 12 8 13 9 12 54 190Tennis 14 14 14 11 14 67 300Track and field indoor 15 14 13 12 14 56 12 331Track and field outdoor 15 14 13 12 14 68 339Co ed individual sports Sport ACC Big 12 Big Ten Pac 12 SEC Total P5 Total D1 b Fencing 4 3 1 4 4 20 27Rifle 2 1 2 5 22 17Skiing 1 2 3 10 10 a b The Total P5 column shows the number of P5 programs that play the sport in their main conference followed by if applicable the number of affiliates of P5 conferences in that sport followed by if applicable and wrapped in parentheses the number of P5 programs that play the sport outside of a P5 conference a b c The Total D1 column shows the total number of NCAA Division I programs sponsoring each sport for the 2021 2022 academic year For co ed sports the first figure represents the sum of men s and co ed teams for that sport and the second figure represents the sum of women s and co ed teams for that sport 92 The NCAA classifies wrestling as an individual sport but crowns both individual and team champions in all three divisions Missouri is a member of the SEC and an affiliate of the Big 12 for wrestling Equestrian Big 12 Fresno State is a Big 12 affiliate for equestrian Women s gymnastics Big 12 Denver is a Big 12 affiliate for women s gymnastics Wrestling Big 12 Four of the 10 full members sponsor wrestling as does future member Arizona State As of the current 2023 24 season they are joined by nine single sport associates Air Force and Wyoming both MW California Baptist and Utah Valley both in the Western Athletic Conference Missouri SEC North Dakota State and South Dakota State both in the Summit League Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Conference and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference Oklahoma s wrestling affiliation once it leaves for the SEC has yet to be determined Pac 12 Three full members sponsor wrestling two of which Arizona State and Stanford will leave in 2024 They are joined by single sport members Bakersfield Cal Poly and Little Rock The two California single sport members are otherwise members of the Big West Conference while Little Rock is a full member of the Ohio Valley Conference SEC Missouri the only SEC school to sponsor the sport competed in the MAC through the 2020 21 season after which it returned to its former full time home of the Big 12 as a single sport member Institutional profiles and academics edit The overall institutional profiles and academic prestige of colleges and universities have a major influence on collegiate athletics conference membership 93 94 95 and athletic conference membership can impact a university s fundraising academics and overall reputation 96 97 Membership in the Association of American Universities AAU a 71 member organization consisting of many of the largest and most prestigious research universities in the United States and Canada has frequently been discussed as a factor in conference realignment particularly for the Big Ten 93 98 99 100 About half of the Power Five schools are in the AAU with most of those schools in the ACC Big Ten or Pac 12 although several are members of the Big 12 or the SEC The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education a classification system of universities based on research activity 101 lists nearly all Power Five schools as R1 Doctoral Universities Very high research activity the exceptions are Wake Forest TCU and BYU each of which are listed as R2 Doctoral Universities High research activity future ACC member SMU is also an R2 school Of the 30 U S universities with the greatest research expenditures in 2022 nearly two thirds were members of one of the Power Five conferences 102 Some of the Power Five conferences share academic resources among conference members through related academic consortiums such as the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Consortium 103 96 A majority of the Power Five schools are public universities and many of these public schools are flagship universities often being the largest oldest most selective most research intensive most well financed and best known public universities in their respective states Many of these public schools are also land grant universities About one fifth of Power Five schools are private colleges or universities with about half of those schools belonging to or planning to join the ACC Many of the private schools are nonsectarian of the remainder Boston College and Notre Dame are affiliated with the Catholic Church Baylor is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas BYU is affiliated with the LDS Church and TCU is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ 104 In 2023 ten of the fifteen U S universities with the highest enrollment were members of one of the Power Five conferences 105 and the vast majority of Power Five schools have an enrollment of at least 20 000 students Geographically using the four statistical regions defined by the United States Census Bureau there are 34 Southern Power Five schools 35 once SMU joins the ACC 17 Midwestern Power Five schools 13 Western Power Five schools and five Northeastern Power Five schools Connecticut 106 and Nevada are the most populous states without a Power Five school followed by New Mexico and Idaho See also edit nbsp College football portalCollege Football Association Superconference Mid majorNotes edit Section 5 3 2 1 of the NCAA Constitution grants the five conferences autonomy to permit the use of resources to advance the legitimate educational or athletics related needs of student athletes and for legislative changes that will otherwise enhance student athlete well being Eleven areas of autonomy are listed including promotional activities unrelated to athletics participation pre enrollment expenses and support and financial aid Hawaii and teams that play at Hawaii are allowed to schedule a thirteenth regular season game 20 Of the former long term members of the SWC all but Rice University are currently in a Power Five conference The WAC dropped football following a near complete membership turnover that saw the league stripped of all but two of its football sponsoring schools The conference would reinstate football in 2021 but as part of the second tier Division I FCS it has since merged its football league with that of the Atlantic Sun Conference creating the current United Athletic Conference a b The Cincinnati Bearcats and UCF Knights later joined the Big 12 in 2023 thereby becoming Power Five teams 60 UCF was also recognized as national champion by the Colley Matrix but the AP poll and the Coaches Poll both selected Alabama as the national champion after it won the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Since 1998 there has been one instance where either the BCS or College Football Playoff chose a different national championship than the AP poll or the Coaches Poll In the 2003 season the LSU Tigers won that season s BCS National Championship game and were chosen as the champion by the Coaches Poll but the AP poll selected USC as the national champion after their victory in the 2004 Rose Bowl This amount is only for the SEC s CBS deal which is minimal compared to their ESPN deal The ESPN payout encompassing the SEC network is determined on a yearly basis based on revenue When combined the SEC payouts are comparable to other conferences on this list References edit a b Forde Pat August 6 2023 Potential Power Five Exclusion of Stanford Cal Is a Bad Sign for Team USA s Olympic Prospects Sports Illustrated Retrieved August 24 2023 a b Bishop Greg September 12 2012 A C C to Add Notre Dame but Not Its Football Team The New York Times Retrieved September 19 2020 ACC sets 11 game slate includes Notre Dame ESPN com July 30 2020 Retrieved August 8 2020 American football Sarah Fuller makes history as first woman in a Power 5 game BBC com November 29 2020 Retrieved November 30 2020 The Power 5 refers to five conferences including the SEC considered the elite of collegiate football Bennett Brian August 8 2014 NCAA board votes to allow autonomy ESPN com Retrieved December 9 2014 5 3 2 1 Process for Areas of Autonomy PDF 2017 18 NCAA Division I Manual August 1 2017 p 33 Retrieved March 11 2019 Lindsey John November 1 2006 BCS race already is getting ugly Pittsburgh Post Gazette Scripps Howard News Service p F 2 Retrieved March 9 2019 via newspapers com Even though the system is usually stacked in their favor the haves schools from the traditional power five conferences the Southeastern Atlantic Coast Big Ten Big 12 and Pac 10 are already bent out of shape a b McMurphy Brett August 7 2014 Power Five coaches polled on games ESPN Retrieved December 9 2014 Russo Ralph D October 16 2023 AP Top 25 Reality Check Group of 5 teams struggling to break into rankings with lack of P5 upsets Associated Press a b Russo Ralph D March 4 2020 Is a revenue gap keeping top coaches away from G5 schools Fox Sports Witz Billy September 1 2023 Conferences Are Changing The Sport Is Too The New York Times Shaw Lucas November 19 2023 Live TV Has Been Collapsing for a Decade Why Hasn t Football Bloomberg Lewis Jon January 7 2023 2022 ratings wrap Another dominant year for NFL Sports Media Watch Kaduk Kevin September 30 2023 College football The Power 5 s smallest stadiums Yahoo Sports a b Dodd Dennis March 8 2023 College football attendance rose in 2022 with largest year over year increase since 1982 CBS News Hobson Will Rich Steven December 23 2015 Colleges spend fortunes on lavish athletic facilities Chicago Tribune Associated Press December 5 2023 NCAA president wants colleges to directly pay some student athletes NBC News Hunziger Erica July 6 2022 One year of NIL How much have athletes made AP Felder Michael September 27 2012 How Is a College Football Schedule Made Bleacher Report Burke Peter August 25 2023 What is college football s Week Zero and why are some games starting early WPTV Meyer Craig November 17 2023 SEC 2023 buy games How much teams paid non conference opponents in FCS Group of Five The Tennessean McMurphy Brett January 29 2015 ACC BYU to count as Power 5 team ESPN com Retrieved February 3 2015 Fornelli Tom March 19 2015 SEC will consider Notre Dame BYU and Army as Power Five opponents CBS Retrieved September 17 2016 McMurphy Brett September 22 2015 Independents BYU Army Notre Dame can fulfill Power 5 quota for Big Ten ESPN Retrieved September 17 2016 a b Meyer Craig December 1 2023 Big Ten football championship history From Leaders and Legends divisions to East and West Detroit Free Press Dinich Heather November 10 2023 CFP committee to present 5 7 model to board sources say ESPN a b Godfrey August 15 2023 College football is barreling toward a super league no matter what might be lost Washington Post Bender Bill August 3 2023 From Power 5 to Power 2 Big Ten SEC will dominate post realignment FBS at a heavy cost The Sporting News Blinder Alan July 1 2022 Power 5 College Sports May Soon Be Dominated by a Mighty 2 The New York Times Richmond Sam November 6 2019 1st college football game ever was New Jersey vs Rutgers in 1869 NCAA Retrieved June 23 2020 a b Pichini Luke October 7 2020 The Evolution of Ivy League Football The Cornell Daily Sun Crowley Joseph 2006 The NCAA s First Century PDF pp 9 10 Archived PDF from the original on March 27 2013 a b Hylton J Gordon November 7 2011 Recent College Football Realignments Are Nothing New Marquette University Law School Miller David August 24 2022 Conference loyalty a thing of the past The Ponca City News In 1928 the MVIAA split into two conferences both retaining the MVIAA name officially but the one involving the larger schools took Big Six as a descriptive moniker The Big Six were Oklahoma Kansas Kansas State Missouri Nebraska and Iowa State Drake Grinnell Washington and Oklahoma A amp M were in the second MVIAA conference which was known familiarly as the Missouri Valley a b c d e Mandel Stewart July 14 2023 College football conference realignment timeline 124 years of drama money and bitterness The Athletic Hale David August 4 2022 What happened to college football in the Northeast ESPN Mandel Stewart August 6 2009 BYU pulled off a miracle 25 years ago will it ever happen again Sports Illustrated Retrieved October 18 2016 Alden Doug August 16 2009 BYU s sights are set on a repeat of 1984 Los Angeles Times Smith Michael September 26 2011 History lesson Super conference concept rooted in 1990 proposal Sports Business Journal But the Metro Conference didn t sponsor football and it needed to grow if it intended to survive against the heavies of that time the SEC ACC Southwest Conference Big Eight Big Ten and Pac 10 Crowley Joseph 2006 The NCAA s First Century PDF pp 41 44 Archived PDF from the original on March 27 2013 Vancil Mark ed 2000 ABC Sports College Football All Time All America Team Hyperion p 30 ISBN 978 0 7868 6710 3 Dennie Christian 2012 Conference Realignment From Backyard Brawls to Cash Cows PDF Mississippi Sports Law Review 1 2 249 251 Maske Mark July 2 1990 Changing Times Conference Realignment Could Reshape College Athletics Washington Post Molski Max January 3 2022 The History of College Football Championship Games NBC New York a b c d e Low Chris October 31 2023 How the creation of the BCS set the stage for the current playoff format ESPN AQ conferences could grow by 1 in 2012 Bowl Championship Series April 22 2010 Multiple contributors February 28 2013 Sources Xavier Butler also joining ESPN Adelson Andrea July 20 2021 Realignment revisited The beginning of the end for Big East football ESPN BCS denies Mountain West automatic qualifying exemption Retrieved December 9 2014 CFB FOX Sports on MSN Archived from the original on December 28 2009 Retrieved January 8 2010 Mandel Stewart August 18 2010 Would BYU be Notre Dame as a football independent or Navy Sports Illustrated Time Inc Retrieved March 31 2011 BCS selection procedures ESPN com January 12 2010 FOX Sports BCSFootball BCS Conferences Archived from the original on January 7 2007 Retrieved January 9 2007 Solomon Jon December 29 2016 How the Peach Bowl went from nearly out of business to playoff semifinal host CBS Sports Tucker Tim December 30 2016 How the Peach Bowl grew up to be a College Football Playoff semifinal The Atlanta Journal Constitution McMurphy Brett November 13 2012 Six bowls in playoff format ESPN com Retrieved July 24 2013 Morse Ben December 5 2023 Why Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff and why it s so controversial CNN a b Russo Ralph D January 2 2024 CFP 1 0 changed college football not all for better and was necessary step in postseason evolution Associated Press Mandel Stewart January 9 2024 Mandel s Final Thoughts It was Michigan vs Everybody and Michigan won decisively The Athletic Big 12 gives OK to BYU Cincinnati Houston UCF ESPN com September 10 2021 Retrieved May 25 2022 Associated Press December 5 2021 Unbeaten Cincinnati make history as they reach College Football Playoff The Guardian ESPN staff December 1 2022 College Football Playoff expansion What you need to know ESPN a b Bostock Mike November 30 2013 Tracing the History of N C A A Conferences The New York Times Retrieved December 9 2014 Norlander Matt June 26 2019 UConn leaving AAC after accepting invitation to join Big East Conference in all sports except football CBSSports com Retrieved June 26 2019 SEC grants membership to Oklahoma Texas starting in 2025 Press release Southeastern Conference July 30 2021 Retrieved September 10 2021 Big 12 Announces Agreement for Withdrawal of Oklahoma and Texas Press release Big 12 Conference February 9 2023 Retrieved February 9 2023 Big 12 Extends Membership Invitations Press release Big 12 Conference September 10 2021 Retrieved September 10 2021 BYU to Join Big 12 Conference Press release BYU Cougars September 10 2021 Retrieved November 15 2021 American Announces Agreements With UCF Cincinnati and Houston on Departure Press release American Athletic Conference June 10 2022 Retrieved June 10 2022 Big Ten Conference Statement Press release Big Ten Conference June 30 2022 Retrieved June 30 2022 Colorado To Join Big 12 Conference In 2024 25 Press release Colorado Buffaloes July 27 2023 Retrieved July 27 2023 Big Ten adds Oregon Washington as newest members in blow to Pac 12 ESPN August 4 2023 Retrieved August 4 2023 Big 12 approves additions of Utah Arizona State bringing league to 16 teams ESPN August 4 2023 Retrieved August 4 2023 The Atlantic Coast Conference Welcomes the University of California Berkeley Southern Methodist University and Stanford University as New Members Press release Atlantic Coast Conference September 1 2023 Retrieved September 1 2023 Blinder Alan July 30 2022 Power 5 College Sports May Soon Be Dominated by a Mighty 2 The New York Times Bender Bill August 3 2023 From Power 5 to Power 2 Big Ten SEC will dominate post realignment FBS at a heavy cost Sporting News Dodd Dennis September 1 2023 Stanford Cal SMU catch last train into the Power Four but it s hardly the end of conference realignment CBS Sports SI Staff August 16 2016 Everybody s looking for TV sets The oral history of the formation of the Big 12 Conference Sports Illustrated Atlantic Coast Conference brings Virginia into fold Plan to admit West Virginia is turned down Conference decides to operate as eight school organization for indefinite period Petersburg Progress Index Archived from the original on April 30 2019 Retrieved April 17 2019 McMurphy Brett March 1 2013 Catholic 7 to keep Big East name for new league next season according to sources ESPN Retrieved March 7 2013 Mandel Stewart November 12 2012 Big East rest of Group of Five score victory with six bowl decision SI com Retrieved December 30 2019 Report Power Five conferences brought in more than 3 3 billion in 2022 with Big Ten SEC leading the way Yahoo Sports May 19 2023 Report Power Five conferences brought in more than 3 3 billion in 2022 with Big Ten SEC leading the way Yahoo Sports May 19 2023 Facher Lev June 20 2016 Report Big Ten getting 2 64 billion in new TV deal Detroit Free Press ESPN pays 2 25B for SEC rights August 25 2008 ACC Secures 1 86 Billion Television Deal with ESPN Rienzi Greg February 2015 A new playing field as Hopkins lacrosse joins Big Ten John Hopkins Wilco Daniel July 23 2019 Colleges with the most NCAA championships NCAA Bahns Carter June 28 2023 Learfield Directors Cup 2023 Stanford earns 26th title SEC dominates final standings 24 7 Sports Cobb David April 13 2023 College basketball conference power rankings 2023 Big 12 still No 1 but Big Ten not far behind CBS Sports Shaw Jamie November 15 2023 College basketball Ten Power Six Transfers to Watch On3 a b NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report PDF NCAA pp 87 88 Retrieved December 28 2023 a b Benson Michael August 6 2021 Perspective In conference realignment academics not athletics are king Deseret News Knight Joey June 7 2023 How much will USF s elite academic status help its Power Five pursuits Tampa Bay Times Silver Nate August 25 2022 Where Should The Big Ten Expand Next We Crunched The Numbers FiveThirtyEight a b Politi Steve Sargeant Keith November 21 2022 How Big Ten changed Rutgers beyond athletics NJ com Lavigne Paula September 2 2016 Rich get richer in college sports as poorer schools struggle to keep up ESPN Acosta Joseph August 1 2021 What the Association of American Universities AAU has to do With Conference Expansion Sports Illustrated Dyer Kristian June 1 2023 Around the Big Ten What today s AAU news means for the Big Ten Yahoo Sports Wood Trent June 7 2023 How important is AAU membership in conference realignment Particularly Big Ten expansion Deseret News Anderson Nick February 4 2016 In new sorting of colleges Dartmouth falls out of an exclusive group Washington Post Zalaznick Matt January 6 2023 Billion dollar business These are higher ed s top 30 R amp D performers University Business Hendrix Sheridan July 29 2022 Will USC and UCLA s addition to the Big Ten boost its academics Experts say it s likely The Columbus Dispatch Smith Erick March 27 2021 It s been a record year for religiously affiliated schools in the men s basketball tournament USA Today Wood Sarah November 21 2023 15 Colleges With the Most Undergraduate Students US News and World Report Tramel Berry July 30 2023 Tramel Connecticut not the best idea for Big 12 expansion The Oklahoman Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Power Five conferences amp oldid 1201746154, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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