Over the last century, College football evolved from just about two conferences to ten. Initially, conferences were formed among schools that were geographically close. The Big Ten, which was formed in 1896, is a perfect example of a conference that was formed with teams that were located in Northeast America.
As time went on, more conferences were starting to form and grow in size. Schools from all across the country who used to be independents were joining conferences and the map of fbs conferences around America was growing. All of this expansion meant that some schools in conferences were no longer regional.
Big conferences like the SEC and Big ten have expanded over the years beyond their traditional boundaries to include big powerhouse schools from across the country. For example, Texas and Oklahoma moved on from the Big 12 to the SEC for better financial opportunities and better competition. In 2023, the PAC-12 Conference was loaded with talented teams such as Oregon, Washington, Utah, USC, and Colorado but due to terrible negotiations over revenue, the conference split up with teams mainly joining the Big Ten and the Big 12. Now if you look at a geographical map of conferences, it’s scattered all over the place and looks very confusing.
As time moved on, smaller conferences had to dissolve which caused new ones to form. Schools are always trying to find bigger and better opportunities for a gain financially. With the new College Football Playoff system introduced this past year, competition among each conference has really ramped up with great opportunities for schools who win their conference. Notre Dame was however still an FBS independent, so they just had to win games on their regular season schedule and they had an automatic spot, unlike some schools who had to compete for a conference championship.
In the late 2010s era most conferences were very even with 10-14 teams in each conference. Flash forward to this past 2024 season, big power house conferences have around 16-18 teams.
The evolution of conferences have just shown how much the financial side of college sports comes into play. Big schools all across the nation are always looking for new challenges and opportunities to make a name for themselves.
