I’ve been working on a full **141-team FBS realignment** as part of a larger project I’m calling **Reclaim College Football**.

The basic philosophy is:

>**Modernize what needs to be modernized. Protect what makes college football college football.**

The alignment is built around **regional identity, historical conference relationships, annual rivalries, and schedule stability**, rather than letting media value alone determine conference membership.

This version has:

**Power 6:** ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, PAC, SEC  
**Group of 4:** C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt  
**Independents:** Army, Navy, Notre Dame

The biggest thing I wanted to solve beyond the conference map was **rivalry preservation**.

Every conference is divisionless, but teams have a set of **protected annual conference opponents** so the games that define the sport don’t disappear into rotating schedules.

For the 12-team leagues, the basic football model is:

>**4 protected annual conference opponents + 4 rotating conference opponents = 8 conference games**

The PAC uses:

>**3 protected + 5 rotating = 8**

The 16-team Group conferences use:

>**3 protected + 6 rotating = 9**

That means rivalry protection is built directly into the scheduling model rather than being left up to individual athletic departments.

# Some of the major in-conference rivalry networks

|Conference|Rivalries / annual relationships protected|
|:-|:-|
|**ACC**|Clemson–Florida State, Clemson–Georgia Tech, Florida State–Miami, Miami–Virginia Tech, Virginia–Virginia Tech, Maryland–Virginia, UNC–NC State, Duke–UNC, Duke–Wake, NC State–Wake|
|**Big 12**|Texas–Oklahoma, Texas–Texas A&M, Oklahoma–Oklahoma State, Kansas–Missouri, Kansas–Kansas State, Iowa State–Kansas State, Baylor–TCU, SMU–TCU|
|**Big East**|Pitt–West Virginia, Rutgers–Syracuse, Rutgers–UConn, Syracuse–UConn, Cincinnati–Louisville, Cincinnati–Memphis, Louisville–Memphis, Houston–Memphis, Memphis–Tulane, UCF–USF|
|**Big Ten**|Michigan–Ohio State, Michigan–Michigan State, Michigan–Minnesota, Ohio State–Penn State, Indiana–Purdue, Minnesota–Wisconsin, Iowa–Nebraska, Iowa–Wisconsin, Illinois–Northwestern|
|**PAC**|Arizona–Arizona State, BYU–Utah, Colorado–Colorado State, Cal–Stanford, UCLA–USC, Oregon–Oregon State, Washington–Washington State|
|**SEC**|Alabama–Auburn, Alabama–Tennessee, Florida–Georgia, Auburn–Georgia, LSU–Ole Miss, Ole Miss–Mississippi State, Kentucky–Tennessee, Tennessee–Vanderbilt|
|**C-USA**|ECU–ODU, JMU–Liberty, MTSU–WKU, NMSU–UTEP, Texas State–UTSA, North Texas–Tulsa, Rice–UTSA|
|**MAC**|Akron–Kent State, Bowling Green–Toledo, Central Michigan–Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan–Western Michigan, Marshall–Ohio, Miami (OH)–Ohio, Buffalo–UMass|
|**Mountain West**|Montana–Montana State, NDSU–SDSU, Air Force–Wyoming, Utah State–Wyoming, Nevada–UNLV, Boise State–Fresno State, Fresno State–San Diego State|
|**Sun Belt**|Louisiana–ULM, South Alabama–Troy, Jacksonville State–UAB, Georgia State–Kennesaw State, Arkansas State–Sam Houston, FAU–FIU|

A few things I especially like about the structure:

The **ACC keeps the full Tobacco Road group together annually**, while Maryland-Virginia, Virginia–Virginia Tech, and Miami–Virginia Tech are conference games.

The **Big East** combines the old eastern football core with the Cincinnati/Louisville/Memphis/Tulane/Houston lineage and keeps **UCF–USF** together annually.

The **Big 12** restores much of the Big Eight/Southwest Conference feel.

The **PAC** has seven obvious geographic pairs:

Arizona–Arizona State  
BYU–Utah  
Colorado–Colorado State  
Cal–Stanford  
UCLA–USC  
Oregon–Oregon State  
Washington–Washington State

And the Mountain West gets two huge northern rivalries with FCS teams that have the resources to move up:

**Montana–Montana State**  
**North Dakota State–South Dakota State**

# Protected annual out-of-conference rivalries

Conference membership shouldn’t kill rivalries that happen to cross league lines.

So this model also protects a national set of annual OOC games:

**Army–Navy**  
**Army–Air Force**  
**Navy–Air Force**  
**Notre Dame–Navy**  
**Notre Dame–USC**  
**Notre Dame–Purdue**  
**Notre Dame–Michigan State**  
**Florida–Florida State**  
**Georgia–Georgia Tech**  
**Clemson–South Carolina**  
**Kentucky–Louisville**  
**Boston College–Syracuse**  
**Maryland–West Virginia**  
**Tulane–LSU**  
**Memphis–Southern Miss**  
**Iowa–Iowa State**  
**Illinois–Missouri**  
**Penn State–Pittsburgh**  
**Cincinnati–Miami (OH)**  
**Houston–Rice**  
**UConn–UMass**  
**Appalachian State–Georgia Southern**  
**Louisiana–Louisiana Tech**  
**New Mexico–New Mexico State**  
**Utah–Utah State**  
**BYU–Boise State**  
**Colorado State–Wyoming**

There are also recurring home-and-home series that don’t necessarily have to be annual forever, including:

Nebraska–Colorado / Nebraska–Oklahoma on alternating two-year cycles  
Arkansas–Texas / Arkansas–Texas A&M on alternating cycles  
Colorado State–Air Force  
Notre Dame–Stanford  
Notre Dame–Michigan  
Notre Dame–Boston College  
Miami–Florida  
East Carolina–NC State  
App State–Marshall  
Marshall–West Virginia  
Memphis–Arkansas State  
Tulane–Southern Miss  
Southern Miss–Louisiana Tech

# Rivalry Week

I also wanted the final regular-season weekend to feel intentionally designed instead of becoming whatever games happen to be left on the schedule.

The Rivalry Week slate currently looks like this:

**ACC:** Clemson–South Carolina, Florida State–Florida, Georgia Tech–Georgia, Virginia–Virginia Tech, North Carolina–NC State, Duke–Wake Forest, Boston College–Syracuse, Maryland–Miami

**Big 12:** Texas–Texas A&M, Oklahoma–Oklahoma State, Kansas–Missouri, Iowa State–Kansas State, Baylor–TCU, SMU–Texas Tech

**Big Ten:** Michigan–Ohio State, Indiana–Purdue, Minnesota–Wisconsin, Iowa–Nebraska, Illinois–Northwestern, Michigan State–Penn State

**Big East:** Pitt–West Virginia, Rutgers–UConn, UCF–USF, Cincinnati–Tulane, Louisville–Kentucky, Memphis–Southern Miss, Houston–Rice, Syracuse–Boston College

**PAC:** Arizona–Arizona State, BYU–Utah, Cal–Stanford, Colorado–Colorado State, Oregon–Oregon State, UCLA–USC, Washington–Washington State

**SEC:** Alabama–Auburn, Arkansas–LSU, Mississippi State–Ole Miss, Tennessee–Vanderbilt, Florida–Florida State, Georgia–Georgia Tech, South Carolina–Clemson, Kentucky–Louisville

**C-USA:** Appalachian State–Georgia Southern, Rice–Houston, ECU–Old Dominion, James Madison–Liberty, Middle Tennessee–Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech–Missouri State, New Mexico State–UTEP, North Texas–Tulsa, Texas State–UTSA

**MAC / service academies:** Akron–Kent State, Bowling Green–Toledo, Ball State–Miami (OH), Buffalo–UMass, Central Michigan–Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan–Western Michigan, Marshall–Ohio, Army–Temple, Navy–Delaware

**Mountain West:** Air Force–New Mexico, Utah State–Wyoming, Boise State–Fresno State, Hawaii–San Diego State, San Jose State–Sacramento State, Nevada–UNLV, Montana–Montana State, North Dakota State–South Dakota State

**Sun Belt:** Georgia Southern–Appalachian State, Southern Miss–Memphis, Arkansas State–Sam Houston, Louisiana–ULM, Charlotte–Coastal Carolina, FAU–FIU, Georgia State–Kennesaw State, Jacksonville State–UAB, South Alabama–Troy

Army and Navy is preserved as **America's Game and is a standalone national game on the second Saturday in December**.

Notre Dame does not have one fixed Rivalry Week opponent because its independent schedule already includes multiple annual national rivalries.

The larger idea is that **conference realignment should make rivalry scheduling easier, not harder**.

If a school moves into a conference where its historic opponents disappear from the schedule, I think the realignment has probably failed somewhere.

I’ve also built out:

conference championship structure  
a Championship/Challenge Week  
a 12-team CFP  
historic bowl tie-ins  
media rights and revenue sharing  
NIL/athlete compensation rules  
transfer and eligibility rules  
FBS/FCS promotion cycles

…but I wanted to start with the alignment and rivalry framework.

**Which protected rivalry would you change? And is there an annual rivalry I’ve missed that should be guaranteed in this system?**

I’d especially be interested in feedback from fans of the G4 schools, because those rivalry networks are harder to reconstruct than the obvious Power-conference ones.

141-Team FBS Realignment Built Around Geography, History & Protected Rivalries - Power 6 + Group of 4