A Season of Change

A lot has changed in college football in the last year. Thankfully you’ve found this article that will catch you up to date with the biggest changes.

The Big 10 (18)

The Big Ten has dropped divisions. At the end of the season, the 2 teams with the best conference records will play in the B1G Championship game. (This means Ohio State vs Michigan could happen in back-to-back weeks).
4 new schools have been added to the B1G, bringing membership to 18 schools. The new teams are Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC.
B1G Friday Night is now a thing. There will be a Big Ten Friday night football game every week this season except week 3.
Channel flipping. The “top 3” B1G games each week have locked in TV times and networks. FOX at Noon, CBS at 3:30, and NBC at 7:30 (all times EST). Sometimes NBC will put their “best” game on Peacock. It is what it is.

The ACC

They have also done away with divisions like the B1G.
They have added 3 new schools to the conference bringing membership to 17 schools. SMU, Stanford, and Cal are in the ACC now. Two schools in the San Francisco Bay Area are in the ATLANTIC COAST Conference. The Big Ten failed math and the ACC failed geography.

The SEC

They have also done away with divisions. It’s what all the cool conferences are doing these days.
There are 2 new SEC schools. Texas and Oklahoma move from the Big 12 to the SEC this year. This kills the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State rivalry, but restores Texas vs Texas A&M.
All SEC games will be on ESPN, SEC Network, ESPN+, or ABC. All of these channels are owned by Disney. The SEC is officially the Mickey Mouse conference.

The Pac-12

Is dead. R.I.P.

The Big 12

The Big 12 has added 4 new schools to their conference from the collapsed Pac-12. Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, and Deion Sanders… I mean Colorado.
The Big 12 is upset they make less money than the B1G and SEC and are exploring selling the naming rights for their conference. They are also considering selling a stake in the conference to private equity to get a cash infusion. The naming rights thing is silly, but private equity is concerning.

The 12-Team Playoff

The Playoff has expanded. What was a 4 team tournament has grown to 12. This is a good idea that has still managed to upset a lot of people because no one can agree on the details.
There will be 5 auto-bids for the playoff, for the 5 highest-rated conference champions. The B1G, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 champs are virtually guaranteed 4 of these 5 spots. The 5th spot will go to the best G5 champ. (Probably whoever wins the American or Mountain West conferences).
Only conference champs can get a top 4 seed and a bye. So the top 4 seeds will be the champs of the B1G, SEC, ACC, and Big 12. This also means that even if Notre Dame is ranked #1, the highest seed they can receive is #5.
The 1st round of the playoffs, 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, and 8 vs 9, will be held on college campuses with the higher seed getting a home game. This is the 1st time college football has had “home field” in the postseason. It’s going to be awesome. All games in the following rounds will be hosted by NY6 Bowls.

That’s just about everything you may have missed this offseason. Obviously there is more, but this article can’t go on forever. You should know enough to keep up in week 1 or impress your casual friends who don’t read Walk On Fan.

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This article was written by Cole Tollison and edited by Hayden Breene