In American collegiate sports, everything depends on football. Whether it’s NIL or the recent legislation that opens up the possibility of direct compensation for student-athletes, football always has the biggest piece of the pie. Over the past three years, a conference realignment has marked a major shift, touching all the major conferences and reshaping the NCAA landscape, even at the basketball level.
Let’s start from a fixed point: the Big East, finally, is the only conference to confirm all eleven universities, resisting the advances of the Big 12 towards the queen of college basketball UConn. Not surprisingly, it is a conference that does not exist in football and for this reason it has remained intact. Texas to Oklahoma had started the domino effect by moving to the SEC while the Big 12 and the Big Ten decided to plunder the Pac-12 by dividing up eight of the twelve teams that formed it.
Rival universities often work together on these moves because one is part of the other’s brand: it’s no coincidence that this year we will see the first Red River Rivalry in SEC history, between Texas and Oklahoma.
The Big 12, after the arrivals of Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UCF last year, is trying to checkmate Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado e Utaha series of additions that enhance the quality and depth of the best conference in Division I in years. The Big Ten winks more at football and the main markets of the West Coast stretching its strongholds over 3000 kilometers. Oregon, UCLA, USC e Washington they break down the geographical barriers of the collegiate world by creating the first, in effect, national conference. The need for a huge adjustment on several fronts, both logistical and sporting, is evident.
Rounding out the outline of the dissolution of the Pac-12 as we know it, California e Stanford have found a home in the ACC, which also welcomes SMU from the AAC, while Washington State e Oregon State will be welcomed by the WCC, the conference of Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. But the Pac-12 is not done, as the conference board is working to get it back on its feet: dal 2026-27 Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State e San Diego State could be the new members. After all, 108 years of business, history and brand cannot be lost like this.
The dawn of a new era is upon us and the movements do not seem to be over. Along with the NIL and the transfer market, the realignment is another of the themes that is revolutionizing college basketball as we knew it. Strengthened by their billion-dollar television contracts with FOX and ESPN, Big Ten e SEC promise to create a duopoly thanks to the big football dollars, while the Big 12 seems to want to bet on the world-famous basketball to add powerhouses like Gonzaga e UConn. The ACC is trying to defend itself in every way but the various Clemson, Florida State and Miami (for football prestige) and the Duke-North Carolina duo could be the next universities suspected of a transfer.