The Death of College Football's Conference Divisions is Almost Here
Prepare the obituary. Death is on the doorsteps of college football conference divisions.
For the 1992 football season the SEC split into two divisions. The winners of the Eastern Division, Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators, lost to Gene Stallings’ Alabama Crimson Tide 28-21 at Legion Field in college football’s first conference championship game. Just a little more than 30 years later, division winners may no longer determine who plays in a conference’s championship game.
NCAA Rule Change Proposed
The current rule in place requires conferences with 12 or more members to split into two divisions, then pit the top two teams against one another to determine a champion. In lieu of divisions, conferences with fewer than 12 members can play a round robin schedule and still compete in a conference championship game. This format has been used by the Big 12 since 2017.
On April 28 the NCAA Football Oversight Committee recommended the Division I Council remove the requirements to hold a conference championship game. Removing this requirement is the first step to eliminating divisions. Chris Vannini from The Athletic expects this change to become official later this month.
What’s Next Without Conference Divisions?
A conference can still operate just fine without schedules structured by divisions. The SEC has been doing it in basketball since 2011, the last time the conference expanded its membership. Now on the horizon of growing to a 16-team league with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, a new scheduling format must be created.
Even though the current system sets up Kentucky well, it is flawed. LSU visited Lexington last fall for the first time since 2007. This fall will be Kentucky’s first trip to Oxford since 2010. Texas A&M has not visited Kentucky since it joined the SEC.
Without divisions conferences can create pod scheduling, a favorite summertime topic on Kentucky Sports Radio. Pod scheduling allows a player to visit all 16 schools in the SEC throughout his four-year career by grouping schools of four together, then rotating opponents among other pods. That is a one-sentence pitch, but this will explain it much more extensively. In one potential scenario, Kentucky would face Florida, Missouri and Tennessee every year, then rotate to the other schools. The teams with the two highest winning percentages would face off each year in Atlanta.
Mark Stoops has benefitted from playing in a relatively weak SEC East. The inevitable elimination of conference divisions will not make the Wildcats’ schedule any easier. Thanks to Stoops, the program has never been more prepared to play in a 16-team Southeastern Conference.
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