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SMU claim’s National Championships for the 19 seasons. Facing the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston, Rice, TCU, and Arkansas, the Mustangs held their own.

The alumni slush fund helped SMU compete in the highly competitive Southwest Conference.

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Stories of the largesse spent on recruiting alone have become infamous, including tales of Cadillacs and envelops full of cash regularly making their way to players and recruits. During the early 1980s, SMU had a very active alumni club deeply invested in the success of its football team. Southern Methodist University (SMU) offers an illustration of school ahead of its time in football spending but left behind in conference realignment. Ultimately, this caused in programs to become less competitive and less relevant in national polls, diminishing their chances to play for a national championship. Lesser revenue meant smaller budgets, impacting facilities, coaching salaries, and recruiting. This secured their status as a top-tier program.Ĭonferences without “blue blood” programs and their lucrative fan bases, attracted less television revenue.

Conference membership gave them access to guaranteed scheduling arrangements, fixed geographic recruiting territories, and collective media rights. Similarly, Florida State entered the ACC in 1991. Penn State, for example, joined the Big Ten in 1990. Although Notre Dame seized upon its unique brand to remain independence and secure its own contract, most other colleges opted to affiliate with a conference. With the NCAA out of the picture, conferences became collective negotiating units for media rights. Similarly, multiple championships during the 1980s stabilized the Miami Hurricanes football program and provided them entry into the Big East and later the ACC.Ĭonference membership gained salience during the 1980s following the deregulation of television contracts following Oklahoma v. For example, it took 31 and 47-game winning streaks during the late-1940s and 1950s for the University of Oklahoma to gain respect. Only remarkable performances, athletes, and sustained success could earn a university acceptance in the top tier. Typically these were schools from the South and Midwest (and a few from the West Coast).

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So-called “blue blood” programs have historically benefited in scheduling, recruiting, AP and UPI poll voting, and TV appearances. The two-tiered structure of college football has more or less existed throughout the entire history of the game.

To be sure, the Power Conference arrangement is not new. Moreover, they will no longer have access to strong schedules and playoff bids preferentially designed for Power Conference teams. Washington State and Oregon State, for example, the lone remaining members of the Pac 12 appear to be condemned to a lesser conference, which will impact their ability to earn media revenue, thus inhibiting the ability to compete with their former Power Conference peers. The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC survive as the kingmakers. With the dissolution of the Pac 12, the “Power 5 Conferences,” who once ruled college football, no longer exist. While the gravity of these changes may not be apparent to the average fan, they will have serious repercussions on the sport. The unspoken reality of the shifting landscape is that eventually some traditional powers will be on the outside looking in. Instability has lingered, inspiring preemptive action by savvy universities and desperation by others. Conference realignment has remained a subplot within the world of college football since Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12 over a decade ago. During the last few months conference realignment has dramatically reshaped the landscape, shifting traditional powers, disrupting rivalries, and eschewing geographic logic in the quest for media dollars and relevance. Next year college football - and all of major college sports - will look radically different.

Conference realignment blog