As a free, unsolicited consulting service to the sport of college football, this is my solution to the “conference realignment” conundrum. Conferences are abolished in favor of a coast-to-coast 66-team league (the 2012-2021 64-team P5, including Notre Dame, plus BYU) where every team plays who they are supposed to play according to history, geography, and tradition.

GOALS:

#1 - To preserve the regional matchups. This is a no-brainer. While there are no divisions or pods per se, there are numerous de-facto round-robins of varying size, such as the four PNW teams, who will all play each other. This somewhat ensures that, nationwide, only a small number of teams has the potential to emerge undefeated over the course of the season. Some pairs of teams, such as Mississippi and Mississippi State, play the exact 7 league opponents, plus each other.

#2 - To preserve the prestigious cross-country games, such as Notre Dame vs USC. Notre Dame was the most difficult to accommodate, but I made it work. The goal for every team was to preserve their MOST important opponents, and to fill out their remaining schedule with their most common-sense opponents, based on either proximity or long-standing ties. Some new and potentially awkward matchups may have been needed to help fill in the gaps after the non-negotiable matchups were made assured, but these I tried to keep to a minimum. Kentucky, for instance, now plays Duke. And K-State’s Rivalry Week opponent is TCU. Feedback on this is welcome.

#3 - To accommodate the odd, geographically “in-between” teams with a mixed schedule. For example, Colorado plays the two teams from Arizona as well as the two teams from Kansas. I believe this is what makes my system better than the typical “pod” system. Some teams just need to be their own thing.

#4 - To “league-ify” the out-of-conference, in-state rivalries, such as Iowa vs Iowa State.