College football schedule: How the Power Five can streamline conference slates, form equity without divisions

The newest round of realignment will challenge how conferences create schedules in the near future

By Barrett Sallee

Jun 2, 2022 at 10:55 am ET • 4 min read

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The latest round of Power Five realignment created an interesting challenge for conference offices, some of which could totally revamp their approach to scheduling. Oklahoma and Texas' move to the SEC (by no later than 2025) started the shuffling, which resulted with the 10-team Big 12 adding four schools to compensate for the departures of the Sooners and Longhorns.

Luckily, the NCAA is doing something to help these conferences by lifting restrictions on league title games, clearing the way for them to decide on their own how to determine a champion. This will allow conferences to alter their formats and hold championship games without round-robin scheduling or divisional splits. That has sparked plenty of debate over what college football regular-season schedules will look like moving forward.

There's no reason to out-think the room. We need to streamline college football and make all five Power Five conferences play similar schedules. Eight-game conference slates will allow teams to play, at worst, every other season. Yes, some rivalries will disappear on an annual basis, but the eight-game model will also allow for more intriguing nonconference games -- many of which are already on the books. It will also give teams opportunities to play lower-level opponents that depend on those paychecks to fund their entire athletic departments.

With the 2022 season on the horizon and divisions still in place for the fall, we instead look toward 2023 and beyond -- when many conferences plan on adding new members. Here's a snapshot at how those conference schedules should look with permanent rivals listed below. The goal here is to:

Eliminate all divisions without using pods
Have each conference plays eight league games
Ensure teams play every conference opponent at least once within two or three seasons, depending on structure

ACC

The ACC has multiple intra-state rivalries, as well as the affiliation with Notre Dame, which will make all of these schedules fairly loaded with Power Five foes. The conference discussed a 3-5-5 model at its spring meetings, with three permanent rivals and five rotating games per season. Here are the three permanent rivalries that could work in that format:

Boston College: Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Virginia Tech
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech and Syracuse
Duke: NC State, North Carolina and Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Miami and Virginia
Georgia Tech: Boston College, Clemson and Pittsburgh
Louisville: North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Virginia
Miami: Florida State, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest
NC State: Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest
North Carolina: Duke, Louisville and NC State
Pittsburgh: Georgia Tech, Louisville and Syracuse
Syracuse: Boston College, Clemson and Pittsburgh
Virginia: Florida State, Louisville and Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Boston College, Miami and Virginia
Wake Forest: Duke, Miami and NC State

Big 12

The additions of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF will make the Big 12 an interesting conference, but not much has to change from a scheduling standpoint. Currently a 10-team league, the Big 12 prides itself on having a round-robin schedule matrix. That will be impossible in the post-realignment era, but each member institution will cycle through the entire conference in three years in a 2-6 model with a pair of permanent opponents and six rotating opponents. Here are the permanent rivals for that format:

Baylor: TCU and Texas Tech
BYU: Iowa State and Kansas State
Cincinnati: Iowa State and West Virginia
Iowa State: BYU and Cincinnati
Houston: TCU and UCF
Kansas: Kansas State and West Virginia
Kansas State: BYU and Kansas
Oklahoma State: Texas Tech and UCF
TCU: Baylor and Houston
Texas Tech: Baylor and Oklahoma State
UCF: Houston and Oklahoma State
West Virginia: Cincinnati and Kansas

Big Ten

Like the ACC, we are going to make this as simple as possible. The 14-team league will play a 3-5-5 schedule with three permanent opponents and five rotators. The Big Ten has approximately 149 rivalries (sarcasm intended), so some will have to be played every other year. That's the price you pay in this new era. Here are each Big Ten team's permanent opponents:

Illinois: Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue
Indiana: Michigan State, Purdue and Rutgers
Iowa: Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin
Maryland: Northwestern, Penn State and Rutgers
Michigan: Michigan State, Northwestern and Ohio State
Michigan State: Indiana, Michigan and Rutgers
Minnesota: Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin
Nebraska: Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin
Northwestern: Illinois, Maryland and Michigan
Ohio State: Illinois, Michigan and Penn State
Penn State: Maryland, Ohio State and Purdue
Purdue: Illinois, Indiana and Penn State
Rutgers: Indiana, Maryland and Michigan State
Wisconsin: Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska

Pac-12

The Pac-12 membership won't look different in the new-look Power Five, so the biggest rivalries are easy to maintain in a 2-6 model. As is the case with the Big 12, teams will get through the entire conference every three years. That will provide the college football world a good glimpse on the true landscape of the conference.

Arizona: Arizona State and Utah
Arizona State: Arizona and USC
California: Stanford and UCLA
Colorado: Stanford and Utah
Oregon: Oregon State and Washington
Oregon State: Oregon and Washington State
Stanford: California and Colorado
UCLA: California and USC
USC: Arizona State and UCLA
Utah: Arizona and Colorado
Washington: Oregon and Washington State
Washington State: Oregon State and Washington

SEC

The SEC has narrowed its possibilities down to a 1-7 model and a 3-6 model with the goal of rotating through the entire conference every two seasons. We are going to keep the eight-game schedule -- again, for continuity's sake -- and give each team one permanent opponent with seven rotating games. Yes, some really big rivalries won't be played on an annual basis, but that was inevitable with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas. Those two will remain rivals with Texas A&M playing Texas every other season.