🏈 Pat Forde — Realignment 101: Getting to know the new landscape of college sports

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Welcome to July. While you’re enjoying all the trappings of American summertime – the pool, the grill, the incendiary devices passed off as patriotic props – college sports is realigning itself some more.

July 1 is when most of the latest conference shuffling becomes official. For example, the Atlantic Coast Conference officially adds Syracuse, Pittsburgh and all of Notre Dame except the part that matters most – football. The new Big East opens for business, if only just barely. And the American Athletic Conference staggers into the new frontier.


You’re forgiven if you’ve lost track of all the announced changes, especially as it trickled down from the big moves by big leagues in recent years to the mid-major and low-major conferences. The new geography will take some getting used to.


In an effort to help, here's a handy realignment reference manual, complete with winners and losers:

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Conference realignment was in full swing last year, and today is the day when those moves became official for the 2013 football season.
Let’s take a look at each conference and which teams have joined or moved on to greener pastures.
ACC

Incoming: Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Outgoing: None
Future moves (2014): Louisville (Incoming), Maryland (Outgoing)
Pittsburgh and Syracuse both join the ACC today from the Big East, which as of today is known as the American Athletic Conference. Pitt was placed in the Coastal Division of the ACC while Syracuse was placed in the Atlantic. Here are the updated ACC divisions:
Atlantic: Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, NC State, Syracuse, Wake Forest
Coastal: Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech

American Athletic Conference

Incoming: Houston, Memphis, SMU, UCF
Outgoing: Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Future moves (2014): East Carolina (Incoming), Tulane (Incoming), Tulsa (Incoming), Louisville (Outgoing), Rutgers (Outgoing)
Future Moves (2015): Navy (Incoming)
As we mentioned, the old Big East is now known as the American Athletic Conference. They prefer to use “The American” as their brand name rather than the abbreviation AAC.
Pittsburgh and Syracuse have left what was the Big East for the ACC. Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF all join The American from Conference USA. Here are the ten American Athletic Conference teams for the 2013 season:
Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU, Temple, UCF, USF

Big 12

Incoming: None
Outgoing: None
Future moves: None
The Big 12 neither adds or loses members for the 2013 season. The conference appears to be content at ten members for the time being.

Big Ten

Incoming: None
Outgoing: None
Future moves (2014): Maryland (Incoming), Rutgers (Incoming)
The Big Ten neither adds or loses members for the 2013 season. In 2014, they will add Maryland and Rutgers. At that time, they will realign into new East-West divisions.

Conference USA

Incoming: Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, UTSA
Outgoing: Houston, Memphis, SMU, UCF
Future moves (2014): Old Dominion (Incoming), Western Kentucky (Incoming), East Carolina (Outgoing), Tulane (Outgoing), Tulsa (Outgoing)
Future moves (2015): Charlotte (Incoming)
Conference USA has the most changes in 2013 with four members leaving and six coming in. Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas move over from the Sun Belt while Louisiana Tech and UTSA leave behind the now defunct WAC. Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF each left for The American. Here are the updated C-USA divisions for 2013:
East: East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss, UAB
West: Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP, UTSA

FBS Independents

Incoming: Idaho, New Mexico State
Outgoing: None
Future moves (2014): Idaho (Outgoing), New Mexico State (Outgoing)
Future moves (2015): Navy (Outgoing)
Although not technically a conference, two teams are now FBS Independents. Idaho and New Mexico State were the only two WAC teams that couldn’t find a conference to join in 2013. They will each be Independent for only one season before joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014.

Mid-American Conference (MAC)

Incoming: None
Outgoing: None
Future moves: None
The MAC neither adds or loses members for the 2013 season. They currently have 13 members and appear to be content with that number.

Mountain West Conference (MWC)

Incoming: San Jose State, Utah State
Outgoing: None
Future moves: None
The Mountain West adds San Jose State and Utah State and was able to retain Boise State and San Diego State. Those two were headed for the Big East but later opted to stay with the MWC. Listed below is the new alignment for the Mountain West Conference, which will hold its first championship game on Dec. 7:
Mountain: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State, Wyoming
West: Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV

Pac-12

Incoming: None
Outgoing: None
Future moves: None
The Pac-12 neither adds or loses members for the 2013 season.

SEC

Incoming: None
Outgoing: None
Future moves: None
The SEC neither adds or loses members for the 2013 season.

Sun Belt Conference (SBC)

Incoming: Georgia State, Texas State
Outgoing: Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, North Texas
Future moves (2014): Appalachian State (Incoming), Georgia Southern (Incoming), Idaho (Incoming), New Mexico State (Incoming), Western Kentucky (Outgoing)
The Sun Belt is the only conference to add less members (2) than they lost (4) for the 2013 season. Georgia State is now a full member of the SBC after their transition from the FCS. Texas State joins the conference from the WAC, which no longer sponsors football.
With only eight members in 2013, each SBC schools plays a five-game non-conference football schedule. Here are the eight Sun Belt members for 2013:
Arkansas State, Georgia State, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy, UL Lafayette, ULM, Western Kentucky

Western Athletic Conference (WAC)

Incoming: None
Outgoing: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas State, Utah State, UTSA
Future moves: None
The WAC no longer sponsors football. R.I.P.