Conference realignment has changed the college football landscape.
There is no denying that.
Soon, as in the fall of 2024, Texas and Oklahoma will be playing in the SEC, while USC and UCLA will battle in the Big Ten. This coming fall, meanwhile, BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston will make their Big 12 debuts, after years spent in the American Athletic Conference or as an independent.
Before those moves, though, there were many, many more.
Colorado once played in the Big 12, along with Texas A&M, Missouri and Nebraska. Maryland once was an ACC staple, while Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers used to stand atop the Big East, but only after Miami and Virginia Tech left the conference for the ACC. Utah, BYU and TCU all once played in the Mountain West and, well, this could go on and on and on.
Conference realignment has been a staple of college athletics for decades, but it can sometimes leave people wanting.
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel is one of those.
In a recent mailbag, Mandel was asked what his dream realignment scenarios are, limited to five teams, and most of what Mandel wished for hearkened to the past. Old rivalries renewed, dimming rivalries reinvigorated.
BYU made the cut. Mandel wants the Cougars in the Pac-12.
He writes: “BYU should be in the Pac-12. I know all the reasons it has never happened, but most of the Pac-12 schools already regularly play the Cougars. Geographically, it makes more sense than being in a conference with several Eastern time zone teams. And also: Utah and BYU should be in the same league. They might not agree with that, but they should.”
The rivalry between BYU and Utah is regularly counted as one of the best in college football, at least nationally.
Athlon Sports ranked the tilt between the Cougars and Utes the 14th best in the sport, fourth-highest among rivalries that featured at least one team based in the West, behind only USC-Notre Dame, Cal-Stanford and Oregon-Oregon State.
That ranking was fairly average in regard to the general consensus, with Pro Football Network slotting the game in at No. 12 in its rankings, while Bleacher Report had BYU-Utah at No. 17.
ESPN didn’t include BYU vs. Utah in its exhaustive look at what makes for the best college football rivalries, but as far as Mandel is concerned, BYU and Utah should be playing regularly, in the same conference no less.
Other teams Mandel wishes would end up in a different conference include:
- Clemson to the SEC.
- Maryland back to the ACC, reuniting with former rivals (particularly in basketball) UNC, Duke and Virginia.
- Louisville to the Big 12, reuniting with former rivals Cincinnati and West Virginia.
- Notre Dame to the Big Ten.
BYU is soon to begin its tenure in the Big 12, with the Cougars’ first contest against a conference foe coming on Sept. 23 against Kansas.
BYU and Utah are slated to renew their rivalry — which was put on hold to allow the Utes to conduct a home-and-home series with the Florida Gators — next season, on Sept. 7, 2024, per FBSchedules.