So back in 2020 the folks at Sports Illustrated wrote an article re-imagining what the FBS might look like if it moved away from the BCS and power conferences to something that better resembled the professional sports leagues.
Not only did they envision a playoff system similar to what we had now, but also eight conferences that each included some of the top programs in the country while remaining largely regional in nature.
Here's more info on that:
What they came up with was this (I added the current conference names at the top):
I've taken the spirit of the above and made some tweaks to create an interpretation of that using the 134 teams currently in CFB.
The result is 8 conferences with 13 or 14 teams each, no independents or divisions. Each conference plays 8 conference games a season with a conference championship based on conference record, at a neutral stadium that matches geographically to the conference.
How I set the conferences up can be found in this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
If you'd like to create your own custom conferences and play around with which teams are relocated to which conference, the spreadsheet above can be used as a kind of DIY planner.
Go to file and "Save a copy" so you can edit / share your own version of the spreadsheet. You can change the conference of a team by using that columns drop down. Use the filters to sort. And watch the live tally to see how many teams you've dedicated to each conference.
TL;DR - Created a custom conference alignment based on the legwork of SI. You can use my spreadsheet to create it yourself, or plan your own.
Not only did they envision a playoff system similar to what we had now, but also eight conferences that each included some of the top programs in the country while remaining largely regional in nature.
Here's more info on that:
What they came up with was this (I added the current conference names at the top):
I've taken the spirit of the above and made some tweaks to create an interpretation of that using the 134 teams currently in CFB.
The result is 8 conferences with 13 or 14 teams each, no independents or divisions. Each conference plays 8 conference games a season with a conference championship based on conference record, at a neutral stadium that matches geographically to the conference.
How I set the conferences up can be found in this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
If you'd like to create your own custom conferences and play around with which teams are relocated to which conference, the spreadsheet above can be used as a kind of DIY planner.
Go to file and "Save a copy" so you can edit / share your own version of the spreadsheet. You can change the conference of a team by using that columns drop down. Use the filters to sort. And watch the live tally to see how many teams you've dedicated to each conference.
TL;DR - Created a custom conference alignment based on the legwork of SI. You can use my spreadsheet to create it yourself, or plan your own.