Another seismic round of conference realignment shook the college football landscape Thursday as USC and UCLA announced their move to the Big Ten.
As the two schools prepare to join the Big Ten for the 2024 season after the league’s presidents and chancellors voted to accept them per Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit declared that this would not be the last extensive change to the college football landscape.
In fact, Herbstreit believes college football will eventually take a similar structure to the NFL with two divisions along teams from the ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12 looking to keep pace with the Big Ten and the SEC. A year ago, Oklahoma and Texas re-ignited the realignment conversation when the two programs decided to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
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Oklahoma and Texas, according to Herbstreit, served as the first domino of many more programs like USC and UCLA to further alter the landscape.
“I think that’s our future,” Herbstreit said on SportsCenter. “I haven’t spoken with anybody, but I think that’s where this thing, when the dust settles, that’s where we’re going to be. … About 50 to 55 teams, half of them in the Big Ten, half of them in the SEC. … Think AFC, NFC in the NFL. Saturdays, you’re going to have three divisions: West, Middle and East or South.”
With college sports already possessing a wide gap between Power 5 and non-Power 5 conferences, super conferences or future “divisions” among teams could further lead to the bigger programs getting richer.
“I think there’s going to be some very tough decisions because [it’s] going to keep out a lot of teams that want to be a part of this future and they’re not going to be invited,” Herbstreit said.
