When people today think about dominant football and powerhouse traditions, recent memory leads us to the SEC, the Southeastern Conference. With the last five national champions coming from the SEC, storied traditions like Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, and recent success from Arkansas, LSU, Florida, South Carolina and Auburn, it’s hard not to think of the SEC. But Arkansas fans will remember when the SEC was just another conference.
The way the SEC is viewed right now is eerily similar to what the Southwest Conference was back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. With big-time programs such as Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), Texas Tech, Arkansas, TCU, and SMU, the SWC was the conference everyone was talking about.
The Oklahoma schools bolted for the Missouri Valley Conference before any of us were born, but the conference dissolved in 1996. Arkansas left in 1991 when they and South Carolina joined the SEC during a major conference realignment.
In between the headlines of a No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup between LSU and Alabama, there are more rumors of West Virginia bolting the Big East for the Big 12. We again find ourselves in conference realignment mode. The Big 10, Big 12, Big East, PAC-12, ACC and SEC all either have had or will have major changes coming. For those of you counting, that is all six BCS conferences.
A major part of getting into the BCS Bowl games is getting automatic bids for winning the teams’ BCS conference. Teams in BCS conferences are awarded more BCS points for playing in a tougher conference.
Several teams have had success from outside those conferences as well. We all remember Utah’s incredible win over Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide in 2009. Remember when Colt Brennan broke a gazillion records as he led The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to the Sugar Bowl against Georgia? What about TCU and their back-to-back BCS bowl appearances, beating Wisconsin last year in the Rose Bowl? And who could forget Boise State’s Statue of Liberty for the win against Oklahoma?
Now with conference realignment going on, with the exception of Hawaii which has pretty much fallen off the football map, these small schools with big success have either joined or are in rumor mills about joining BCS conferences. They won’t be BCS Busters anymore. No more real underdog story. No more scratching and crawling, hoping some team loses and drops in the rankings. No more “upsets.”
With these teams now being just like everyone else, what does that mean for the BCS? You know, that dreaded system everyone hates, but can’t seem to correct. Yeah, it will be around for a little while longer. Everyone is equal now in the eyes of the computers.
Maybe it will take some small school like Eastern Washington, copying Boise’s idea of “Smurf Turf” with their own red “Fire Fur” to rise and shake things up again. When it does, don’t panic. We’ll just see more conference realignment. This is just a trend that happens. Look forward to more Sunday night BCS unveilings. The BCS is here to stay.
