Auburn football: Imagining “Power Three” super conferences

The ACC and Big Ten take what’s left

This would be another weakened conference picking up the pieces after the SEC hypothetically takes the top two programs from the ACC and Big Ten just as they did to the Big 12. The difference here is that neither conference would be operating near full strength, while the Pac-12 will remain intact for their merger with the best of the rest of the Big 12.

What could help is the integration of Notre Dame. They flirted with the ACC in 2020 already and are a member in basketball, so a full-time move might be needed to spruce up the northeast’s Power Three representative conference.

Obviously, Kansas and Texas Tech would be there for the taking too. Yes, this could potentially mean silly matchups like the Syracuse Orange going to Lubbock, Texas. Have we not gone over we are far past that yet?

That gives us a conference that shapes out as such:

Notre Dame, Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, Boston College, Pitt, Miami, Wake Forest, Penn State, Texas Tech, Kansas, Michigan State, Maryland, Purdue, Northwestern, Rutgers, Indiana, and Illinois.

That would make 23 teams, opening up an extra spot for a Group of Five school to occupy. Cincinnati and UCF play for the final spot. Who says no?

The SEC would have the least amount of teams in the conference, making their games just mean more.

What a future we are headed toward no matter how it all shakes out.