With the North Dakota State Bison joining the Mountain West Conference a little over a week ago, it's a good time to reflect on the recent conference realignment moves that rocked the college sports world.
As CBS Sports Brandon Marcello notes, there have been absurd conference switches in recent years -- most notably, the Big Ten expanding to the West Coast from the Midwest and East Coast with four former Pac-12 schools, the ACC doing the same with two, the MAC adding the Sacramento State Hornets, and the MWC adding the just-west-of-Chicago-based Northern Illinois Huskies.
Marcello didn't label North Dakota State joining the Mountain West as such. The SEC's recent additions of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners were conspicuous by their absence.
"Many realignment moves in the modern era are driven by television markets and desperation rather than geography," Marcello prefaced before saying, "Sacramento State announced this week it will join the MAC, placing its nearest conference opponent 2,177 miles away at Western Michigan. The ACC stretched to the Pacific with the additions of Cal and Stanford in 2024. The Big Ten, once anchored in the upper Midwest, expanded to the West Coast by adding Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington. Even the Mountain West, scrambling to replace five departing members, crossed the Mississippi River to add Northern Illinois as a football-only member.
"North Dakota State seems to fit naturally within the Mountain West's footprint and competitive profile."
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Oklahoma and Texas joined an SEC that was already not based in the South
Truth be told, Texas is not the "Southeast." Certainly, Oklahoma is even further from that label. Texas and Oklahoma have different landscapes from the Mid- and Deep South. Those states are technically the South, though. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, at least.
Missouri is officially considered in the Midwest. Once the Tigers joined the SEC, the door was naturally open for OU and UT. Let's be real, if the Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines, and/or Notre Dame Fighting Irish ever wanted to join the conference, they'd be SEC shoo-ins. Greg Sankey is not above that level of College Football coup.
Before that happens, though, expect the North Carolina market, and possibly Virginia, to figure out "It Just Means More" first.