For many people, fall means football—especially for college students, alumni, and diehard fans. Whether it’s a normal all-star season or a modified schedule due to a global pandemic, the community will show up by any means necessary. But did you know there are six major college athletic conferences that allow you to get your football fix every year? You may be asking how exactly athletic conferences are determined, and just who will be playing? Let’s take a look at some of the most popular regional athletic conferences and what schools make the cut for each one.
The most popular regional athletic conferences
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Big Ten, the Big 12, Pac-12, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and the Ivy League are among the most popular and well-known regional athletic conferences. Minus the Ivy League, these conferences are known as the “Power Five,” the primary partners in the College Football Playoff tournament. There are many other conferences, leagues, and associations across the NCAA, NCCAA, NAIA, and beyond, but we’re focusing on these big six. Additionally, even though we’re focusing on college football, these conferences cover the majority of higher ed sports, including basketball, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, and more.
How athletic conferences are organized
Colleges in the ACC mostly run all along the East Coast, from Boston College in Massachusetts to the University of Miami in South Florida but have more recently opened up to schools from other regions. The Big Ten is the oldest conference of the six and consists mainly of large land-grant colleges from the upper Midwest. The Big 12 includes colleges in the Great Plains states. Pac-12 used to be made up of colleges from the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain region out West, until 2024 when all but two schools left the conference to become members of other conferences. The SEC is made up of large colleges in the states that were formerly a part of the confederacy and is said to be the most competitive conference in the country, as a team from indicated by their many national championship titles. And the Ivy League athletic conference is just as it sounds: it consists of the Ivy League institutions, which are among the most selective colleges and universities in the nation.
Related: Great Reasons for Student-Athletes to Consider NAIA Colleges
Atlantic Coast Conference
The ACC is made up of 18 schools:
- Boston College
- Clemson University
- Duke University
- Florida State University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- North Carolina State University
- Southern Methodist University
- Stanford University
- Syracuse University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Louisville
- University of Miami
- University of North Carolina
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Virginia
- Virginia Tech
- Wake Forest University
Big Ten
Interestingly, the Big Ten, which originally started as a 10-school conference, now consists of 18 schools:
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Michigan State University
- Northwestern University
- The Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Purdue University
- Rutgers University–New Brunswick
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Iowa
- University of Maryland, College Park
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
- University of Nebraska
- University of Oregon
- University of Southern California
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin
Big 12
Following suit with more schools than the name implies, the Big 12 consists of 16 schools:
- Arizona State University
- Baylor University
- Brigham Young University
- Iowa State University
- Kansas State University
- Oklahoma State University
- Texas Christian University
- Texas Tech University
- University of Arizona
- University of Central Florida
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Houston
- University of Kansas
- University of Utah
- West Virginia University
Pac-12
The last remaining schools in the Pac-12 are:
Southeastern Conference
The SEC is made up of 16 schools:
- Auburn University
- Louisiana State University
- Mississippi State University
- Texas A&M University
- University of Alabama
- University of Arkansas
- University of Florida
- University of Georgia
- University of Kentucky
- University of Mississippi
- University of Missouri
- University of Oklahoma
- University of South Carolina
- University of Tennessee
- University of Texas at Austin
- Vanderbilt University
Ivy League
Finally, the Ivy League consists of the eight prestigious Ivies:
- Brown University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- Harvard University
- Princeton University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Yale University
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Consequences of the pandemic and the world of higher ed
In light of the pandemic and the proceeding state of the US economy, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC have had some major shake-ups in the way they not only conduct their sports seasons but also the conference memberships themselves. Many conferences have seen an uptick in school membership in the past few years—clearly at the expense of the Pac-12, which has lost all but two of its college members. And these changes are ramping up the competition for college athletes and teams in most sports. According to CBS Sports, athletes and programs are facing new obstacles like travel schedules accounting for multiple time zones and the obvious decreased likelihood of reaching conference finals with increased competition. College sports, particularly football and basketball, will be bigger than ever in the coming years with these major conference realignments.
Related: List: Colleges and Universities With the Best Teams and Sports Fans
The importance of college sports
Sports are a big part of US higher education culture, and colleges are working hard to get their athletic programs where they feel they need to be competitively. Football, in general, is a big part of our country’s culture, as it expresses our national identity and is in line with many of our values: working hard, getting back up when knocked down, and overcoming adversity. It’s what we do through national tragedies, it’s what we did during the pandemic, and it’s what we and colleges will continue to do in this new landscape of higher education.
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