Sun Belt, MAC likely to keep divisions: Where do all Group of 5 conferences stand?

To anyone declaring the end of divisions in all college football conferences, let’s quote our friend Lee Corso.

“Not so fast, my friends.”

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Division I Council officially relaxed championship game rules, allowing conferences to determine their participants however they want. It opens the door for conferences to scrap divisions. Five minutes after the NCAA’s news, the Pac-12 announced it would do precisely that for the 2022 season, pitting the top two teams in the league against each other instead of division champions. The press release noted that the Pac-12 had put forth the proposal and every FBS conference unanimously supported it.

The ACC has openly talked about getting rid of divisions. The Big Ten is discussing various ideas. The soon-to-be 16-team SEC appears destined to as well. But that doesn’t mean every conference will get rid of divisions. In the Group of 5, strategies vary.

Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill told The Athletic on Wednesday that his newly expanded conference will likely stick with divisions, citing the appeal of regional rivalries. Multiple sources in the MAC told The Athletic that there has not been much discussion about scrapping divisions and that the conference will likely stay the way it is.

“At this point, we’re comfortable with the approach of being in divisions, then having the top team in each play for the championship,” Gill said. “We’ll keep evaluating if it makes sense to make changes, but we talked about it this week (at Sun Belt meetings), and folks feel pretty comfortable with that.”

What is the future of divisions in the Group of 5? Here’s where each conference stands.

Sun Belt

The Sun Belt was one of the last conferences to make realignment additions last year, but it was the first to actually acquire them. Marshall, Southern Miss, Old Dominion and James Madison have already joined for the 2022 season, after a bit of a legal fight, taking the conference from 10 teams to 14.

Southern Miss will play in the West division, while the other three additions will play in the East. Troy is moving from the East to the West. A major factor in the SBC’s expansion decisions was geography. New or rekindled rivalries like ODU-JMU, App State-Marshall and Southern Miss-South Alabama will now be divisional games. The East division in particular has several schools near each other. Eliminating divisions could remove some of those games, which were a point in favor of expansion.

“Some of the realignment decisions we made were to create regional rivalries,” Gill said. “Once you decide you’re going to schedule (those) in divisions, it makes some sense to make a path to the championship in divisions.”

Though the East division has been and could continue to be loaded compared to the West, Gill doesn’t foresee divisions playing a role in the SBC’s ability to reach a New Year’s Six game or an expanded playoff. At least not yet. App State, Louisiana and Coastal Carolina have all reached the Top 25 over the past two years.

“We don’t think it’s going to impact our access in that regard,” Gill said. “In some conferences, it could, and we understand that. But for us, we don’t know, as we analyze it right now, that it’s going to have an impact. If it’s not, then standard divisions make sense.”

American Athletic Conference

The future 14-team AAC is not expected to go back to divisions, commissioner Mike Aresco told The Athletic.

The AAC has already played without divisions for the past two years, as an 11-team conference since UConn departed in 2020. It required a waiver to do so, but that waiver is no longer needed. For the past two years, the top two teams have met in the championship game. But the conference is about to undergo a major facelift, losing Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to the Big 12 and adding Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA. (A agreement on a separation date with the departing schools has still not been agreed upon yet.)

The AAC has had only preliminary discussions and not yet made an official decision, but another league source confirmed there is not much support for divisions. A formal decision could come at conference meeting in two weeks.

“I would be surprised if we go back to divisional play, especially in view of the likely expansion of the CFP to 12 teams with the six top conference champions getting auto bids,” Aresco said. “We have been happy with matching our two top teams by conference winning percentage the past few years. We also have engaged a respected scheduling consultant and are evaluating various 14-team schedules.”

Mountain West

Commissioner Craig Thompson first mentioned the idea of getting rid of divisions last October, when Boise State, San Diego State, Air Force and Colorado State opted to stay in the Mountain West instead of joining the AAC.

“The worst thing that could happen to the Mountain West is a 7-5 division champ upsetting an 11-1 team from the other division,” Thompson said last year. “We’re looking at that. We’re looking at maybe going to nine conference games.”

On Friday, the Mountain West made the decision official, announcing that it will eliminate divisions and pair the top two teams in the overall conference standings in its championship game starting in 2023.

“Our membership has been working on concepts since last summer, as part of our strategic planning for the future of the Mountain West,” Thompson said in a news release. “A single-division approach provides maximum flexibility to adapt the conference schedule as the landscape continues to evolve, while also allowing member institutions to play each other more frequently.”

Unlike the Sun Belt and the MAC, which have a lot of schools near each other, the Mountain West is already an airplane league, with many teams needing to travel long distances to games. The 12 teams cover eight states, including Hawaii, and there aren’t as many regional rivalries, though games like Nevada-UNLV, Colorado State-Wyoming, Colorado State-Air Force and some California matchups could be protected.

MAC

Multiple sources in the MAC told The Athletic there has not been much in-depth discussion about getting rid of divisions, nor is there a desire to. The league has the smallest geographic footprint of any conference, with six schools in Ohio and three schools in Michigan. The East division includes five Ohio schools and Buffalo. The West has the three directional Michigan schools, Toledo (which is on the Michigan border), Ball State and Northern Illinois.

That makes for a lot of natural in-state rivalries and easy bus trips. Why mess with that? It’s very likely the conference keeps divisions.

Conference USA

C-USA lost three members with Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss off to the Sun Belt for this season, leaving it at 11 members for 2022. A league spokesperson told The Athletic there won’t be divisions as a result, and the top two teams will play for the conference title this year.

When the current realignment moves finish, C-USA is set to have nine football members, including the additions of Liberty, New Mexico State, Sam Houston and Jacksonville State. There’s no need for divisions at that point. The league may still add more schools, though that likely won’t happen until after the Division I Transformation Committee makes its determinations on a slew of issues this summer. Either way, C-USA divisions seem unlikely to return at this point, but a lot of moves must shake out first.

(Photo: Andrew Wever / USA Today)