When it comes to college football realignment, there are a lot of things that don’t make sense.
The breakup of the Pac-12 conference, with Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten, precipitated some movement within college football conferences that was more about money than geography.
SMU, a team from Texas, is part of the ACC. So are two teams from California (Cal, Stanford).
The Big 12 also has teams like UCF, West Virginia and Cincinnati.
The inclusion of those teams in the Big 12 makes more sense, but in a question-and-answer session with Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, a fan proposed a trade between the two college football conferences that couldn’t be more perfect.
In this purely hypothetical trade between conferences, the ACC would send West Virginia, Cincinnati and UCF to the ACC in exchange for Stanford, Cal and SMU joining the Big 12.
When you think about it, it makes so much sense — too much sense to actually happen.
For starters, West Virginia has natural rivals in the ACC, starting with Pittsburgh (Backyard Brawl). The Mountaineers also have a long history with Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech, plus a West Virginia-Virginia rivalry would be fun to cultivate.
UCF makes more sense in the ACC than the Big 12, with Miami and Florida State of the ACC already in the same state. Cincinnati is sort of the outlier, but geographically, it still fits. The Bearcats feel like an outsider in the Big 12.
SMU, however, would feel right at home. It would reunite the Mustangs with old Southwest Conference rivals TCU, Texas Tech, Houston and Baylor.
That’d be a popular move. Stanford and Cal would also join former conference rivals Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado in the Big 12.
What makes it even better is that nobody would have to travel from one coast to the other for a conference game.
College football conferences are completely out of whack, but if this trade were implemented, things would at least make more sense.
That’s how you know it will never happen.
