College football season 2024 is well underway! Many love it, but for many others, it is still a great unknown, a question mark, a curiosity. They say that once you land on it, there’s no turning back! Some even dare to say that they enjoy it more than the NFL itself. What do you know about American soccer? In this article, we explain everything you need to know for this season. Let’s go!
NCAA Football Division I-A Conferences
So, to begin with, we have the Division I-A or Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). It’s where the best college programs, the best football players, and the future stars of the NFL compete. It’s also where many of those who are now influencing the NFL spreads actually started. That gets a lot of us to sit up and pay attention – but what’s what here?
First up, we’ve got the Power Five Conferences – with the most important being the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Plunging in deeper, there’s the Group of Five. Less critical but by no means ignored, we’ve got the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW), and Sun Belt Conference (Sun Belt). Wow, that’s a lot. And aside from the ten conferences, there are seven independent teams: Army, BYU, Liberty, New Mexico State, Notre Dame, UMass, and now also UConn.
However, a small issue did emerge this summer. Texas and Oklahoma, teams in the Big 12, have spoken out, calling for a realignment of the conferences. They feel that they are losing a level in their own conference and are requesting to enter the powerful SEC, where universities such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and LSU are battling.
The college football calendar
Let’s start by getting the schedule straight. The NCAA football regular season runs from the end of August until the beginning of December. After a week or two of rest, the Bowl schedule begins, which we will explain later.
For the regular season, teams usually play about 12 games, with eight or nine against conference opponents. After those matches, there is a weekend full of games where the conference titles are at stake, between the top two teams in each conference, or between the top two teams in each division if the conference is divided into subdivisions. Thus, we have the ten Division I-A conference champions at the end of the regular season. Only Hawaii teams can play 13 games – one more per waiver to defray travel expenses.
Bowls schedule
After the regular season break come the Bowl Games, played between December and January, which generate millions of dollars. As of today, there are more than 40 Bowls, i.e. more than 40 postseason games between the best teams of the year. Participants must have a winning record to participate in one of them, although with the large number of Bowls, teams with a record of 5-7 or better are also being allowed to enter. Winners receive great rewards and recognition, as well as distinctive trophies.
Several Bowls are already pre-established as teams are constantly pitting against each other from two specific conferences. Some decided the national champion until 2015 – the then Bowl Championship Series. Today, the New Year’s Six stands out above the rest, the six most important of the oldest existing ones: Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. These automatically offer berths to the champions of the Power Five conferences and the highest-ranked of the Group of Five. Conferences that appear among these NY6 bowls receive millions of dollars.
The rankings of the top 25 universities
The top universities will remain in the rankings as long as they do not fail against their conference rivals. But a slip-up will promptly penalize them and cause a sharp drop in the rankings, which in turn will make the team that caused the upset climb up the rankings. What is most important for the experts who make these rankings are the non-conference games and the duels with important programs from other conferences. There is also a computer ranking that uses mathematical formulas based on duels between teams within the ranking and according to their position in it.
For most universities, appearing one week in the Top 25 is already a success. That is why universities such as the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners are asking to change conferences since the Big 12 is down. For example, this year, we will have an Alabama vs. Miami or a Clemson vs. Georgia among the best non-conference games.
The members of the selection committee are directors of the Power Five conferences, former coaches, players, and athletic directors. These wise men, in addition to making the final Top 25 of the NCAA season, also assign the teams for the NY6 Bowls. As we have already said, it is somewhat subjective. However, it is rare that the universities with the best records and from the best conferences are not in the CFP.