r/fcs • u/UALR-Trojans-Rule FCS • Feb 05 '26

Discussion Conference realignment. Who is next?

College realignment has slowed down a bit recently but during the next wave of conference expansions, who is leaving and who is joining.

13 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/somebodysbuddy Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Marching Band Feb 05 '26

Only scenario I see the Patriot expanding is the Big Split, with Army and Navy coming home and whatever ACC schools end up in the Big East needing a home, to solidify us as bottom of the middle tier. Though even then, I believe Army and Navy might prefer staying in the American for football only to stay in Texas, keeping us in the third tier.

5

u/Gooflaertes New Hampshire • Boston College Feb 05 '26

You are completely Fing delusional to think Army and Navy would ever downgrade to the PL/FCS football.

1

u/somebodysbuddy Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Marching Band Feb 05 '26

You're right, the academies would never play in the Patriot. Off topic, does anyone know who's currently winning Patriot basketball? Men's or women's, doesn't matter to me.

The B1G, the SEC, Notre Dame, and whatever valuable brands can escape the ACC when it collapses in the next five years, are all going to form their own subdivision, let's for simplicity's sake call it FAS. That still leaves the BCs of the world in current FBS, with the G6 and B12 rejects.

In this scenario, the leftover ACC teams aren't sticking together, since trips from Syracuse to Cal aren't happening on a conference payout without a Clemson or FSU. I have to assume Cuse and BC do everything in their power to get into the Big East, on the strength of private religiously founded schools in the northeast, and in the case of the Orange actually playing basketball sometimes. And do they drop football completely, try to form a football only conference with UConn, UMASS, UNH, Maine? Or do they follow the lead of Georgetown and Nova and play mediocre football in a conference of similarly academic schools? I may be biased, but I do think there is a right answer.

Those two schools don't have the brand power to push us to the new FBS, but with Army and Navy also not making FAS, they could be the push to position the Patriot as the new MAC, the bottom of current FBS. The academies can make a decision there to either stay in the American so they can recruit Texas, probably at a discounted rate because ESPN no longer cares about the FBS, or play local teams. Their choice determines where the Patriot falls, I'd imagine.

1

u/Gooflaertes New Hampshire • Boston College Feb 06 '26

Delusional ramblings.