College Football Relegation - 2013

This is the eighth entry in my series on relegation in college football (I recommend reading the preceding posts first).

We start the year with some more conference realignment moves.

In order to keep up the numbers, The Big East (henceforth known as the American Athletic Conference, no longer to retain its status as a "Power" conference starting next season) courts Memphis and Temple to join for its final season.

Meanwhile, Louisville, UConn and Cincinnati reach agreement to join the ACC for the 2014 season...although all 3 would have been in play for the Big 12 as well. Who ever would have though these three schools would have so many suitors?

As for the actual play on the field, the ACC stands out for FSU winning the championship, and the bottom of the conference being a remarkable shit show, as SMU, FIU, Ohio, Troy and UCF bring up the rear of the conference in a relegation battle that could only be described as very ‘ACC Coastal’.

In the end, FIU loses. They finished as statistically the worst team in all of college football.

The ACC, ladies and gentlemen!

This was the season when Miami started off 7-0 and then fell apart. Or as I know it, "when I began to realize Al Golden was not worth a contract extension and learned to love the bomb." 

I think Miami would have been roughly as good as Nebraska that season, so they probably would have finished with something like a 9-3 or 8-4 record, depending on whether they were in the Legends or Leaders division.

(Those were actual division names. No one does pomposity like the Big 10.)

Anyway, here are the relegations:

ACC - FIU

AAC (fka Big East) - Temple (San Diego State, Memphis and Arkansas State are following them out the door with no conference to join)

Big 10 - Rutgers

Big 12 - Tulsa

PAC 12 - Cal

SEC - Arkansas

Arkansas and Cal are brand name programs, while Rutgers is in the biggest TV market. Meanwhile, Tulsa ends an 8 year run among the big boys. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Promotions:

Conference USA - Washington State

MAC- Bowling Green

Mountain West- Texas Tech

Sun Belt- Tennessee

At-large - Marshall (also in the mix: Fresno State, East Carolina, Minnesota)

Some big names here, as well as Marshall, with Rakeem Cato at quarterback.

In the expansion draft, a major shakeup occurs: the ACC gets first dibs! They don't waste it, nabbing Tennessee to become a bedrock program for a league desperately in need of one.

(Well, in theory. I would hope in this scenario Tennessee would hire someone more inspiring than Butch Jones, aka SEC Golden.)

This double whammy for the SEC turns out ok, as they scoop up Texas Tech with the next selection, but it is pretty obvious that anyone would prefer the Vols. The PAC 12 ends up with Washington State, the Big 10 gets Bowling Green and the Big 12 ends up with Marshall.