Previewing repercussions of conference realignment on display during Week 7

College football is going to look a lot different in 2024 thanks to conference realignment, and in some ways that’s a good thing. One example is the multiple new matchups we will see between league opponents, some of whom have never played each other before.

Max Olson of The Athletic joined the Andy Staples On3 podcast recently where he pointed to Week 7 as being the perfect example of that. The schedule is jam packed with national title contenders facing each other, and many matchups are a direct result of conference realignment.

“We’ve got Ohio State and Oregon playing on Oct. 12 for Big Ten dominance,” Olson said. “We’ve got the first SEC Red River between Texas and Oklahoma. We’ve got Ole Miss-LSU. We’ve got Penn State-USC. We’ve got Kansas State-Colorado. I think there are going to be a few Saturdays this season where you’re like ‘I don’t know how to order the conversation around these games.’ There are so many games and so many matchups that we just have never seen before.

“Saturday night and Sunday morning talking about what we just watched, I think there are going to be a couple of mind-blowing nights this fall because realignment is going to give us some matchups that we have not seen. When you add the Playoff component too, it’s going to be a lot of wrap our heads around in a good way.”

Due to the top-heavy nature of both the Big Ten and SEC, it’s possible that we might even see some teams play each other two or even three times. In fact, nine of the top 10 teams in national title odds for next season according to FanDuel are from those conferences.

Olson pointed to Texas and Georgia as well as Oregon and Ohio State as some teams who play each other in the regular season. He believes they could meet again not only in the conference championship, but also the College Football Playoff.

“You take Oregon and Ohio State and these are two teams that have gone all in on trying to win the national championship,” he said. “On paper that’s gonna be a fascinating matchup. Is it possible that we are going to see them play three times this year? Texas and Georgia is the same thing. I think the chess match of some of those if those are some of the best teams in the country is gonna be incredible.”

There’s also the possibility that we see rivals meet again in the playoffs. Whether that be Ohio State and Michigan or Oklahoma and Texas, fans could be treated to even more high stakes matchups.

We’ve already seen some of that happen in conference title games, but this level could be even greater. All in all, it’s shaping up to be an exciting season of college football thanks to conference realignment.

“We had it a few years ago where Texas finally got over on Oklahoma with Sam Ehlinger against Kyler Murray and then they meet again in the Big 12 title game, which had not happened before,” Olson said. “Then Kyler gets the win, gets the playoff berth and all that. We’re probably gonna get one of those where ‘we finally beat the rival. Oh no, we’ve gotta see them again in January.’ I think there’s a pretty good chance of that happening.