College Football Top Division Conference Top-to-Bottom Power Rankings

With the 2011 College Football Season ready to start - the 100th season of the modern college football era - conference realignment seems to be the topic of the day. Heading into this season, the Nebraska Cornhuskers switch from the Big 12 Conference to the Big 10. Colorado leaves the Big 12 and Utah leaves the Mountain West Conference to join the PAC 10, which is now named the PAC 12. BYU also leaves the Mountain West Conference to go independent, just as Boise State joins the MWC. Already, TCU is set to join the Big East next season (leaving the MWC).

What is the result of all of these changes? Which conferences compare to the others better top-to-bottom than they did before this year's changes and which conferences have lost ground? Not surprisingly, our analysis shows that the Big 10, with its acquisition of Nebraska is the biggest winner and the WAC and Big 12 are the biggest losers.

Entering the 2011 season, here is how the conferences rank after analyzing and comparing the strength of their member programs top-to-bottom:

1. SEC
2. Big Ten
3. PAC 12
4. ACC
5. Big 12
6. Big East
7. MWC
8. CUSA
9. WAC
10. MAC
11. Sun Belt

If the programs mentioned above had remained in their same conferences instead of moving, the rankings would have been:

1. SEC
2. PAC 12 (which would have remained the PAC 10)
3. Big 12
4. Big Ten
5. ACC
6. Big East
7. MWC
8. CUSA
9. WAC
10. MAC
11. Sun Belt

In terms of the change in their ratings due to the conference realignment, six conferences improved, while five saw a decrease in their rating. (Remember that these ratings are in part a result of a comparison to other conferences, so a conference may have actually improved, but because of the nature of that improvement - not improving in areas where the conference is weakest, for example - and due to improvements in other conferences, their resulting rating might actually have been lower. Likewise, making no changes can still result in a ratings increase or decrease because of changes in other conferences.)

The conferences who saw improvement in their ratings in order from the largest improvement to the smallest are:

1. Big Ten
2. MWC
3. CUSA
4. Big East
5. MAC
6. Sun Belt

The conferences whose ratings decreased because of realignment from the largest decrease to smallest are:

1. WAC
2. Big 12
3. PAC 12
4. ACC
5. SEC

With rumors of additional changes on the horizon - Texas A&M and perhaps one other program possibly joining the SEC, replacement programs being invited to the Big 12, etc. - we will keep our eye on these potential changes and post an analysis of how these changes affect conference ratings as these things develop further.