Forde-Yard Dash: Grading Teams’ First Season in New Conferences

All four power-conference championships could be won by teams who joined their leagues through realignment this season.

Lanning and the Oregon Ducks made realignment look easy en route to a No. 1 ranking and an unbeaten record so far this season. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where winning the Patriot League just means more—the Lehigh students tore down the goalposts and carried them over a mountain to throw them in a river. First Quarter: CFP Is Set, For Now.

Second Quarter: Realignment Is Easy 

So, you say changing conferences is hard? New opponents and harder travel and all that? Learning curve, taking lumps, need time to adjust? Eh, maybe not for everyone. As it stands today, all four power-conference championships could be won by teams in their first season in those leagues. 

A quick realignment report card:

Oregon Ducks (11). Realignment grade: A plus. New league: Big Ten. Old league: Pac-12. They’re undefeated, ranked No. 1 and won the Game of the Year to date against the Ohio State Buckeyes. They won three long-travel road games (the Purdue Boilermakers, Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers) by a combined 59 points, only having to sweat in Madison, Wis. Not bad for a program that last won the Pac-12 in 2020.

Dan Lanning had his program humming upon entry, then got better thanks to a big payroll that lured some instant-impact transfers: quarterback Dillon Gabriel (from Oklahoma); receiver Evan Stewart (Texas A&M); defensive backs Kobe Savage (Kansas State), Jabbar Muhammad (Washington) and Brandon Johnson (Duke); and defensive tackle Derrick Harmon (Michigan State). If it weren’t for Curt Cignetti, Lanning would be Big Ten Coach of the Year.

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Texas Longhorns. Realignment grade: A. New league: SEC. Old league: Big 12. At 6–1 in the SEC and 10–1 overall, the Longhorns take a one-game lead in the conference into a Saturday showdown with Texas A&M. The league gave the Longhorns a spa-treatment schedule, with zero conference road games until Oct. 26 and no matchups with Alabama, Tennessee or LSU. But give Texas credit for taking full advantage of what was presented to it, with every league win except one (Vanderbilt) coming by double digits.

Steve Sarkisian overcame preseason running back injuries and rebuilt his receiving corps with transfers and freshmen. In what is often called a “line of scrimmage league,” the Horns have held up well in the trenches—especially defensively. 

SMU Mustangs (12). Realignment grade: A plus. New league: ACC. Old league: American. SMU didn’t just change conferences, it upgraded from Group of 5 to Power 4—and has crushed the assignment. The Mustangs are undefeated in conference play (7–0) and 10–1 overall, with a berth in the ACC title game secured. They played all three October games on the road and emerged unscathed.

Rhett Lashlee knew he had a good team returning from an 11–3 season in 2023, but he also knew he needed to build up his offensive and defensive lines for the step up in competition. Mission accomplished. SMU has been especially impressive up front defensively, leading the ACC in rushing defense and tied for first in sacks in league games. Lashlee’s other big move was switching starting quarterbacks in the fourth game of the year, with Kevin Jennings excelling since taking over.

Arizona State Sun Devils (13). Realignment grade: A plus. New league: Big 12. Old league: Pac-12. Nobody saw this coming—certainly not the media, which picked Arizona State last in the 16-team league before the season. Instead, the Devils are 9–2 overall, 6–2 in the Big 12, and will advance to the conference title game with a win Saturday over Arizona in the Territorial Cup game.

Arizona State is undefeated since September when quarterback Sam Leavitt plays, and has risen to the occasion as the stakes have increased. Beating Kansas State on the road and BYU at home the past two weeks certified there is nothing flukey about this season for the Devils. The sky is the limit for ASU and its 34-year-old coach, Kenny Dillingham.

Colorado Buffaloes (14). Realignment grade: A plus. New league: Big 12. Old league: Pac-12. Funny (or not funny) how the Pac-12 dismantled itself just as it was hitting a new period of strength—last year was great, and this season could have been even better if everyone didn’t take the money and run. Not only did Arizona State rapidly get off the mat after a tough time, but so did Colorado. At 8–3 and 6–2, the Buffs remain in the league title race as well.

Colorado’s rapid year-over-year improvement is attributable to smart staff and transfer moves by Deion Sanders, and even better play from program stars Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. Two-way unicorn Hunter has positioned himself to be Colorado’s first Heisman Trophy winner since 1994.

Army Black Knights (15). Realignment grade: A plus. New league: American. Old league: none. Outside the Power 4, Army has crushed the move from independent status to the American. The Knights will play Tulane in the AAC title game, location still to be determined, and despite being smashed by Notre Dame on Saturday retain at least a shred of playoff hope.

Army was gifted with an advantageous league schedule, not playing Memphis or Tulane during the regular season. But that shouldn’t diminish the fact they’ve handled business with ruthless precision, rolling to a 7–0 mark. That immediate ascendance coincides with the conference firing six coaches. Make of that what you will. 

Realignment Is Hard

Not everyone has waltzed into new conferences and succeeded. Some have walked into a shovel to the face. Those report cards are less glowing: 

Oklahoma Sooners (16). Realignment grade: D plus. New league: SEC. Old league: Big 12. Prior to stunning the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, this grade would have been an F. That big victory puts a slight sheen on a blight of a season, wherein Oklahoma has gone 2–5 in league play (admittedly against a brutal schedule). The Sooners have literally dropped the ball on realignment, ranking last nationally with 14 lost fumbles.

Brent Venables fired his offensive coordinator and has changed starting quarterbacks twice. The Sooners would be wise to get into the portal to improve that position in December, and need to make a great hire at the coordinator level.

USC Trojans (17). Realignment grade: C minus. New league: Big Ten. Old league: Pac-12. Life after Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams was always going to be a little different, but USC sitting at 6–5 is a cold slap in the face. The Trojans are winless outside Southern California, failing to hold fourth-quarter leads in all five losses.

Riley has to take inventory of his entire program to figure out why returns have declined in each of his three seasons at USC. He’s being paid way too much money to be mediocre at a place like this.

Utah Utes (18). Realignment grade: C minus. New league: Big 12. Old league: Pac-12. An appalling run of quarterback injuries certainly explains part of this bleak season, but a seven-game losing streak in a wide-open league runs deeper than that. Utah has just misplaced its longtime winning formula, finding ways to lose where it so often found ways to win.

If this is it for 65-year-old Kyle Whittingham, he’s had a great run. But this would be a hard season to go out on.

Stanford Cardinal (19). Realignment grade: C plus. New league: ACC. Old league: Pac-12. Little was expected from Stanford in its ACC debut season, and indeed little has been delivered. Yet in finishing 2–6, the Cardinal somehow managed to record dramatic upsets of two upper-division teams—the Louisville Cardinals and Syracuse Orange. Stanford beat them both with walk-off field goals in improbable fashion. That at least gives Troy Taylor something to build on in 2025, his third season on the job.

The involuntary coaching change trio (20). Three programs that are graded on an emergency-coaching-replacement curve, after losing their successful head coach late in the cycle.

UCLA Bruins. Realignment grade: B minus. New league: Big Ten. Old league: Pac-12. Late coaching change: Chip Kelly left to become offensive coordinator at Ohio State and was replaced by rookie head coach DeShaun Foster. The Dash was not alone in thinking the Bruins might be the worst team in the Big Ten this year. Instead they finished league play 3–6, which is at least a couple rungs above the basement. There is a lot of work to do, but Foster has a chance.

Washington Huskies. Realignment grade: C. New league: Big Ten. Old league: Pac-12. Late coaching change: Jedd Fisch was hired to replace Kalen DeBoer, who left in mid-January for the thankless task of replacing Nick Saban. Fisch took over a program that went to the national championship game last season but lost nearly everything, so expectations were limited. Washington has been a home hero and road zero, going 4–0 in league play in Husky Stadium and 0–4 away. Better times should be ahead.

Arizona Wildcats. Realignment grade: D. New league: Big 12. Old league: Pac-12. The Saban retirement dominoes reached Tucson when Fisch left for Seattle. Replacement Brent Brennan retained star pass-and-catch combination Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan, but something was lost in the carryover. Arizona is 4–7 and has won once since September, with four blowout losses in the last six games.

(It should be noted that both Washington and Arizona have a chance to radically improve their grades this weekend if they can take down Oregon and Arizona State, respectively.)