With Colorado Set To Join The Big 12, Is More Conference Realignment On The Way?

The Tennessee Volunteers and the rest of college football continue monitoring conference realignment, especially with the Colorado Buffaloes announcing a move to the Big 12.

These days, conference realignments can be hard to keep up with, and it seems like they aren’t stopping anytime soon. Reports surfaced on Thursday that the University of Colorado would be rejoining its former conference, the Big 12, and this was later confirmed and announced by the school. 

They will join in 2024-25 and be the conference’s 13th school, following the addition of four schools this offseason and the departures of Texas and Oklahoma for the SEC next summer. Now 13 does not seem like a number for a conference to be satisfied with, so the Big 12 could very well be looking for more. It would be hard to imagine them taking anybody from the SEC, but still, the decisions of other schools and conferences can affect the SEC and its members in scheduling, recruiting, the College Football Playoff, and more.

Colorado HC Deion Sanders during his first spring game with the Buffaloes in Boulder, Colorado, on April 22, 2023. (Photo by Ron Chenoy of USA Today Sports)

With USC, UCLA, and now Colorado out of the Pac-12, we could see other schools on the move. It would be pretty surprising to see any of the west coast schools have an interest in the Southeastern Conference, or vice versa, but the likes of Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Arizona State could be looking to move, with the Big 12 and Big Ten eyeing them. 

Despite the Pac-12’s statement on Thursday that they are looking to continue to move forward, it is clear that the conference is going in the wrong direction. Looking at the SEC, Chris Nee reported that Florida State is ramping up interest in leaving the ACC. It seems like the SEC would be the obvious option. One of the biggest questions stemming from this and the Colorado news from today is, “How big do these conferences want to get?” The answer to this and many other questions regarding realignment remains to be seen.

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