Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where Smokey lost his head on Rocky Top sometime Saturday—perhaps when the Volunteers were struggling with Arkansas?
Third Quarter: Promotion/Relegation Fantasy Island
On his own podcast last week, Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey joined in one of America’s favorite bar games—trying to apply European soccer promotion and relegation principles to college football.
There are at least 68 reasons why it won’t happen—one for each school that is a member of The Club of power conferences, plus Notre Dame. Plus the issues inherent in, say, changing leagues for a year or two in football while remaining otherwise attached to a school’s current conference in every other sport.
So, no, it’s not happening. At least not anytime soon. But people do love to talk about it, theorize about it and argue about it.
Given that, The Dash is not one to stand in the way of flinging stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. In fact, The Dash is willing to fling the stuff. Taking the current membership of all 10 FBS leagues, let’s relegate six schools from the Power 4 and promote six from the Group of 6, and let’s do it via the most objective means available: wins and losses. We’re basing this on conference records since 2024, since that was the beginning of the current membership structure of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12. So, basically, this is every football team’s worksheet against its peers for the last 2 ½ seasons.
(For purposes of this exercise, some league records had to be mixed and matched for schools that have moved around the G6. Records for FCS teams moving up during the time period in question are not included. It’s all inexact, but there’s only so much exactitude required for something that’s never going to happen.)
First, the relegations:
ACC records from 2024 through Week 6 of ’26
1. SMU 16–3
2. Miami 15–4
3. Clemson 13–6
4t. Duke 12–6
4t. Georgia Tech 12–6
6. Virginia 12–7
7. Pittsburgh 11–8
8. Louisville 11–9
9. Wake Forest 9–11
10t. California 8–11
10t. North Carolina State 8–11
12. Virginia Tech 7–12
13. North Carolina 6–12
14. Syracuse 6–13
15. Stanford 6–14
16. Boston College 5–13
17. Florida State 4–15
Big dog: SMU, by a single game, despite having won no hardware yet in the ACC.
Relegated to the American: Florida State (20). Which would be hilarious on so many levels. The Seminoles have been trying by any means possible to prove themselves to the SEC and Big Ten—except via actually winning football games.
Relegated to the Mid-American: Boston College (21). This should fire up the natural backyard rivalry with Massachusetts.
Big 12
1. BYU 18–3
2. Texas Tech 16–4
3. Arizona State 14–6
4. Iowa State 13–8
5. Baylor 11–9
5. TCU 11–9
5. Utah 11–9
8. Houston 11–10
9. Kansas State 10–10
10. Arizona 10–11
11. Cincinnati 9–11
12. Colorado 9–12
13. Kansas 7–13
14. West Virginia 7–14
15. Central Florida 5–16
16. Oklahoma State 2–18
Big dog: BYU, even though it has won no titles.
Relegated to the Pac-12: Oklahoma State (22). Currently 2–0 in Big 12 play, but it was the pair of preceding 0–9 seasons that sunk the Cowboys.
Relegated to the Sun Belt: Central Florida (23). At least the travel would be cheaper and easier than getting to the states of Utah, Colorado and Arizona.
SEC
1. Georgia 17–3
2. Alabama 15–5
3. Texas 14–4
4. Mississippi 14–5
5. Texas A&M 13–7
6. Tennessee 12–7
7. Missouri 11–8
8. Oklahoma 9–9
9t. Vanderbilt 9–10
9t. LSU 9–10
11. Florida 8–12
12. South Carolina 7–13
13. Kentucky 6–14
14. Auburn 4–15
15. Mississippi State 3–16
16. Arkansas 3–16
Big dog: Georgia, which has won the last two SEC titles and could be on the way to a three-peat this year.
Relegated to the Mountain West: Arkansas (24). The Razorbacks lose the tiebreaker with Mississippi State based on current trajectory. The Hogs’ trend line has scraped rock bottom.
Big Ten
1. Indiana 20–1
2. Ohio State 19–2
3. Oregon 18–2
4. Iowa 14–7
5. USC 14–8
6. Michigan 12–8
7t. Illinois 12–9
7t. Minnesota 12–9
9. Penn State 11–10
10t. Nebraska 9–12
10t. UCLA 9–12
10t. Washington 9–12
13t. Northwestern 7–13
13t. Wisconsin 7–13
15. Rutgers 6–14
16. Michigan State 4–17
17t. Maryland 2–19
17t. Purdue 2–19
Big dog: Indiana. Somehow.
Relegated to Conference USA: Maryland (25). The Terrapins lose the tiebreaker with the Boilermakers because red-hot Purdue is 2–1 and on a two-game winning streak. Here’s to a Terrapins-Delaware backyard brawl series.
Now the promotions:
American
1. Tulane 14–3
2t. Army 14–5
2t. Navy 14–5
4. East Carolina 12–5
5t. Memphis 12–6
5t. North Texas 12–6
7. South Florida 11–8
8. UTSA 10–8
9. Temple 6–12
10. Florida Atlantic 5–12
11t. Rice 5–13
11t. UAB 5–13
13. Charlotte 4–14
14. Tulsa 2–16
Promoted to the ACC: Tulane (26), which isn’t very good this year but gets a leg up thanks to past glory.
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: Tulsa.
Conference USA
1. Jacksonville State 16–2
2. Western Kentucky 13–5
3. Liberty 10–8
4. Missouri State 5–4
5t. Florida International 9–8
5t. Kennesaw State 9–8
7. Delaware 4–5
8. Sam Houston 7–10
9. New Mexico State 5–13
10. Middle Tennessee 4–13
Promoted to the ACC: Jacksonville State (27). Burgess-Snow Field at AmFirst Stadium has a listed capacity of 24,000. That’s about on par with a Duke home game, so why not?
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: Middle Tennessee.
Mountain West
1. UNLV 14–3
2. North Dakota State 2–1
3. New Mexico 10–6
4t. Air Force 8–10
4t. Hawaii 8–10
6t. San José State 6–11
6t. Northern Illinois 6–11
8. Wyoming 6–12
9. UTEP 4–14
10. Nevada 3–14
Promoted to the Big 12: UNLV (28), which would provide attractive road trip junkets for administrators in that league.
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: Nevada.
Sun Belt
1. James Madison 15–4
2. Louisiana 13–5
3. Georgia Southern 11–7
4. Troy 10–7
5. Old Dominion 11–8
6. Louisiana Tech 9–7
7t. Appalachian State 10–8
7t. Marshall 10–8
7t. South Alabama 10–8
10. Coastal Carolina 9–9
11t. Appalachian State 5–12
11t. Southern Mississippi 5–12
13. Louisiana-Monroe 4–13
14. Georgia State 2–15
Promoted to the SEC: James Madison (29). If only the Dukes had held off on their Monday announcement to join the American, The Dash could have landed them an even better league affiliation.
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: Georgia State.
Pac-12
1. Boise State 15–2
2. Oregon State 4–1
3. Fresno State 10–7
4. San Diego State 9–8
5. Texas State 8–9
5. Utah State 8–9
7. Colorado State 7–9
8. Washington State 1–4
Promoted to the Big 12: Boise State (30). Gee, you wonder why Dickey had this idea to begin with.
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: Washington State.
Mid-American
1. Ohio 15–3
2t. Miami (Ohio) 14–4
2t. Western Michigan 14–4
4t. Buffalo 11–7
4t. Toledo 11–7
6. Bowling Green 10–8
7. Central Michigan 8–10
8. Akron 7–11
9. Kent State 7–12
10. Eastern Michigan 6–12
11. Ball State 5–13
12. Massachusetts 1–10
Promoted to the Big Ten: Ohio (31). The Bobcats can finally get THE Ohio State to come to Athens.
Relegated to FCS, if you want to play that game: UMass, which would actually unspring the BC rivalry. Alas.
PODCAST: Listen to Sports Illustrated’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, hosted by Pat Forde, on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s college YouTube channel or on SI TV.
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