Here's What College Football Will Look Like In 2024, And More Questions Answered After Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12 Reshuffling

Remember when people used to say:

I like the purity and pageantry of college football over the NFL game.

Yeah, well, welcome to the new world, where the sport formerly known as the National Felony League, is the purer league.

College Football is dismantling itself in front of our very eyes via conference realignment. And it is eating, not its young, but its less fortunate.

This is the new Pacific-12, aka the Conference of Champions -- Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State -- for the 2024 season. Calling the Mountain West! San Diego State, are you there?

News broke Friday that Washington and Oregon are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, and that was officially confirmed later Friday, effective in the 2024 season.

That left the Pac-12 with seven teams as USC and UCLA announced their departure to the Big Ten a year ago, beginning in 2024 as well. And Colorado announced its exit after 2023 last month.

And then, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah officially ditched the Pac-12 for the Big 12 late Friday, leaving the Pac-12 with a Final Four - but not the kind for banners.

Without the Rose Bowl begrudgingly joining the new 12-team College Football Playoff rotation for 2024, it would be a third tier extravaganza.

Washington State football coach Jake Dickert is one of the last men standing in the Pac-12 Conference effective in 2024 after news broke that two more schools were leaving the league on Friday. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

"The old question - how long would it take TV money to destroy college football? Maybe, we're here," Washington State coach Jake Dickert said on Sirius College Sports Radio on Thursday just before the great divide.

"You know, maybe we're here," he said again, telling the future. "It's unthinkable to think that we're here. The rivalries at risk are unbelievable."

This is true, but new rivalries can be born, as soon as everyone figures out who's on first, who's in what conference and how far a drive or flight that is.

Big Ten Will Have 18 Teams in 2024, Or More

The Big Ten, as of now, will open 2024 as a Super Conference with 18 teams. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, Michigan State, Indiana and Rutgers are currently in the East, but divisions will end in 2024. Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Northwestern are in the West. That's 14. The four new ones will be USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon.

The Southeastern Conference will field 16 teams in 2024. Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Texas A&M will compete for the last time in the West. Florida, two-time defending national champion Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt will wrap up the East. There will be two new teams - Texas and Oklahoma. No divisions.

The Big 12 is ahead of the Big Ten and SEC in adding teams as it will have four newbies this season with BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida, bringing the league to 14. The 10 returning from last season are Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

In 2024, the Big 12 will have 16 teams. It will add Colorado, which fled the Pac-12 last month, and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, as of Friday night. And it will lose Oklahoma and Texas.

"We'll look back on college football in 20 years and say, 'What have we done? What did we do?'", Dickert said.

The 2023 season is just a few weeks away, but the wonder of 2024 may be more captivating.

Here's a look at the new 12-team playoff for 2024:

FIRST ROUND:

Dec. 20 - No. 12 seed at No. 5 seed.

Dec. 21 - No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7, No. 9 at No. 8

-NOTE: The four highest ranked teams receive first-round byes.

QUARTERFINALS:

Dec. 31 - Fiesta Bowl

Jan. 1 - Chick-fil-A Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl

SEMIFINALS:

Jan. 9 - Orange Bowl

Jan. 10 - Cotton Bowl

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Jan. 20 - Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

And among the match-ups scheduled by the SEC for the '24 regular seasons are breathtaking and rare. Some look like playoff games. (Dates and times will be announced at a later date - along with more conference alignment around the country, I'm sure.)

New College Football Rivalries In 2024?

In 2024 the college football season will see Texas play at Texas A&M in those rivals' first meeting since 2011. Tennessee will play at Oklahoma. Those two have met only four times with the last one in 2015. LSU will host Oklahoma in their first regular season pairing since 1950. And Florida will play at Texas. They have played three times in history with the last game in 1940.

Change can be good.