The 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment was initiated by Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 Conference for the Big 10 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference, resulting in a chain-reaction of extensive changes in conference membership at all three divisions of NCAA competition beginning in the 2010–11 academic year, with over 120 schools changing conference affiliations during this round of realignment, spurred on by increasing evaluations of power conference television media deals. Most of these changes involved conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division I. Every FBS conference gained and/or lost football members, and the Mid-American Conference was the only FBS conference whose all-sports membership did not change. Most notably, two football conferences faced collapse, the old Big East Conference which split into football-sponsoring and non-football sponsoring branches in 2013 with the establishment of the American Athletic Conference, now known as the American Conference for football-focused members, and the new Big East Conference for basketball-focused members, and the Western Athletic Conference which became the first Division I FBS conference to drop football since the Big West Conference did so in 2000. The raiding of other conferences by the Power Five conferences emphasized the differences in scale between programs and conferences, establishing a new era in college sports into the 2010s decade.
Background Rumors of conference expansion began in December 2009, when Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany announced that the league would consider adding one or more teams. Media reports indicated that the Big Ten had two major motives for expansion, the first being the conference's desire to increase the reach and programming schedule of its cable network, the Big Ten Network. At the time, the conference reportedly received as much as 88 cents per month for every subscriber to the network in the Big Ten member states, and in the 2008–09 fiscal year, the Big Ten Network alone distributed $6.4 million to each of the conference's 11 schools. Second, expanding to 12 or more schools would allow the conference to launch a potentially lucrative conference championship game in football.
Shortly after the Big Ten announced its intention to explore expansion, the Pacific-10 Conference, under new commissioner Larry Scott, announced similar plans. As with the Big Ten, television played a major role in the Pac-10's efforts. The conference's then-current deal with Fox Sports Net was set to expire at the end of the 2010–11 school year, and in the wake of lucrative TV deals recently signed by the ACC and SEC, the Pac-10 felt a need to expand its footprint to gain more leverage in broadcast negotiations. Expansion to at least 12 teams would also allow the Pac-10 to host a conference championship game.
While television was undeniably a factor in the realignment speculation, it was not the only one; Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick claimed that at most schools, realignment was being driven primarily by university administrators who saw an opportunity to improve the academic image of their schools—not by athletic directors. Also, for at least three schools—Hawaii, Belmont, and Denver—travel costs played a major role in their decisions to change conferences.
The realignment process consumed much of the resources of conference administrators. Karl Benson, who was commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) when the cycle started and became Sun Belt Conference commissioner in March 2012, estimated that about 90 percent of his workload in his first two months as Sun Belt commissioner had been taken up by realignment-related issues—either recruiting new members or trying to keep current members in the conference.
Major FBS conferences affected
Big Ten Conference
First wave
After the Big Ten's initial announcement that it was looking at expansion in December 2009, rumors about possible expansion targets and the possibility that the conference might expand to as many as 14 or 16 teams circulated into May 2010.
On June 11, 2010, Nebraska applied for membership in the Big Ten and was unanimously approved as the conference's 12th school. Its membership became effective July 1, 2011.
Big Ten officials later stated that they had no plans to expand beyond 12 teams in the near future.
Second wave However, in mid-November 2012, the landscape changed, as ESPN reported that the University of Maryland, a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), was in "serious negotiations" to join the Big Ten, ultimately concluding in the Big Ten making an offer to Maryland to join the conference. Rutgers University of the Big East Conference was also reported to be in consideration to join the Big Ten as well.
On November 19, 2012, the Maryland regents voted to accept the Big Ten's offer, and the Big Ten presidents unanimously approved Maryland's entry later that day. Rutgers announced the day after that they would also join the Big Ten. Maryland and Rutgers officially became the thirteenth and fourteenth Big Ten members on July 1, 2014.
Pac-12 Conference
On June 7, 2010, the universities of the Pac-10 approved potential expansion plans and authorized commissioner Larry Scott to move ahead with expansion and issue invitations to six prospective schools: Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.
On June 10, 2010, the Pac-10 announced that Colorado would be joining the conference in 2012. In the following days, rumors circulated that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State might follow suit and join the Pac-10 as soon as June 15, 2010, though Texas had not yet made a final decision.
On June 14, Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott revealed that Texas had rejected the offer to join the conference. Shortly thereafter Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech pledged to follow suit and stay in the Big 12. Consequently, there was widespread belief that Utah would be offered an invitation to become the 12th member of the Pac-10 in order to ensure an even number of members and allow the Pac-10 to have a football conference championship game.
On June 17, Utah accepted an invitation to join the conference as its 12th member.
On September 21, 2010, Colorado and the Big 12 reached an agreement to allow Colorado to join the Pac-10 a year earlier in 2011.
Big East Conference and American Athletic Conference
Six Big East schools departed for other conferences. These include West Virginia to the Big 12 in 2012; Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2013, followed by Louisville in 2014; and Rutgers to the Big Ten in 2014. The seven remaining non-FBS football schools, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova, announced in December 2012 that they would leave as a group and form a new non-football conference under the Big East name. Joining them in the revamped Big East were Creighton of the Missouri Valley Conference and Butler and Xavier of the Atlantic 10.
The remaining three members of the old Big East (Cincinnati, Connecticut, and South Florida) formed the American Athletic Conference along with nine other schools: UCF, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, SMU, Temple, Tulsa, and Tulane as full members, and Navy for football only. Three additional schools, TCU, Boise State and San Diego State had announced plans to join the old Big East but later backed out as the number of football members dwindled. The American dropped the word "Athletic" from its name in July 2025, becoming simply the American Conference.
Big 12 Conference
In June 2010, former Big Eight members Nebraska and Colorado announced their departures for the Big Ten and PAC-10, respectively. The Big 12 survived total collapse in the following days when its most prominent football schools (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech) turned down offers from the Pac-10 to form a 16-team "superconference". The Big 12 was forced to discontinue its football championship game after membership fell below twelve, the minimum number of schools then required to hold such a game.
Two more schools departed in 2012 when Texas A&M and Missouri left to join the Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 responded by adding TCU of the Mountain West (formerly committed to join the Big East) and West Virginia of the Big East to keep conference membership at 10 schools.
After the Big 12 was shut out of the initial College Football Playoff in 2014 despite TCU and Baylor finishing as co-champions at 11-1, there was speculation that the Big 12 might expand back to 12 or more teams in order to resume the Big 12 Championship Game for football.Big 12 commish: Consider new model ESPN.com (12/07/2014) In 2016, the NCAA removed its rule requiring FBS conferences to have at least 12 football members to hold a championship game, allowing the Big 12 to reinstate its championship game with only 10 teams, starting with the 2017 season.Sources: Big 12 coaches wanted split divisions, but conference stands pat ESPN.com (10/28/2016)
Atlantic Coast Conference
Meanwhile, the ACC also faced the rumors of members leaving for the SEC or other conferences. As with the Big East (though the ACC did not have any non-football members until Notre Dame joined in 2013) the rumors were fueled by perceived tension between the basketball powerhouse "Tobacco Road" programs (Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest) and the football-dominant schools (primarily Clemson, Virginia Tech, University of Miami, and Florida State) as to whether it should add members with strong basketball programs or those with stronger football programs.
In light of the rumors, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) voted unanimously on September 13, 2011, to raise its exit fees to $20 million. At the same time, multiple schools were rumored as possibilities to join the ACC. On September 18, 2011, the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University officially applied to join the ACC. The applications were accepted later that day. Both teams were from the Big East Conference. They rejoined Virginia Tech, the University of Miami, and Boston College who defected from the Big East in 2003. Even Jim Boeheim, who at the time had played or coached men's basketball at Syracuse for nearly 50 years, did not know about the change in affiliation before it occurred. Pittsburgh and Syracuse ultimately negotiated a buyout that enabled them to join the ACC in 2013.
On September 12, 2012, the conference announced that the University of Notre Dame would become the conference's 15th member, moving all of its intercollegiate sports except for football, men's ice hockey, and fencing into the conference (the ACC at the time did not sponsor the latter two sports, however ACC fencing was reinstated in 2014-15 and Notre Dame fencing joined the conference). As part of the agreement, the football team now plays five games each season with ACC opponents. There remained speculation regarding the timing of the change until March 12, 2013, when it was announced that the Big East would allow Notre Dame to leave for the ACC after the 2012–13 academic year.
At the same time that Notre Dame's future arrival was originally announced, the ACC also instituted an even more massive increase in exit fees. The fee is now set at three times the conference's annual operating budget; for 2012–13, the fee would be roughly $50 million. This, however, was not enough to keep Maryland from announcing a 2014 move to the Big Ten.
On November 28, 2012, the ACC voted to accept Louisville as its 14th member, replacing Maryland. On July 1, 2014, Maryland left the ACC and Louisville joined the ACC.
Southeastern Conference