Conference Realignment and College Football's Good Old Days

Oklahoma and Texas moving to the SEC and UCLA and USC leaving for the Big Ten causes consternation for college football fans. Fans of the Big 12 and Pac-12 teams left behind feel stilted, while fans of other schools are uncertain about how their favorite teams might be affected down the road. The changes can be upsetting for fans of the affected schools and college football fans in general. Still, the changes seem less consequential when we recognize that realignments and relegation have a long history in college football. Change has occurred at every step and fans longing for the good old days largely miss a period that never existed.

Fans pining for the old days need to ask themselves when those good old days occurred. For example, which decade of college football best represents the good old days? Was it before 1920? Was it the 1960s? The 1980s? What made the good old days good? Was it the nature of the football on the field? The accessibility of games via radio, broadcast television, cable, or streaming? Was it the stability of the conferences? The stability of your preferred conference? Did the good old days arrive after Black players could participate fully?