Six years after the NCAA Division-I Board of Directors voted to allow schools in the Power Five conference to write many of their own rules (i.e. Power Five autonomy), we're still asking the question: Would the Power Five split from the rest of the FBS?
"Is there a potential out there for the top-tier Power 5 schools to break off and do their own thing, and what might be perceived as a lower-tier Power 5 group sustain with everybody else?” Louisiana athletics director Bryan Maggard asked himself last year. “I think anything’s possible."
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Maggard's comments echo a similar sentiment by most athletics directors, coaches, and others in and around college football over the last six years: It's possible the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC (and Notre Dame) split from the Group of Five to form their own division.
What if that happened now? Right now.
What if Power Five power brokers announced the split today and unleashed a firestorm of realignment and desperation scrambling across the FBS…and the FCS. A split could ignite often-mentioned musings of North Dakota State, James Madison, and other strong FCS programs joining left-behind Group of Five programs in a new subdivision.
HERO Sports FCS writer Sam Herder and I asked and answered that question: What if the Power Five split and strong FCS programs joined the Group of Five in a new subdivision?
This a football-only exercise with football-only conferences. For example, James Madison is now an American football member but remains a full CAA member for men's and women's basketball, baseball and all other sports.
Scroll through for a conference-by-conference breakdown (including interactive maps) of the three new NCAA Division-I football subdivisions: Power Five, Group of Six, and FCS.
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