History UsefulNotes / GroupOfFiveConferences

Also like the Power 5, the Group of 5 is a bit of a flexible term that can be seen as an ArtifactTitle. For example, before collapse in 2013, the talent of the Big East Conference was of such note that one could make a case of calling it the "Group of 4." Additionally, with the collapse of the Pac-12, there is a noteworthy possibility that the term could change with whatever action Washington State and Oregon State might take with realignment. This page lays out the alignments of college football conferences as of the upcoming 2024 season and provides a description of their more prominent programs. Below are descriptions of each of the conferences and of the individual programs. Win-loss records are (mostly) accurate as of the end of the 2023 season.[[note]]Disclaimer: Listing win-loss numbers and even national championships is ''complicated'', to say the least. College programs (and even colleges themselves) frequently dissolve and reform, change divisions and conferences, play in games not recognized by the NCAA, have wins officially rescinded due to rule violations, and do other things that make it hard to judge schools' true performance. Since the NCAA doesn't even officially ''recognize'' a national champion at the FBS level, teams are often inconsistent with what titles they acknowledge, sometimes leaving them unclaimed even if picked by numerous selectors and other times jumping on a title given by a random panel that no other school takes seriously. We try to provide context and qualifications when possible, but this isn't The Other Wiki.[[/note]] For information on the more famous five FBS college conferences, check out UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences. For independent schools and FCS conferences, see UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballConferences. [=UConn=] and [=UMass=] are also listed on that page, since they're considered Group of 5 but aren't football members of any conference.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see a map of the MAC's schools in 2025.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mac_map_2025.png [=UMass=] plans to abandon being an independent team and return to the MAC for the 2025 season.[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see a map of CUSA's schools in 2024.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cusa_map_2024.png[[/labelnote]]]]

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Joe Gibbs, Creator/FredDryer, Creator/CarlWeathers, Dennis Shaw, Isaac Curtis, Herm Edwards, Brian Sipe, Dan [=McGwire=], Marshall Faulk, Akbar Gbajabiamila, Donnel Pumphrey, Rashaad Penny, Matt Araiza\\

'''San Diego State University''''s football history was initially forged in the small-college ranks. The Aztecs were generally a mediocre team with occasional flashes of brilliance until future NFL coaching great Don Coryell arrived in 1961. During his 12 seasons, he perfected the high-powered passing offense that he took to the pros, leading the Aztecs to small-college national titles in each of their final three seasons before they moved to what's now NCAA D-I in 1969, generating a huge local following in the process (the 1967 Aztecs averaged 41,030 fans per home game, still an attendance record for a non-D-I team). They were up and down for the next couple of decades after Coryell left in 1972, with a few conference titles and Marshall Faulk finishing second in the 1992 Heisman race. They bottomed out by not posting a winning season all through the 2000s, then finally bounced back to bowl eligibility throughout the 2010s.\\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Marion Motley, Horace Gillom, Stan Heath, [[Wrestling/DickTheBruiser Bill Afflis]], Chris Ault, Tony and Marty Zendejas, Wrestling/CharlesWright, Trevor Insley, Nate Burleson, Colin Kaepernick\\

'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1912-30, 1942-47, 1952-95), SIAA (1931-41), Gulf States (1948-51), CUSA (1996-2021), Sun Belt (2022-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 617-462-27 (.570)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 12-13 (.480)\\

'''National Championships:''' 2 in FCS (1958, 1962)\\
'''Conference Championships:''' 8 (3 Gulf States - 1948, 1950-51; 5 C-USA - 1996-97, 1999, 2003, 2011)

While the '''University of Southern Mississippi''' plays third fiddle in its state to SEC teams Ole Miss and Mississippi State in terms of popularity, it actually outperforms both programs in terms of its historic win percentage. Its team was a regional power in the mid 20th century under Hall of Fame coach Thad "Pie" Vann, who led the team to two College Level national championships as an independent during his long winning tenure (1949-68). Former QB Jeff Bower helped build the team into consistent winners during his tenure (1991-2007) and led their transition to CUSA, where they remained a strong competitor... until 2012, where the Golden Eagles suffered one of the steepest dropoffs in major college history, going from winning 12 games and their conference to going completely winless after a coaching change (the entire coaching staff was fired). The program has mostly rebounded since then and left CUSA for the Sun Belt in 2022.\\\

'''Current commissioner:''' Mike Aresco (retiring at the end of the 2023–24 school year)\\

%% '''School Established:''' 1961\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Joe Gibbs, Creator/FredDryer, Creator/CarlWeathers, Dennis Shaw, Isaac Curtis, Herm Edwards, Brian Sipe, Dan [=McGwire=], Marshall Faulk, Donnel Pumphrey, Rashaad Penny, Matt Araiza\\

'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1879-2014), American (2015-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 738-600-57 (.549)\\

%% '''Conference Affiliations:''' Lone Star (1932-1947), GCC (1948-1956), MVC (1957-1974), SLC (1975-1995), BWC (1996-2000), Sun Belt (2001-2012), CUSA (2013-2023), American (2023-)\\

%% '''Conference Championships:''' 24 (8 Lone Star - 1932, 1935-36, 1939-41, 1946-47; 5 Gulf Coast - 1950-52, 1955-56; 2 Missouri Valley - 1958-59; 1 Southland - 1983; 4 Sun Belt - 2001-04)

'''Conference Affiliations:''' Ind. (1893-94, 1966-95), SIAA (1895-1921), [=SoCon=] (1922-32), SEC (1933-65), CUSA (1996-2013), American (2014-)\\
'''Overall Win Record:''' 564-674-38 (.457)\\
'''Bowl Record:''' 7-9 (.438)\\

'''Conference Championships:''' 10 (1 SIAA - 1920; 4 [=SoCon=] - 1925, 1929-31; 3 SEC - 1934, 1939, 1949; 1 CUSA - 1998, 1 American – 2022)

Also like the Power 5, the Group of 5 is a bit of a flexible term that can be seen as an ArtifactTitle. For example, before collapse in 2013, the talent of the Big East Conference was of such note that one could make a case of calling it the "Group of 4." Additionally, with the collapse of the Pac-12, there is a noteworthy possibility that the term could change with whatever action Washington State and Oregon State might take with realignment. This page lays out the alignments of college football conferences as of the most recent 2023 season (though updates are in progress for 2024) and provides a description of their more prominent programs. Below are descriptions of each of the conferences and of the individual programs. Win-loss records are (mostly) accurate as of the end of the 2023 season.[[note]]Disclaimer: Listing win-loss numbers and even national championships is ''complicated'', to say the least. College programs (and even colleges themselves) frequently dissolve and reform, change divisions and conferences, play in games not recognized by the NCAA, have wins officially rescinded due to rule violations, and do other things that make it hard to judge schools' true performance. Since the NCAA doesn't even officially ''recognize'' a national champion at the FBS level, teams are often inconsistent with what titles they acknowledge, sometimes leaving them unclaimed even if picked by numerous selectors and other times jumping on a title given by a random panel that no other school takes seriously. We try to provide context and qualifications when possible, but this isn't The Other Wiki.[[/note]] For information on the more famous five FBS college conferences, check out UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences. For independent schools and FCS conferences, see UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballConferences. [=UConn=] and [=UMass=] are also listed on that page, since they're considered Group of 5 but aren't football members of any conference.

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Henry Ellard, Jeff Tedford, Kevin Sweeney, Lorenzo Neal, Trent Dilfer, David and Derek Carr, Davante Adams, [=DaRon=] Bland\\

%% '''Stadium:''' Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (capacity 62,380)[[note]]Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium behind the corporate name; shared with the UFL's Memphis Roughnecks.[[/note]]\\

The "Black Knights" nickname was only officially adopted in 1999, in reference of their black uniforms[[note]]Specifically, their nickname was "The Black Knights of the Hudson".[[/note]]; prior to that, they had just been known as [[ShapedLikeItself the Cadets]], and their mascot is a mule. Army is a member of the Patriot League (see FCS section below) for (most) non-football sports, as is Navy; outside of football, the academy is known for its very competitive lacrosse team, which won eight pre-NCAA national titles. Outside of a relatively brief membership with CUSA, Army has been a football independent through all of its history and is the only service academy that is still unaffiliated. It won't be for long; it is set to join Navy and replace SMU as a football-only American member in 2024.\\\

%% '''Conference Championships:''' 8 (Mississippi Valley – 1929–30; SIAA – 1938; Missouri Valley – 1968–69, 1971; American – 2014, 2019)

'''Rice University''' is one of the most prestigious private universities in the U.S., but its football team has not been nearly as competitive on the gridiron for several decades. A charter member of the Southwest Conference, the Owls were very competitive in the region for several decades under the long tenure of Hall of Fame coach Jess Neely (1940-66), including being involved in one of the most memorable games in college football history, a defeat of Alabama in which one of the Tide ran off the bench to tackle a Rice player mid-play. However, the small and highly academically selective school (smallest by admissions of any FBS school save for Tulsa) was unable to keep pace with the other powers of the SWC as the sport evolved, and it failed to post a winning season from 1964–91, including going completely winless in '82 and '88. The SWC dissolved shortly after Rice finally broke this streak; the underperforming program was understandably not brought along to the Big 12, and while it has performed relatively better since landing in CUSA, it is still nowhere close to the power it once held. It's one of the six schools that left CUSA in 2023 for The American—ironically, at the same time its crosstown rival Houston left The American for the Big 12.\\\

'''Conference Championships:''' 2 (CUSA – 2021-22)

Despite its reputation for on-field shenanigans, the MAC is also notable for the relative stability of its membership. Although the MAC had two changes in football-only membership during the early-2010s conference realignment cycle,[[note]]Temple to the Big East/American in 2012, and [=UMass=] joining MAC football in 2012 and leaving after the 2015 season[[/note]] it was the only FBS conference that did not gain or lose a core (i.e., all-sports) member during that time. It also has yet to have a core membership change in the 2020s, though that will change in 2025. Following the American's and Sun Belt's 2021 raids on CUSA, poaching six and three members respectively, the MAC was rumored to be launching its own raid of the already weakened conference, courting Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky to expand the MAC's footprint southward, but MT decided to stay put, causing the MAC to lose interest in WKU. However, this period of stability will end in 2025, with [=UMass=] returning to MAC football after a 10-year absence, and bringing almost all of its other sports along for the ride.[[note]]Before the impending arrival of [=UMass=], the last change to the MAC's core membership was Marshall's departure for Conference USA in 2005.[[/note]]

As noted in the CUSA folder, the SBC launched its own raid of that league, poaching Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss. James Madison made the jump to FBS and joined as well. All divisional sports (including football) adopted a new dividing line along the Alabama–Georgia border. It's now the only FBS conference that uses a divisional setup in football, with the last remaining holdout, the MAC, scrapping its divisions in 2024. The SBC had two non-football members before its most recent expansion in Little Rock[[note]]Arkansas–Little Rock[[/note]] and UT Arlington. Both schools have considered reviving their respective football programs in recent years. Little Rock's feasibility study in 2019 had recommended against doing so, at least for now. With the conference adding four football members, they saw the writing on the wall and amicably left in 2022, with Little Rock joining the Ohio Valley Conference and UT Arlington returning to the Western Athletic Conference, where it had been a member in the 2012–13 school year.\\\

Despite its reputation for on-field shenanigans, the MAC is also notable for the relative stability of its membership. Although the MAC had two changes in football-only membership during the early-2010s conference realignment cycle,[[note]]Temple to the Big East/American in 2012, and [=UMass=] joining MAC football in 2012 and leaving after the 2015 season[[/note]] it was the only FBS conference that did not gain or lose a core (i.e., all-sports) member during that time. It also has yet to have a core membership change in the 2020s, though that's now set to change in 2025. Following the American's and Sun Belt's 2021 raids on CUSA, poaching six and three members respectively, the MAC was rumored to be launching its own raid of the already weakened conference, courting Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky to expand the MAC's footprint southward, but MT decided to stay put, causing the MAC to lose interest in WKU. However, this period of stability is now set to end in 2025, with [=UMass=] returning to MAC football after a 10-year absence, and bringing almost all of its other sports along for the ride.[[note]]Before the impending arrival of [=UMass=], the last change to the MAC's core membership was Marshall's departure for Conference USA in 2005.[[/note]]

The MAC has had its share of big upsets and glory over the years. 2012 was a breakout year, with several impressive wins against Big Ten teams and conference champion Northern Illinois even playing in the Orange Bowl as the final BCS Buster. They then followed it up in 2016 when Western Michigan was one of only two teams to make it through the regular season undefeated (though it lost its bowl game to Wisconsin). To more devoted college football fans, the MAC is equally known as a land where anything can happen on any night of the week, with regular games between Tuesday and Thursday, leading to the [[HashtagForLaughs #MACtion]] meme (the source of its web address). The MAC is the only Group of Five conference to regularly hold its championship game at a neutral site, having played said game at Detroit's Ford Field since 2004.\\\

Like every other FBS conference except the MAC, the Fun Belt has gone through significant churn in the post-2010 college football landscape. One notable change that didn't involve football came in 2012 when non-football Denver, then the SBC's only private school, left. This made the SBC the other FBS league whose full members are all state-supported, a status it maintains today. The first changes that affected football came in 2013, when CUSA raided the SBC in order to replenish its numbers after having been raided by the Big East/American. FIU, Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas all left at that time. The next year saw Western Kentucky leave to join CUSA; App State and Georgia Southern join from the Southern Conference; and Idaho and New Mexico State, which had been [[TheScrappy left stranded]] to become independents when the football side of the WAC disintegrated in 2012, become football-only members (in the early 2000s, Idaho had been a football-only member and New Mexico State an all-sports member). However, Idaho and NMSU found themselves [[HereWeGoAgain stranded again]] when the Sun Belt bounced them from its football league after the 2017 season. At the time Coastal was announced as a future member, their arrival would have allowed the conference to stage a conference championship game, but only if it didn't lose any football members (read: boot out Idaho and New Mexico State). However, in 2016, a Big 12 proposal to allow all FBS conferences to stage football championship games, even if they have fewer than 12 members, was approved by the commissioners of the FBS leagues. Subsequently, the conference unanimously voted to hold a conference title game starting in 2018 (the same year Coastal became bowl-eligible). In 2017, the conference announced that the 10 football-playing schools would be divided into two divisions of five teams. Before the SBC's 2022 expansion, South Alabama played in the West Division for football despite playing in the East in all other SBC sports split into two divisions.\\\

As noted in the CUSA folder, the SBC launched its own raid of that league, poaching Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss. James Madison made the jump to FBS and joined as well. All divisional sports (including football) adopted a new dividing line along the Alabama–Georgia border. The SBC had two non-football members before its most recent expansion in Little Rock[[note]]Arkansas–Little Rock[[/note]] and UT Arlington. Both schools have considered reviving their respective football programs in recent years. Little Rock's feasibility study in 2019 had recommended against doing so, at least for now. With the conference adding four football members, they saw the writing on the wall and amicably left in 2022, with Little Rock joining the Ohio Valley Conference and UT Arlington returning to the Western Athletic Conference, where it had been a member in the 2012–13 school year.\\\

The '''Mid-American Conference''' (or '''MAC'''), founded in 1947, is one of the two FBS conferences whose full members are all state-supported, and has probably the strangest profile of any FBS conference. On the field, it hasn't accomplished a whole lot over the decades. No MAC school has ever won a national championship, and none have ever finished higher than #10 in the polls (Miami in 1974 and 2003, Marshall in 1999). In any given week, it usually has at least one entry in ESPN's "Bottom 10".[[note]]Among the derisive nicknames the writer gives to MAC teams: Akronmonious, Boiling Green, Buffalo Bulls Not Bills, State of Kent, My Hammy of Ohio.[[/note]] Basically the entire point of the MAC is to be the little brother of the Big Ten, providing their teams (and other big-name teams) with some easy wins each year. But the MAC also has some deep tradition, with a number of notable coaches and players having passed through the conference on their way to greater things. Three MAC teams (Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois) won national championships on the D-II level earlier in their history. The MAC was slated to get relegated to Division I-AA in 1982, when all but two of its schools (Central Michigan and Toledo were the exceptions) failed to meet the NCAA's attendance requirement for I-A membership, but the conference successfully lobbied the NCAA to allow them to remain at the top level.\\\

Despite its reputation for on-field shenanigans, the MAC is also notable for the relative stability of its membership. Although the MAC had two changes in football-only membership during the early-2010s conference realignment cycle,[[note]]Temple to the Big East/American in 2012, and [=UMass=] joining MAC football in 2012 and leaving after the 2015 season[[/note]] it was the only FBS conference that did not gain or lose a core (i.e., all-sports) member during that time. It also has yet to have a core membership change in the 2020s, though that's now set to change in 2025. Following the American's and Sun Belt's 2021 raids on CUSA, poaching six and three members respectively, the MAC was rumored to be launching its own raid of the already weakened conference, courting Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky to expand the MAC's footprint southward, but MT decided to stay put, causing the MAC to lose interest in WKU. However, this period of stability is now set to end in 2025, with [=UMass=] returning to MAC football after a 10-year absence, and bringing along almost all of its other sports along for the ride.[[note]]Before the impending arrival of [=UMass=], the last change to the MAC's core membership was Marshall's departure for Conference USA in 2005.[[/note]]

Despite its reputation for on-field shenanigans, the MAC is also notable for the relative stability of its membership. Although the MAC had two changes in football-only membership during the early-2010s conference realignment cycle,[[note]]Temple to the Big East/American in 2012, and [=UMass=] joining MAC football in 2012 and leaving after the 2015 season[[/note]] it was the only FBS conference that did not gain or lose a core (i.e., all-sports) member during that time. It also has yet to have a core membership change in the 2020s. Following the American's and Sun Belt's 2021 raids on CUSA, poaching six and three members respectively, the MAC was rumored to be launching its own raid of the already weakened conference, courting Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky to expand the MAC's footprint southward, but MT decided to stay put, causing the MAC to lose interest in WKU.[[note]]The last change to the MAC's core membership was Marshall's departure for Conference USA in 2005.[[/note]]

'''Current Head Coach:''' Mike Sirignano\\

[[caption-width-right:300:Forty! Niners!!]]

'''Current Head Coach:''' Shawn Elliott\\

Formed in 1999 by a group of 8 disgruntled Western Athletic Conference schools [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere unhappy with the arrangement]] of the WAC's "super-conference" alignment, the '''Mountain West Conference''' (or '''MW''') began the CFP era as arguably the most competitive "Group of Five" conference, though The American has more recently claimed that crown and the Sun Belt is rising fast. Ironically, the MW has absorbed other former WAC schools during the realignment shakeups of the 2000s and 2010s (the most recent being San Jose State and Utah State, joining in 2013). Four of its members[[labelnote:*]]Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State[[/labelnote]] had been courted by The American after it was raided by the Big 12 in 2021, but all chose to stay put, apparently leading to that conference's raid of C-USA. The MW team most familiar to casual fans outside its region is Boise State. Like the MAC (and also the Sun Belt Conference), all of its full members are public schools—but unlike the other two named leagues, not all of the members are state-supported. It's the only FBS conference with a federal service academy as a full member, namely Air Force.[[note]]The primary home of Army, an FBS independent soon to join the American Conference for football, and established American Conference football member Navy is the FCS Patriot League.[[/note]] With the 2020s realignment stripping the Pac-12 of all but two of its 12 members so far, it's looking more and more likely that the two leftovers, Oregon State and Washington State, will join in the not-too-distant future—possibly under the "Pac-12" brand—though no announcement has been made.\\\