History of Conference Realignments 1955-1991

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History of Conference Realignments 1955-1991

I grew up in a world that preceded TV network coverage of college football and basketball games – long before the arrival of color TV. Back then, student athletes were actually student athletes - who had to meet the same admission requirements as other students, and had to study as much as any other student in order to earn their degree (which was their reason for going to college). Live television coverage of college football and basketball games was very rare and was broadcast in black & white. Television coverage of college football and basketball games was limited to universities that were fortunate enough to be located in cities that had TV stations, and games were only televised locally if they sold out more than two hours prior to kick-off or tip-off.

In the years prior to network coverage of college sports, ticket sales at the gate were nearly the sole source of revenue for college athletic departments, with the only other revenue coming from the sale of team merchandise in college football stadiums, basketball fieldhouses, and college bookstores. The bigger the stadium, the more revenue the college made (when games sold out). For some perspective before I move onto realignment, it is instructive to have a look at the football head coaches’ salaries of yesteryear:

A History of Skyrocketing College Football Coach Salaries - Richard Johnson, Banner Society - August 15, 2019

Let’s go back to the beginning and adjust everything for inflation along the way

• The Primitive Era (1869-1906)

• The NCAA Begins (1906-1941)

• From World War II to Full Integration (1941-1972)

• The Beginning of the Modern Era (1972-1984)

• The Seven- (and Eight-) Figure Salary Era (1984-Present Day)

Many of the football conferences of my youth have disappeared and have since been forgotten by the media. Let us now travel back to 1955 to witness the beginnings of conference realignment. Note that Soren Sorenson has carried out extensive research on the subject, and his webpages linked below have many more links to additional webpages. For any given year since 1955, Sorenson lists every school in every conference.

The 1950s: The Golden Age of Catholic Basketball

1955

The good news of 1955: On July 17, Disneyland Park opened, the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, the only theme park designed and built by Walt Disney himself. Entrepreneur businessman Ray Kroc founded a franchise business on a successful restaurant operated by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, forming what would become McDonald's.

The bad news: 24-year-old actor James Dean died in a car accident on September 20, after making only three movies.

The civil rights movement began with the August 28 murder of Emmett Till, the refusal on December 1 by Rosa Parks to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott. In November, the first retractable seat belts were described in the Journal of the American Medical Association by neurologist C. Hunter Shelden.

1955 American Car Spotters Guide • Top 10 Movies of 1955 • Top 10 Actors/Actresses • 1955 Oscar Winners

The Billboard Top 30 Singles of 1955 • Top 100 Pop Songs in 1955 - Playback.FM Music Links

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College Football 1955: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

College Conferences in 1955:

The Atlantic Coast Conference
The Big 10 Conference
The Big 7 Conference
The Border Conference
The Eastern Independent Conference
The MVC
The Northeast Independent
The Pacific Coast Conference
The Skyline Conference
The Southeastern Conference
The Southern Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference
The Southwestern Independent Conference

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Notre Dame
2 Navy
3 Cincinnati
4 Pittsburgh
5 Princeton
6 Penn State
7 Marquette
8 Pennsylvania
9 Rutgers

College Football 1960: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Penn State
2 Navy
3 Pittsburgh
4 Army
5 Syracuse
6 Detroit
7 Holy Cross College
8 Notre Dame
9 Boston College
10 Boston University
11 Marquette
12 Villanova
13 Dayton
14 Xavier
15 Rutgers
16 Colgate

Marquette Golden Avalanche football - Wikipedia

The Marquette Golden Avalanche football program, commonly known as the Marquette Hilltoppers from approximately 1940 to 1953 and as the Marquette Warriors from 1954 to 1960, was the intercollegiate American football team for Marquette University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The first team was fielded in 1892. In December 1960, Marquette discontinued intercollegiate football, citing the financial hardships imposed by a program that lost $50,000 in the preceding year.

College Football 1965: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Notre Dame
2 Syracuse
3 Penn State
4 Army
5 Navy
6 Pittsburgh
7 Colgate
8 Boston College
9 Xavier
10 Rutgers
11 Buffalo
12 Holy Cross College
13 Villanova
14 Lehigh

College Football 1970: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Notre Dame
2 Penn State
3 Cincinnati
4 Syracuse
5 Boston College
6 Dayton
7 Marshall
8 West Virginia
9 Northern Illinois
10 Villanova
11 Pittsburgh
12 Rutgers
13 Navy
14 Army
15 Buffalo
16 Xavier
17 Colgate
18 Holy Cross College

Xavier Musketeers football - Wikipedia

The Xavier Musketeers football program, formerly known as the St. Xavier Saints, was an American football program that represented Xavier University of Cincinnati in college football from 1900 to 1973. The program began in 1900 when the school was known as St. Xavier College and the team as the Saints. In its earliest season, the football team competed against both colleges and high schools, but gradually improved their schedule. In 1907, the school began a rivalry against the University of Dayton, then named St. Mary's Institute. Xavier discontinued its participation in intercollegiate football following the 1973 season, citing the escalating cost of the sport and resulting deficits.

College Football 1975: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Penn State
2 Rutgers
3 Notre Dame
4 Pittsburgh
5 West Virginia
6 Navy
7 Syracuse
8 Boston College
9 Eastern Michigan
10 Temple
11 Colgate
12 Akron
13 Villanova
14 Dayton
15 Indiana State
16 Army
17 Cincinnati
18 Marshall
19 Holy Cross College
20 Southern Illinois
21 Illinois State

In 1977, the Dayton Flyers football program moved from NCAA Division I to Division III. From 1993 to present the Flyers have played in NCAA Division I–AA/FCS as a non-scholarshipped program.

College Football 1980: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Notre Dame
2 Pittsburgh
3 Navy
4 Penn State
5 Villanova
6 Syracuse
7 Boston College
9 Rutgers
10 West Virginia
11 Army
12 Colgate
13 Temple
14 Cincinnati
15 Holy Cross College

Villanova Wildcats football - Wikipedia

Conference Affiliations:

• NCAA Division I-A Independent (1894–1980)
• Football program was dropped following the 1980 season and reinstated for 1985 season
• NCAA Division I-AA Independent (1985–1987)
• Yankee Conference (1988–1996)
• Atlantic 10 Conference (1997–2006)
• Colonial Athletic Association (2007–present)

College Football 1985: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Penn State
2 Notre Dame
3 Syracuse
4 West Virginia
5 Navy
6 Army
7 Pittsburgh
8 Boston College
9 Cincinnati
10 Temple
11 Rutgers

College Football 1990: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

College Conferences:

The Atlantic Coast Conference
The Big 10 Conference
The Big 8 Conference
The Big West Conference
The Eastern Independent Conference
The Mid-America Conference
The Pacific Ten Conference
The Southeastern Conference
The Southern Independent Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conf.
The Western Athletic Conference

The Eastern Independent Conference

1 Penn State
2 Syracuse
3 Notre Dame
4 Temple
5 Pittsburgh
6 West Virginia
7 Boston College
8 Army
9 Rutgers
10 Cincinnati
11 Northern Illinois
12 Navy
13 Akron

The Big East Conference 1979–2013 - Wikipedia

In football, the Big East entered competition as a conference in 1991, after inviting five football colleges to become members of the Big East, joining three teams from the Big East whose football teams were competing as Division I independents (Boston College, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse) to form a new Division I football league. The strength of this league earned the Big East an automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series, when that series was created in 1998. The Big East won two national football championships, both by University of Miami. Between 2005 and 2012, four of the more successful football schools left the Big East for other conferences, starting a process that led to a complete realignment of the Big East in 2013.

College Football 1991: Ranking of Teams Within College Conference - Soren Sorensen

College Conferences:

The Atlantic Coast Conference
The Big 10 Conference
The Big 8 Conference
The Big East Conference
The Big West Conference
The I-A Independents
The Mid-America Conference
The Pacific Ten Conference
The Southeastern Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conf.
The Western Athletic Conference

The Big East Conference

1 Miami (Florida)
2 Virginia Tech
3 Syracuse
4 Pittsburgh
5 West Virginia
6 Boston College
7 Rutgers
8 Temple

The following New York Times article has very impressive interactive graphics. Move the cursor over any gray line to identify the school pertaining to that particular gray line. If you then click on a gray line, it turns yellow, and clearly shows the path the school has taken to its conference in 2013.

Tracing the History of NCAA Conferences – Mike Bostock, Shan Carter, and Kevin Quealy, The New York Times - November 30, 2013

A frenzy of realignment has transformed college athletics: about one in four major football programs has switched conferences since 2010. The effects are only starting to play out as programs build new infrastructure to televise and market their programs, especially in up-and-coming conferences. As conferences have become essential to stay competitive, the number of unaffiliated major schools has declined sharply. Here, how major college football programs have shifted since 1965.

List of NCAA Conferences – Wikipedia . . . . . . . . List of Defunct College Football Conferences - Wikipedia
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