Calvin Scott is a third-year media major. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the Ball State Daily News.

The College Football season is already underway and we finally get the chance to see the new ranking system along with the conference realignment.

I am still undecided on how I feel about the conference realignment. I have to see how every little aspect of it works out from the level of competition, strength of scheduling, to even how traveling affects the teams going forward.

Everything in sports is subject to change, so if the NCAA thinks a conference realignment is innovative and better off for college football, then I am all for it.

The realignment seems to cater to the ongoing soap opera of college athletics that is the transfer portal with NIL evaluations now becoming the sole purpose for players transferring to different programs each and every year.

My personal favorite additions to the realignment are of course the blue bloods of the disbanded PAC-12 heading eastward to the best conference in college football being the Big Ten.

UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington in the same conference as Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan seems like the birthday gift college football fans have always asked for.

The second addition that I absolutely appreciate has to be the Red River Rivalry coming to the SEC joining other thrilling rivalries like Alabama and Georgia. The addition to those two programs will definitely add in some more excitement for the selection of the SEC Championship.

Lastly, my all around favorite idea to come out of this whole realignment construct to college football is without a doubt the new look to the Big 12.

The Big 12 had the opportunity to make the most out of the disbanding of the PAC-12 and conference commissioner Brett Yormark rose to the occasion.

He understood he was losing the two most prominent programs in the conference in Texas and Oklahoma, but still managed to retain their newly added programs being UCF, Houston, BYU and Cincinnati.

Not to mention he noticed the PAC-12 was disbanding and already knew that the blue bloods of that conference are already en route to the Big10 so he went ahead and grabbed the programs that bring good viewership and competition to the conference including Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.

Adding Colorado back with most of the original Big Eight Conference will give fans a huge case of deja vu. Along with that adding the old PAC-12 schools, they finally get a chance to add late evening viewership with all four of the schools being in the Mountain Time Zone so now people can watch Big 12 football late at night when most games are over.

Last but not least, the Big 12 is maybe the only conference in college football that isn't one sided in the slightest. When I look at the Big 12 going into the start of this season I see about seven teams that are legitimate contenders to hoist the trophy in Arlington this December.

The new format for the college football playoff now includes a 12 team bracket instead of four. With the qualifiers being the five highest ranked conference champions and the next seven highest ranked teams, this is who I believe will be named into the playoff December 21st.

For the five highest ranked conference champions I like Ohio State representing the Big Ten, Miami claiming the ACC, Utah making it out the Big 12, along with Georgia reigning supreme in the SEC, and lastly out of all the group of five conferences I like the Memphis Tigers to conquer the AAC.

The rest of the pack being the next seven highest ranked teams that I believe will get in the college football playoff include SEC favorites; Alabama ,Ole Miss and Texas. The second best team in the Big Ten in the Oregon Ducks led by my favorite to win the Heisman, Dillon Gabriel. The next team to make it out of the ACC is the Clemson Tigers. Independent Notre Dame will make the college football playoff and lastly the only other group of five teams to join, the Boise State Broncos led by USC transfer quarterback Malachi Nelson to win the Mountain West Conference and be ranked high enough to get in the college football playoff.

Contact Calvin Scott with comments at calvin.scott@bsu.edu on X @CalvinAJScott.

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