College Football Week 2 – Conference Realignment

 

 

Alabama vs Texas

This is the marquee game of Week 2 and one of the top non-conference games for the entire 2022 season. Texas is 7-1-1 all-time vs Alabama, with Alabama’s lone win coming in their last meeting during the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, which the Tide won 37-21.

In 2022, this is a non-conference game between the SEC and Big 12, but beginning in 2024 (?) these teams will be playing in the same conference, as SEC rivals.

UCF vs Louisville

UCF has only been an FBS football team since 1996, and have been in 3 (soon 4) different conferences. In their first foray in conference play, UCF went 10-25 in three years in the MAC from 2002-2004. In 2005, they joined Conference USA as one of the teams tabbed to replace a group that left for the Big East. Among that group, was Louisville. They never overlapped in C-USA.

UCF played in C-USA from 2005-2012, before moving to the American Athletic Conference where they would soon replace, again, Louisville (among other teams).

2013 was a transition year, where UCF began AAC play and Louisville spent a lone year in the AAC (previously Big East) before their transition to the ACC.

UCF beat Louisville 38-35 in 2013 in the only ever conference matchup between these two schools.

UConn vs Syracuse

Better basketball game than football. UConn joined Big East football in 2004, after years of FCS/DII, where the two schools played until 2013. In 2022, this game features an Independent vs ACC.

Huskies have the all-time edge 6-5 (6-3 edge in Big East play).

Boston College vs Virginia Tech

Boston College and Virginia Tech each joined the Big East in 1991, after being Independent. In 2005, BC made the move to the ACC, one year after Virginia Tech went in 2004. This is an ACC conference game, that used to be a Big East conference game.

Hokies lead all-time series 19-11.

Houston vs Texas Tech

In 2023, Houston is expected to join the Big 12, where Texas Tech has played since 1996. Before ’96, Tech and Houston were conference rivals in the now-defunct Southwest Conference. From 1976-1995, both schools shared a conference, before Tech moved on to Big 12 and Houston moved on to Conference-USA and later AAC, before they finally join Tech in Big 12 soon.

Baylor vs BYU

Like Houston, BYU will be joining the Big 12 in 2023 and these two will likely become annual opponents.

This game takes place in Provo, Utah as a return game to a 38-24 Baylor win in 2021. BYU enters the game ranked #19. Previously, these two schools played a home-and-home series in 1983 and 1984, with the home team winning each one. Will that be the case here again?

Missouri vs Kansas State

This will be the first meeting between these schools since 2011. Missouri began playing in the SEC in 2012, after previously being in the Big 12 with K-State. Before the Big 12, the two schools also shared the Big Eight.

From 1914 through 2011, these teams played “almost” every year. Missouri holds an all-time series advantage, 60-32-5.

USC vs Stanford

This is the 101st meeting between “current” PAC-12 rivals. The first game was in 1905, but when will the next game be after USC leaves for the Big Ten in 2024?

Rumors suggest it may actually one day become a Big Ten conference game in the future? TBD…