College football changed forever last year. You probably noticed. Between the massive realignment moves that basically killed the Pac-12 and the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, the "old way" of doing things is dead and buried. In the middle of all this chaos sit the Group of 5 conferences. People keep asking if these schools—the ones in the American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, MAC, and Conference USA—are just going to become a "minor league" for the SEC and Big Ten. Honestly? It's more complicated than that.
The Group of five conferences represent the backbone of the sport for millions of fans who don't live in Tuscaloosa or Columbus. These are the programs that survive on grit, weird midweek schedules, and the occasional chance to ruin a blue-blood’s entire season. With the new playoff format, they finally have a guaranteed seat at the table. But that seat comes with a massive price tag and a whole new set of problems involving the transfer portal and NIL money that makes the old "level playing field" look like a vertical cliff.
The Playoff Revolution and the Group of Five Conferences
For decades, the path to a national title for a non-Power conference team was basically nonexistent. You had to go undefeated, hope for three or four upsets elsewhere, and pray that a committee of humans liked your "strength of schedule." It was rigged. Pure and simple. Now, the 12-team playoff structure changes the math. The five highest-ranked conference champions get an automatic bid. Since there are only four "Power" conferences left (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC), at least one champion from the Group of 5 conferences is guaranteed a spot.
This is huge. It means a school like Liberty, Boise State, or Tulane doesn't just play for a nice bowl game in December. They play for a national championship.
But here is the catch that people miss. The "Power" conferences are consolidating power. When the Pac-12 dissolved, it left a vacuum. The remaining "P4" schools are now taking a significantly larger slice of the playoff revenue pie. We’re talking about a gap where an SEC school might pull in $20 million from the playoff while a Sun Belt school gets a fraction of that. Money wins games. It buys better weight rooms, better recovery tech, and—most importantly today—it keeps players from leaving.
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The Realignment Fallout: Who is Left?
Realignment didn't just hit the big guys. It tore through the American Athletic Conference (AAC) and Conference USA like a hurricane. When the Big 12 lost Texas and Oklahoma, they raided the AAC for UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston. The AAC then reached down and grabbed half of Conference USA. It was a chaotic game of musical chairs.
Today, the Group of 5 conferences look like this:
- The Mountain West: Usually the most consistent on the field. They’ve got Boise State and UNLV, and they’ve managed to stay mostly intact while the Pac-12 collapsed around them. They even have a scheduling alliance with the "Pac-2" (Oregon State and Washington State) that keeps them relevant in the West.
- The Sun Belt: Probably the most "fun" conference right now. They lean into regional rivalries. Schools like App State and James Madison have massive, rowdy fanbases that actually care about the games, which is something some of the bigger, corporate-feeling conferences are losing.
- The American (AAC): They used to be the "Power 6" hopefuls. Now, they're rebuilding after losing their biggest brands. They still have Navy and Memphis, but the path back to the top is steeper than it used to be.
- The MAC: Total stability. MACtion. They play on Tuesday nights in the snow. They don’t care about your glitzy realignment. They just want to play football and provide the best gambling content on a random November weeknight.
- Conference USA: They’ve become a bit of a transit hub for schools moving up from the FCS, like Liberty and Jacksonville State. They are scrappy, but they definitely have the lowest "floor" of the group.
The Transfer Portal: A Double-Edged Sword
You can't talk about college sports in 2026 without talking about the portal. For the Group of 5 conferences, the portal is a nightmare dressed like a daydream.
On one hand, you get "bounce-back" players. These are 4-star recruits who went to Georgia or Alabama, realized they were fifth on the depth chart, and transferred to a place like South Florida or San Diego State to actually get some film. These guys can dominate at the G5 level.
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On the other hand—and this happens way more often—you have "roster raiding." A coach at a Group of 5 school spends three years developing a 2-star offensive lineman into an All-American caliber player. The second that kid proves he can play, an SEC school offers him a massive NIL deal to finish his career in a bigger stadium. It makes it almost impossible for G5 coaches to build a "program." They have to rebuild their entire roster every single January.
It’s exhausting for the fans, too. How do you buy a jersey when your star quarterback might be playing for a rival conference in six months?
Why the G5 Style of Play is Actually Better
The irony of the massive money gap is that the actual football in the Group of 5 conferences is often more entertaining than the slog of the Big Ten. Because these teams have fewer resources, the coaches have to be more creative. You see more trick plays, more aggressive fourth-down attempts, and more innovative offensive schemes.
Look at what Gierre McDaniel did at Texas State or how Coastal Carolina used that "Mullets and Motion" triple-option hybrid to confuse everyone for years. These schools are the R&D labs of football. If an offensive scheme works in the Mountain West, you’ll see an NFL team running it two years later.
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Also, the stakes feel more personal. In the SEC, if you lose two games, you’re still probably in the playoff conversation. In the Group of 5 conferences, one bad Tuesday night in Muncie can end your season’s championship hopes. That pressure creates high-drama television that the big networks are finally starting to value.
The Economic Reality of 2026
We have to be honest about the finances. The gap is widening. Most G5 schools are currently subsidizing their athletic departments through student fees. That’s a model that can’t last forever, especially as enrollment numbers fluctuate nationwide.
There is a growing movement among some athletic directors to create a "G5 Playoff" or a separate division entirely. They argue that trying to compete with a $100 million Ohio State budget when you only have $15 million is a fool's errand. But for now, the allure of that one guaranteed spot in the 12-team playoff is keeping everyone together. They want the "Cinderella" moment. They want to be the next Boise State hitting a Statue of Liberty play against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Programs
If you’re a fan of a team in the Group of 5 conferences, or if you just like watching them, here is how to navigate the current landscape:
- Support the local NIL collectives: It sounds corporate, but if G5 schools can’t offer competitive NIL packages, they will lose every single star player to the portal. Even small, focused collectives help keep "hometown heroes" in place.
- Value the mid-week games: MACtion and midweek AAC games aren't just filler; they are the primary revenue drivers for these conferences. High TV ratings for Tuesday/Wednesday games give these conferences leverage in the next round of media rights negotiations.
- Watch the coaching carousel: G5 schools are the premier training ground for the next generation of elite coaches. Following who gets hired at places like Western Kentucky or North Texas is the best way to predict who will be leading a Power 4 program in three years.
- Focus on the "Playoff Rank" early: Under the new rules, the race isn't just about winning your conference; it’s about being the highest-ranked G5 champion. Every out-of-conference game against a P4 opponent is basically a playoff play-in game.
The Group of 5 conferences aren't going anywhere, but they are evolving. They are moving away from trying to "be" the SEC and instead embracing their role as the chaotic, innovative, and deeply regional heart of college football. It’s not the "minor leagues"—it’s just a different, faster, and often weirder version of the game we love.