Trivia Tuesday – Power 5 Conferences

In recent years, there has been a lot of shuffling of College Football Conferences. And, if you believe Some Other Dude, there is more yet to come as we advance upon the age of the Mega-Conferences. But, SOD wonders, how well do you know the history of the current Power 5 Conferences?

THE TRIVIA CHALLENGE

Name the original teams in each of the current Power 5 Conferences.

THE BUFFER ZONE

THE ANSWERS

The Atlantic Coast Conference.  Even though we appear to be headed to 16 team Mega-Conferences, back in history there was an even mega-er conference; the Southern Conference.  The Southern Conference, at one time, consisted of 23 teams and eventually splintered into other, smaller conferences.  One of those splinter conferences was the ACC which officially formed as a conference in 1953.  The 7 charter members of the ACC were: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest.  Only South Carolina no longer calls the ACC home as they eventually joined the other splinter conference with former Southern Conference brethren.  Link to information source.

The Big 12.  The history of the Big 12 is a little more convoluted than that of the other conferences.  The Big 12 itself wasn’t formed until 1994 when teams from the Big 8 merged with teams from the Southwest Conference.  The Big 8 Conference was originally chartered in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and eventually became known as the Big 6 and then grew up to become the Big 8.  The original members of this conference were: Iowa (two-timing with the Big Ten), Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Washington University in St. Louis.  Only Kansas remains as a current member of The Big 12.  Link to information source.  The Southwest Conference was first formed in 1912, consisting of: Arkansas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rice, Texas and Texas A&M.  Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas remain as current members of the Big 12.  Link to information source.

The Big Ten.  The name “The Big Ten” was actually not officially incorporated until 1987, but the conference referred to as the Big Ten has been around since 1905.  The original conference was made up of 7 teams in what was known as the “Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association”.  In 1917, when the conference had expanded to 10 teams, it was labeled the “Big Ten” by members of the media.  The original members of this so-called Big Ten Conference were: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, University of Chicago and Wisconsin.  Only the University of Chicago is not a member of that conference today.  Link to information source.

The Pac 12.  The Pac 12 Conference started off as a little seedling conference that eventually grew up into the Pac 12.  Forming in 1916 as the Pacific Coast Conference, its original members stood at only 4 schools: California, Oregon, Oregon Agricultural College (later known as Oregon State) and Washington.  All four schools still remain in the conference today.  Interestingly, Idaho and Montana were one time members of this conference and the conference was disbanded and re-assembled in 1959 due to a pay-for-play scandal.  The re-formed conference was called the Athletic Association of Western Universities, commonly known as the Big 5. After growing once again, the conference started being referred to as the Pacific 8 in 1964 and officially became the Pacific 8 in 1968, the Pac 10 in 1978 and the Pac 12 in 2011.  Link to information source.

The SEC.  The SEC preceded the ACC in splintering away from the huge Southern Conference when 13 schools left in 1932 to form their own conference.  The 13 schools that made up the first version of the Southeastern Conference were: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Sewanee (University of the South), Tennessee, Tulane and Vanderbilt.  Georgia Tech now resides in the ACC; Tulane, although still an FBS school is no longer a member of a Power 5 Conference; and, Sewanee, after having decided to de-emphasize sports in 1940, currently competes in Division III athletics.  Link to information source.

Next Up, Spring Practice

“And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game”
– Joni Mitchell, The Circle Game, Ladies of the Canyon, 1970

Just like the seasons; just like life itself, college football is captive on the carousel of time, going round and round in the circle game. The 2014 revolution of the college football carousel did introduce a few new ponies with the inaugural FBS playoff format, but here we are once again rotating past National Signing Day and already seeing Spring Practices galloping towards us once again. Believe it or not, as some of you are still digging out from the snow, the Spring Practice schedules are just about ready to get underway.

Using FB Schedules.com as SOD’s source of information, we notice that not all of the schedules have been made public yet, but, of the ones that have, there are some Spring Games that are just a little more than only one month away. Colorado, for example, has their Spring Football Game scheduled for March 15 and Vanderbilt’s Spring Game is penciled in for March 21. We hardly have time to catch our breath! And, SOD LOVES IT!!

Spring Practice is a fun little diversion that lets us begin to speculate on who might replace the carousel ponies that have left the merry-go-round either through graduation, early entry to the NFL Draft, transfers or for any other reasons. We get a look at the competition to be the “next-man-up” with a few of the pieces, those young men the school just signed on National Signing Day, still missing.

A few days back, SOD posted a blog about teams that we know have lost their starting QB from the 2014 season (or, at least, the QB that had the most passing attempts for their teams this past season). Those Spring Training Camps will provide some of the most interesting entertainment to the college football junkie – i.e.: SOD.

And, how cool is it to realize that the next college football game to pit two 2015 Heisman Trophy candidate QBs against each other could be the Ohio State Scarlet and Gray game scheduled for April 18? I am not sure if either Braxton Miller or JT Barrett will be ready to receive snaps against Cardale Jones by then, but I am pretty sure that this has never happened before. The Ohio State QB situation will garner plenty of attention in Spring Practice, Fall Practice and throughout the entire revolution of the 2015 carousel.

So, the painted ponies, painted in the various colors of colleges and universities that play college football for our entertainment, continue to go up and down and continue to spin round and round. And we get to come along for the ride. How great is our world?