What IF…realignment is banned?

June 25, 2026 - The U.S. Congress is considering legislation (Protect College Sports Act) designed to bring stability and consistency to college athletics.

As part of this legislation, there is a clause that will ban future conference expansion. If this clause remains, it would likely mean the next and final wave of conference realignment would happen sooner rather than later, before the law goes into affect.

Therefore, CaneReports would like to get ahead of such a situation and offer yet another realignment scenario…

Strategic alignment: Big 12 and ACC .

the Trade…

In this scenario, the ACC and Big12 would conduct a six-school trade. Going to the Big 12 would be Stanford, Cal and SMU. Going to the ACC would be Central Florida (UCF), Cincinnati and West Virginia.

This trade would be a move back to regionalization. It would reinforce the Big12 in the west with a stronger presence in California and Texas while reinforcing the ACC in Florida and the northeast.

the Expansion…

At the same time, the ACC would offer Connecticut, Tulane, Army and Navy membership. It would reinforce the conference with a premium national brand in basketball and give the conferencesew up the northeast markets. And this expansion would give the ACC the key late season Army-Navy game exposure.

At the same time, the Big 12 would offer membership to Boise State, UNLV, UTSA and San Diego State. The conference would then have a dominate position in the key recruiting state of Texas and establish a presence in talent-rich California.

the Notre Dame Conundrum…

At the same time, the ACC would offer Notre Dame the option of increasing the current football scheduling agreement from the current five to six games each year. This new scheduling agreement would allow the Irish to select three common opponents while giving the ACC the ability to rotate the remaining three opponents.

Here’s how the realignment might look.

Atlantic Coast Conference: (20)

North Division:

1. Boston College

2. Connecticut

3. Syracuse

4. Army

5. Navy

6. Cincinnati

7. Pittsburgh

8. West Virginia

9. Virginia

10. Virginia Tech

South Division:

1. Wake Forest

2. North Carolina

3. Duke

4. NC State

5. Clemson

6. Georgia Tech

7. Florida State

8. Central Florida

9. Miami

10. Tulane

Big 12 Conference: (20)

Central Division:

1. Baylor

2. TCU

3. SMU

4. Houston

5. Oklahoma State

6. Kansas

7. Kansas State

8. Iowa State

9. UTSA

10. Texas Tech

West Division:

1. Colorado

2. BYU

3. Utah

4. Arizona

5. Arizona State

6. California

7. Stanford

8. Boise State

9. UNLV

10. San Diego State

BOTTOM LINES:

With the trade and expansions, both the Big12 and the ACC move back to regionalization and establish strength in numbers at the same time.

It also gives those conferences a future option if the NCAA and CFP fail to achieve competitive parity.

GO CANES!