How are the college football regions divided? Like SEC, etc

Question

How are the college football regions divided? Like SEC, etc

Answer 1

It is just divided by the general area. The SEC is around Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana. The ACC is around Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The Pac-10 is around California, Oregon, and Washington.

Answer 2

For the most part, they are geographically divided into regions based on what states are in the region. For example, the Big 12 includes schools in the "Tornado Alley" region of the US which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa. However, there are other conferences that have schools in these territories as well (notably the Conference USA and the Big 10). There is also the matter of the University of Colorado being a part of the Big 12 despite being in a geographic region occupied by Mountain West schools.

The reason that there are overlaps like this is due to the consolidation (merging) of older, now extinct conferences with other existing conferences. For example, my beloved Big 12 is comprised of schools that were in the Big 8 and the Southwest Conference, both of which no longer exist.

Here is a link to a really cool map which shows which conferences have schools in which states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_col...

Answer 3

they are divided in to regions lie new engeland and Midwest like you learn in 5th grade geography.

there are 2 div. I canfrence types Major and I forgot the other weaker ones

so the SEc for example is a lot of costal states bet the other type can be in there region and be in a confrence the is weak.

this helps kind of http://www.footballbabble.com/football/c...

Answer 4

There is still geographical relationship that had a lot to do with the conferences years ago, but most changes in the past 20 years have been based as much or more on money.

For example, look at the old Southwest Conference (I just use it because I am familiar with it) that started to break up in 1990 when Arkansas decided to leave for the SEC (looking for more money) and then Texas, Texas A &M, Texas Tech and Baylor decided to join the Big 8 (now Big 12) a few years later. This was a huge political and financial move as Texas and A & M were basically accepted and told that 2 other teams would be taken. Rice, SMU, TCU, and Houston were basically left to find whatever conference would take them. The Big East (less geographical)  and SEC have been making comparable changes to stay as BCS conferences as well as the ACC, the Big 10, and the Pac 10. Being in one of these is huge as they essentially have total control as to who plays in which bowl games and are guaranteed spots in the BCS bowls and the enormous payouts that go with them.  

So I guess that the easy answer is that they are divided by location, alumni, fan base, and political connections.