College football conference rankings: SEC, Big Ten battle at top as ACC, Big 12 challenge ahead of 2023

The 2023 college football season is poised to be among the most compelling in years as conference realignment reshapes the ten FBS leagues. With so much shuffling, it’s time to re-evaluate how each conference stacks up heading into the fall.

Three Group of Five members have been affected by conference realignment, with the MAC and Mountain West the lone leagues that remain intact heading into the 2023 campaign. The Big 12’s plucking of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF takes effect this fall as the conference temporarily expands to 14 teams before Texas and Oklahoma depart for the SEC in 2024.

The SEC is the only conference to have a team make all nine playoffs thus far and looks to claim its seventh College Football Playoff title in 10 years. However, college football’s premier league faces stiff competition from a healthy Big Ten that features three preseason top-10 teams and several intimidating squads from the ACC and Pac-12.

Here is how the 10 FBS conference stack up ahead of the 2023 season:

10. Conference USA

Six members of C-USA are set to leave the league in July, including back-to-back conference champion UTSA. The 2023 alignment features nine teams with no divisions. Florida International, Jacksonville State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, UTEP and Western Kentucky comprise C-USA for the 2023 football season. These nine teams combined for four bowl appearances and three wins in 2022.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, the 2023 C-USA championship will be a two-horse race between Western Kentucky (+155) and Liberty (+200).

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9. MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE

The MAC posted the lowest average FPI ranking of all the conferences last season at 106.6, and eight teams finished below .500. However, the league led all conferences with a bowl-winning percentage of .667 (4-2).

Toledo beat Ohio, 17-7, in the MAC Championship Game and capped its season with a 21-19 victory over Liberty in the Boca Raton Bowl, its first bowl win since 2015. The Rockets project to top the league once again in 2023, while Ohio and Buffalo round out the top three, according to Caesars Sportsbook.

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8. Mountain West Conference

Fresno State was the lone Mountain West team in the final AP poll at No. 24. The Bulldogs were one of three MWC teams, along with Boise State and Air Force, to finish with 10-plus wins. Only the Pac-12 (five) and SEC (four) had more teams finish with double-digits in the win column.

Fresno State has to replace quarterback Jake Haener, giving Boise State an early edge as the conference favorite. The Broncos look to re-enter the national conversation next season after capping Andy Avlos' second season at the helm with a win over North Texas in the Frisco Bowl, giving the program its first 10-win campaign since Bryan Harsin's penultimate season on campus in 2019 (10-4).

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7. American Athletic Conference

Gone are Cincinnati, UCF and Houston as UTSA, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice and UAB give the AAC a new makeup for the 2023 campaign. Though the AAC looks weaker on paper in its new format, the league returns its lone ranked team from a season ago in No. 9 Tulane, which pulled off one of the biggest wins of the postseason with a thrilling 46-45 Cotton Bowl victory over USC and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.

With the win, Tulane (12-2) completed the biggest single-season turnaround in college football history, going from 2-10 in 2021 to AAC and Cotton Bowl champions in 2022.

SMU and Memphis project to round out the AAC's top three after seven-win seasons in 2023.

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6. Sun Belt Conference

James Madison, Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion were great additions to the conference in 2022, as three of the four posted 7-plus wins (sorry, Monarchs). Troy and South Alabama finished with 10-plus wins in the West Division, while East mainstays App State and Coastal Carolina battled newcomers James Madison and Marshall.

Only five of the Sun Belt's 14 teams finished with less than six wins in 2022. The conference should keep bringing the fun this fall.

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5. Big 12 Conference

The Big 12's standing in these rankings could look a whole lot different in 2024. Oklahoma and Texas are on their way out but will be motivated to take home hardware before their big move to the SEC. TCU lost QB Max Duggan and WR Quentin Johnston to the NFL Draft, but is not to be underestimated as long as Sonny Dykes is the head coach. Kansas State looks for its third-straight eight-plus win season after claiming the conference crown in 2022. Houston, Cincinnati, UCF and BYU also arrive, adding intrigue and potential for complete chaos.

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4. Atlantic Coast Conference

Clemson and Florida State are legitimate College Football Playoff competitors. They won a combined 21 games last season, as Dabo Swinney guided the Tigers to their seventh ACC title in the past eight years and added TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley to the staff this offseason. The conference, beyond those two teams, is in a pretty healthy spot. All but one of the seven schools in the Atlantic Division made a bowl game, while three Coastal teams reached nine wins, including North Carolina, which returns a bonafide Heisman contender in quarterback Drake Maye. Smart money says Miami is better in Mario Cristobal's second year, as well. 

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3. Pac-12 Conference

With some help from Lincoln Riley and USC, the Pac-12 is no longer the butt of every conference joke. The league boasts the nation's best collection of quarterbacks. The list of expected starters reads like a Davey O'Brien Award watchlist: USC's Caleb Williams, Utah's Cam Rising, Washington's Michael Penix Jr., Oregon's Bo Nix, Colorado's Shedeur Sanders — and those names are just scratching the surface. Add to that the fact that five teams won 10 games, and each of them either returned their starting quarterbacks or upgraded through the transfer portal, and it would not be surprising to see the Pac-12 produce its first Playoff team in seven years.

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2. Big Ten Conference

Ohio State and Michigan are the headliners. Those two have combined for four-straight College Football Playoff appearances. Ignoring Penn State would not be wise — the Nittany Lions are absolutely loaded, with the potential to unseat the Buckeyes and Wolverines in the East. Do not sleep on the Big Ten West, either. Wisconsin and Nebraska went out and made two of the best hires in the 2022-23 coaching carousel, bringing on Luke Fickell and Matt Rhule, respectively. Fickell has the Badgers poised to compete for championships immediately.

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1. Southeastern Conference

Expect anything different? Until another conference comes along and proves otherwise, the SEC reigns supreme. The SEC is the only conference to have a team make all nine playoffs thus far. The last four national champions all play in the SEC, and the SEC leads all other leagues by a wide margin with six total national titles in the Playoff era. Not to mention 12 of 14 SEC teams made it to bowl games last season, and the SEC went a perfect 3-0 in New Year's Six games.

Expect the SEC's dominance to continue in 2023. Georgia (+275) and Alabama (+500) are the favorites to win the CFP next season, while Tennessee (+2000) and LSU (+2500) also have top-10 odds. No other conference has more than two teams among the top 10.

247Sports’s No. 1 ranked linebacker Sammy Brown, the highest-ranked linebacker in our network’s history as he checks in at No. 5 nationally regardless of position, was also the first prospect Dabo Swinney and his staff offered a scholarship to in the 2024 class.

And now Swinney and the Tigers got their man.

The Jefferson (Ga.) High five-star announced his commitment to the ACC powerhouse on Monday evening after giving his pledge to Swinney and his staff at the end of his official visit that transpired over the weekend.

“So I had a meeting with (Swinney) to just talk about where I’m at,” Brown said. “And he basically said that he wants me to commit when I’m ready. And I told him that I am ready right now. I’m pretty sure Coach Swinney jumped up onto his table when I told him.”

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Brown laughed at the end of telling that story. He chooses Clemson over his other finalists in Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Tennessee. He will not take the other planned officials he scheduled and becomes commit No. 9 for the Tigers in the 2024 cycle.

“I think the biggest thing about Clemson is the overall genuineness of the place,” Brown said. He’s been attending football camp in Death Valley since he was in elementary school and his official was another great experience.

“I didn’t really learn a whole lot more about Clemson as a whole but felt better connected when I left. I felt like I was able to bond with the other commits and players better than anywhere else. They are all very similar to me in personality, the Woodaz brothers and Barrett Carter to name a few. Not only that, but we have a possibility to have a really good class this cycle. Not to mention any names but there are some high-ranked recruits that committed or are going to commit. But in the end the biggest thing that stood out to me this weekend is how much I have in common with Clemson.

“There was nothing really specific this weekend that made me commit. I prayed about it all week and Saturday I just felt like everything clicked and told me it was time. God put in my heart that it was time for me to commit.”

There is not a program Brown has followed closer in his life than Clemson and he’s had a lot of great experiences on campus. As a young kid he lost his backpack at a football camp and it was found by a staffer. The penalty was up-downs that Swinney did with him.

“It’s almost surreal to think that I kinda kept up with them growing up, watching the players and the success,” Brown said, adding in the past that Clemson has the best culture in college football. “To now finally have the opportunity to be a part of what I grew up watching is just a blessing. I can remember taking my picture at the Dabo Swinney football camp every summer and thinking about how cool that was.”

This was certainly another cool moment on the journey for Brown.

One of the most athletic players in the country regardless of position, Brown had a fantastic junior year rushing for 1,459 yards and 21 touchdowns with 246 yards receiving and three more scores. He also had 113 tackles, five stops for loss, a sack, an interception and four pass breakups. He is also a two-time state wrestling champ and one of the top sprinters in the Peach State.