script about  Just months before the start of the 1990 season the college football world is shocked when Texas, Texas A&M, and Arkansas announced they would all be leaving the SWC at the conclusion of the season. Texas accepted a Pac-10 invite (to rub elbows with the California schools), and Texas A&M and Arkansas are set to join the SEC. The SEC announces plans to exercise the NCAA rule allowing them to divide into two divisions and host a championship game between the division winners. They also announce that they will be pulling out of the CFA to sell TV rights to SEC games independently. The stage has been set.

The SEC divides into East and West divisions (a north division would be heresy). East is UF, UGA, UT, Bama and Auburn. West is Ole Miss, Miss St, Vandy, LSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M. To preserve the Vanderbilt-Tennessee rivalry, the conference adopts a concept called protected rivals where each school plays one school from the other division every year.

With Texas joining the Pac-10, the conference extends an invitation to Colorado to be the conferences twelfth member, which CU accepts as the Pac-10 follows the SEC's lead to form divisions and host a championship game. This increases the Pac-10 TV footprint to include Denver (a popular career destination for graduates of the four California schools) and Texas (the third most populous state). The conference changes its name to the Pac-12, and adopts a north-south division alignment: UW-WSU-UO-OSU-Cal-Stanford and USC-UCLA-UofA-ASU-CU-UT. The Pac-12, recognizing the monetary value, allows Texas to keep it's rivalries with both Oklahoma and Texas A&M intact and on their traditional dates. Colorado is to rotate through the California schools on rivalry week to make up for the USC-Notre Dame and Big Game scheduling quirks. Hey, at least it's better than playing the annual bodybag game vs K-State.

The Big Ten already has Penn State set to join for the 1993 season, and they approach Notre Dame to join at the same time. Notre Dame declines, opting to keep their own TV deal with NBC, and scheduling freedom to keep their annual games with USC and Navy alive and rotate through their many, many other rivalries. The Big Ten adopts a position of keeping the twelfth seat warm for the Irish, as surely NBC won't continue to pay for one schools broadcast rights...

With the departure of CU, the Big 8's looming TV problem (lack of eyeballs in market) gets even more grim. The Big 8 needs to expand, and soon. Fervorish negotiations with many likely candidates ensue. By the end of the 1990 season, fruits of their labors emerge. Six of the remaining Big 8 schools (sorry K-State, surley that new Snyder fellow can't turn around DI-A's worst program, right?) will be creating a new conference with currently independent schools of Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia. The Big 8 will cease it's existence, and the new conference will be called the Big 12 and divide into East and West divisions. The new Big 12 conference will not join the CFA, but will shop it's TV rights to networks independently.

The WAC offers membership to Kansas State and Texas Tech, neither of whom are happy, but see it as their best opportunity. Fresno State of the Big West joins to bring the WAC to 12. The WAC strikes a deal to stay with the CFA, but to sell the rights to the championship game independently. They divide into East and West divisions AFA-CSU-WYO-UTEP-TTU-KState, and BYU-Utah-UNM-Hawaii-SDSU-Fresno.

The Big West conference was in dark times. Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State were both set to stop fielding football teams, and with Fresno States departure, this left just 5 schools (Pacific's commitment to football seemed to be waning). The Big West announced that Nevada would be joining the conference moving from DI-AA thereby keeping the conference at the minimum 6 programs.

The remaining 5 SWC members (Houston, Rice, Baylor, SMU, TCU) banded together to keep the conference alive. Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Arkansas State, and Tulsa all joined the conference, recognizing that with the SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, and Big Ten conferences not participating in the CFA, that the days of stable independent football programs were numbered.

The ACC moved to increase membership to stay relevant in a football world. Throughout the 90's they added Syracuse, Lousiville, Boston College, and Rutgers, eventually dividing into divisions and hosting a championship game. They would negotiate outside of the CFA, effectively ending the system that had been on life support.

The MAC would add natural fit Akron, but otherwise make no drastic moves, not convinced the sky was falling.

As the CFA collapsed the remaining independents would mostly band together, creating a patchwork conference. They would call themselves Conference USA. NIU, Temple, ECU, Memphis, Tulane, Southeastern Louisiana, and Cincinnati.

Throughout the 90's a pecking order of conferences would emerge:

The Big 12 was the clear top dog, and frequently accused of benefiting from media bias. The conference was able to negotiate a double header for the day after thanksgiving, having NU-OU and UM-FSU play back to back on network TV. Frequently all four teams were ranked.

The SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 were all considered good, but not dominate. Teams like Florida, USC, Michigan, OSU, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, CU, UW, Notre Dame, and Texas were able to rise to province (including a handful of titles amongst them), but none could match the consistent success of the four Big 12 teams.

The ACC, primarily a basketball conference, and WAC were the best of the rest. The Big West, SWC, MAC, and CUSA were seen as a lower tier of DI-A, and of those only the MAC schools were both happy, and stable.

In the mid 90's Pacific of the Big West would indeed drop football, but the conference would bring Idaho and Boise State into the fold fold from the Big Sky, staying afloat for just a bit longer.