One ACC, One Big 12 Team Reap Major Benefits from Conference Realignment

July 1 marked the beginning of conference realignment. Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the SEC, while SMU joined the ACC. The other 10 teams from the Pac-12 moving to the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 will officially become part of their new conferences on Aug. 2.

Though we've seen incremental changes over the years with schools moving conferences, never before has there been such a significant overhaul as what we will witness this season. This recent realignment has dramatically reduced the Pac-12 to just two teams, Washington State and Oregon State, thereby trimming the number of power conferences down to four.

It's clear that realignment won't be for everyone. Fans and pundits have already made their thoughts known throughout this process. But what about the schools that are at the center of all this?

There is a reason for all this conference realignment, right? It's not just happening because it's a fad. There have to be clear beneficiaries of this.

The almighty dollar and the avoidance of irrelevancy were probably at the top of the benefits package for these schools. But when it comes down to just the potential wins and losses, who is coming out on the better end?

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel broke down all 67 power conference school teams, assessing which schools will benefit the most from this year's conference realignment, grading on his 1 to 5 scale, with positive 5 being the best.

"The score is solely about a team’s ability to win, and does not take into account the team’s current coaching staff or roster," Mandel wrote. "Scoring a 0 means the school is neither better nor worse off. A score from 1 to 5 ranges from mildly better to far better, and -1 to -5 ranges from mildly worse to … uh oh."

ACC's SMU, Big 12's BYU Benefit the Most in Conference Realignment

The ACC's newcomer SMU and last year's Big 12 addition, BYU, graded the highest with a five.

"Has there been a bigger realignment winner in the last 30 years?" Mandel wrote. "SMU had not finished in the Top 25 in four decades at the time it got the call-up to the big leagues last September. Now it comes in with momentum after finishing last season No. 22."

SMU is synonymous with being the only school to have received the "death penalty" after repeated NCAA violations back in the mid-1980s. The football program was completely terminated from 1987-89.

After four double-digit win seasons from 1981-84, and three top-10 finishes, the program was all but decimated after the NCAA's ruling and didn't post another winning season until 2009 (8-5). Last season's 11-3 record was the best since 2019 when the Mustangs finished 10-3.

BYU doesn't have the troubled past like that of SMU, but they were for the longest time smothered in obscurity due to lacking a conference home.

"The Cougars have finally climbed the mountaintop after spending their entire history either in a non-power conference or as an independent," Mandel said. "They now have direct access to the CFP, and won’t finish ranked 16th with just one loss, as happened in 2020."

It's really difficult to quantify the 2020 season as that was the year impacted by the pandemic. The Cougars' 11-1 record was impressive, but they faced just two teams in the top 25, both from Group of Five schools -- No. 21 Boise St. and No. 14 Coastal Carolina.

In BYU's first year in the Big 12 last season, they went 5-7.

SMU will kick off its season against Nevada on the road on Saturday, Aug. 24, at 7 p.m. CST. BYU will begin its season on Aug. 31 against Southern Illinois at home at 7 p.m. CST. The Mustangs and Cougars will face off against each other on Friday, Sept. 6, at 6 p.m. CST in a nonconference game at SMU.