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How Realignment Is Changing College Football, In 20 Maps

In 1896, a group of administrators from Midwestern colleges met in Chicago to settle the rules for what was then called the Western Conference, which would later be known as the Big Ten. They agreed in writing, according to an account in the next day’s Chicago Tribune, “to keep inter-collegiate athletic contests within their proper […]

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An Older, Wiser Pac-12 Is No Longer A College Football Laughingstock

The transition to the College Football Playoff era has not been a pleasant one for the Pac-12 Conference. With just two appearances in eight seasons and zero titles to show, the “Conference of Champions” has been anything but in an environment that caters to the richest and most powerful conferences — in other words, conferences […]

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The Pac-12 Is Busting Everyone’s Brackets

There wasn’t much expected from the Pac-12 Conference this year when the men’s NCAA Tournament tipped off. The Conference of Champions hasn’t won a national title since 1997, representing the longest championship drought of any major conference. It didn’t appear that would change any time soon given that the Pac-12 didn’t boast a single team […]

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The College Football Layoff

We begin, in fine Hot Takedown tradition, by talking about something that happened shortly after we recorded this week’s episode. The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have canceled college football for the fall, with the hopes of trying to play in the spring. We knew it was coming. But what’s interesting about where college football […]

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