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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/dbzbudokai77 on 2026-02-16 21:23:35+00:00.
The recent news on Sacramento State’s financial investment to join the MAC gave me flashbacks to SMU’s own investment in joining the ACC. Both programs essentially bet on themselves financially, with the goal to improve their perception amongst the CFB community as FBS and P4 programs, respectively.
So my question is whether this is worth it. I’m curious what it would take for a program within a new conference to influence its perception amongst the general CFB community? For example, here are programs that have climbed/fallen in terms of conference affiliation since 2010:
G5s upgraded to P5/P4:
- Utah (promoted in 2011)
- TCU (promoted in 2012)
- UCF, BYU, Houston, Cincinatti (promoted in 2023)
- SMU (promoted in 2024)
P5’s downgraded to G5:
- Washington State/Oregon State (demoted in 2024 via Pac 12 exodus)
^TL;DR: For any longtime CFB watchers (pre 2010), do you still see any of the programs above as group of 5 or power programs, despite their upgrade/downgrade in conference affiliation? Does this make Sacramento State’s investment smart or foolish?