Division I separated into Division I-A ( the predecessor to the FBS ) and I-AA ( predecessor of the FCS ) prior to the 1978 season . At that time , there were several independent I-A schools and twelve Division I-A conferences : the Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) , Big 10 , Pacific-10 ( Pac-10 ) , Big 8 , Southwest Conference ( SWC ) , Western Athletic Conference ( WAC ) , PCAA ( which later changed its name to the Big West ) , Missouri Valley Conference , Southern Conference , Atlantic Coast Conference ( ACC ) , Mid-American Conference ( MAC ) , and the Ivy League . The Ivy League and the Southern Conference left for Division I-AA prior to the 1982 season , while the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football prior to the 1985 season . In 1991 , the Big East recruited several independents and began sponsoring football , becoming a major conference . In 1996 , Conference USA ( C-USA ) , formed the previous year by the merger of the non-football Metro and Great Midwest Conferences , also began sponsoring football . That same year , the Southwest Conference dissolved , and four of its former members joined with the Big 8 to form the Big 12 Conference . In 1999 , eight schools broke away from the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference ( MW ) . Prior to the 2000 season , the Big West stopped sponsoring football . The Sun Belt Conference began sponsoring football in 2001 . After periods of conference realignment in 2005 and the early 2010s that saw the expansion of the ACC , Big 10 , SEC , and Pac-10 ( which changed its name to the Pac-12 ) , the WAC reorganized as a non-football conference and the Big East split into the American Athletic Conference and a new non-football conference that retained the Big East name
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision