With the establishment of the College Football Playoff in 2014 , the term " automatic qualifying conference " is no longer in use , as the Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) has been discontinued . However , five of the six former AQ conferences are now known as the " Power Five conferences " : the Big Ten Conference , the Big 12 Conference , the Atlantic Coast Conference ( ACC ) , the Pac-12 Conference , and the Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) . The sixth AQ conference , the Big East , was split up during the 2010 – 2014 NCAA conference realignment , with five members joining P5 conferences , Notre Dame establishing a relationship with the ACC , the remaining non-football members forming the new Big East Conference , and the remaining members forming the American Athletic Conference . It is unknown where the term " Power Five Conference " originated from ; it is not officially documented anywhere by the NCAA
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Power Five conferences