The FBS has undergone several waves of realignment since the 1990s , when the Bowl Coalition was established . The first realignment occurred in the 1990s , and resulted in the demise of the Southwest Conference , which was a member of the Bowl Coalition and at times considered equal to some of the Power Five conferences ; as well as many schools giving up independent status to join conferences . In the early 1990s , Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC ; the original Big East Conference began sponsoring football , with eight former football independents joining either for all sports or football only ; and other major independents such as Florida State ( to the ACC ) , Penn State ( to the Big Ten ) , and South Carolina ( to the SEC ) joined major conferences . In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment , the SWC dissolved , and four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference . During another phase of realignment in 2005 , three schools ( Boston College , Miami-FL and Virginia Tech ) jumped from the Big East to the ACC , and Temple also left the conference ( before eventually returning in 2013 ) . The Big East responded by adding former basketball-only member Connecticut and three schools from C-USA
original Big East Conference
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Power Five conferences