College football realignment 2024: Five new conference games this fall that could blossom into rivalries

The upcoming weeks on the college football calendar include media days, preseason camp and all of the festivities that surround the final countdown to the start of the 2024 season. But they also include a few notable dates that make official what has been in the works for, in some cases, years. The beginnings of July and August will mark the start date for more than a dozen schools debuting as a new member of a power conference. This nation-wide summer of conference expansion has been unsettling for the traditionalists, but it’s also set up some enticing matchups on the field for the fall. 

Focusing on these matchups can be a good way to get excited for this new era of college football. Programs that may have only faced off in a bowl game now go toe-to-toe with the stakes of competing for a conference title. We can’t fabricate history that doesn’t exist, but we can celebrate the competition and relish the results of these new high-stakes showdowns. 

We’ve taken a look at the 2024 schedule to identify some of the best and most anticipated games that will take place between new conference foes. Some of these programs have recent series history to draw on, while others will truly be establishing the beginning of a rivalry for the modern era. In both cases, the matchup as a “conference game” may require a double take, but once we get to kickoff and start seeing results in the standings, it shouldn’t take too long to get adjusted. 

An important note of clarification before we get started: Texas-Texas A&M does not count. The restarting of the rivalry between the Longhorns and Aggies after a 13-year hiatus is clearly one of the games of the year, and when we prepare for that Nov. 30 showdown in College Station, there are expected to be SEC title race stakes involved. But considering it is a rivalry with 118 previous meetings, it did not fit the mold here. 

With that settled, let’s get into the top games between new conference foes on the 2024 schedule. With any luck, these massive showdowns will be more common in the future. 

5. Michigan vs. Washington

Date: Oct. 5

With the matchups already set, one deep-cut storyline from last season’s College Football Playoff National Championship was that Michigan and Washington would meet again on the field in the fall. What we didn’t know then was that both programs would enter the rematch with a wildly different look on the field — and…