The independent ranks have swung and swayed in recent years. As recently as 2022, we had seven of them, but BYU joined the Big 12, and Liberty and New Mexico State gratefully joined Conference USA. With Army joining AAC in football this year, and UMass re-joining the MAC in 2024, we could soon be down to only two: forever-independent Notre Dame and UConn.
For now, however, we sort of have five: three indies and a Pac-2. As you probably remember, the Pac-12 was torn apart last year, with four schools departing for the Big Ten (Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington), four more leaving for the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) and, out of sheer desperation, two fleeing for the ACC (Cal, Stanford).