Five-Thirty-Eight on Evolution of Conference Realignments

Five-Thirty-Eight, the website famous for quantitative analyses of sports, politics, and culture, examines the evolution of conference realignments (link). What I found most interesting are geographical "footprint" maps for five conferences -- the Big Ten (B1G), Big 12, SEC, ACC, and Pac 12 -- in the years 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2025. Each of these conferences' land mass has greatly expanded from 2000 to 2025. The article also describes how, for each conference, each school's travel distance to the geographic center of each conference has grown:

In 2010, the average distance for an FBS team to its conference center was 336 miles. By 2021, that average rose to 365 miles. Within four years of that, the average will be 412 miles.

Once UCLA and USC (both located in Los Angeles) begin play in the B1G, their distance to the conference center will be 1,621 miles!