The shift happened in fits and starts last time. First Colorado decided to hop to the (then) Pac-10 from the Big 12. Then, one day later in 2010, Nebraska pledged to the Big Ten beginning in 2011. Utah accepted an invitation to the Pac-10 less than a week later. In 2011, Texas A&M and Missouri decided to jump to the SEC and less than a year after that, they were in it. In the months in between, the conferences decided to scrap the BCS and create a playoff. Then West Virginia and TCU backfilled the Big 12. In 2013, Syracuse and Pittsburgh joined the ACC. Finally, in 2014 — just as Louisville hopped into the ACC — the College Football Playoff started.

It was a lot, but it felt disjointed. It felt as if the change would never end.

Now that Oklahoma, Texas and the Big 12 have proven that rational people can come to a rational conclusion, the next huge set of changes will land mostly at once. Oklahoma and Texas will start SEC play — and the SEC will introduce a new scheduling format — in 2024. UCLA and USC will start Big Ten play — and the Big Ten will introduce a new scheduling format — in 2024. The Big 12 will begin play with the lineup that it hopes will be together for a long time in 2024.

The biggest change? The 2024 season will end in a 12-team College Football Playoff instead of four teams. That change has informed some of the other ones, and it probably will affect some still yet to come (which likely also will take effect in 2024).

In less than 19 months, college football will feel like an entirely new sport. This will sadden some people and excite others. But it’s important to note that the sport has evolved fairly constantly since the status quo defenders were complaining about the legalization of the forward pass back in 1906.

So what happens now? There remain some loose ends to be tied up in these next 18-plus months, and some of them need to get cinched fairly quickly.

Note that I didn’t mention a new or settled lineup beginning play in the Pac-12 in 2024. That still seems the most likely outcome, but the league needs to agree to a new media rights deal that would begin with the 2024 football season. The deadline isn’t looming quite yet; remember, the details of the Big Ten deal that begins this July weren’t finalized until August 2022.