SI’s Andy Staples chronicles an alternate 21st century in college football that starts with Florida beating LSU in 2004 and climaxes in — well, an SEC rematch for the 2011 national championship.
In the process, Iowa State hires Ron Zook instead of Gene Chizik and then falls off the radar forever as a true Conferencepocalypse happens:
With the landscape shifting rapidly, Delany and Slive realize their leagues must also grow. Slive talks Texas A&M out of the Pac-10 and into the SEC. The Pac-10 replaces Texas A&M with Utah. Sensing weakness in the ACC, the SEC also grabs Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech. The Big Ten then takes Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech from the ACC. Three conferences (the Big Ten, the Pac-16 and the SEC) rule college athletics. The remaining Big East football schools and ACC schools merge, also adding Kansas, Kansas State and TCU to form a middle class between the haves and the have-nots.
Iowa State and Baylor are, as usual, conspicuous in their absence.
By the multiverse theory, this happened somewhere. I’m glad I don’t live there. Also by the multiverse theory, somewhere else, the Cubs went to the World Series in 2003 and Steve Bartman wasn’t responsible for six years of SEC domination — and Paul Rhoads probably doesn’t come to Iowa State. If this isn’t the best possible world, it’s at least in the better half.