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My personal Golden Age is the BCS Era, and that’s not to say it’s due to the BCS. The era itself aligns with my coming of age with football, which started with watching college football with my grandpa during my childhood in Florida, until finishing college fifteen years later in Arizona.

I looked at it two different ways.  If I could live in a college football world forever, I think myself, and most people would pick the era they first fell in love with the sport.  For me that straddles the 1980-91 era and the 1992-97 era.

I viewed it more as if you said right now you could lock the sport into a set of rules and alignment and understanding of the sport going forward, which would you pick.  That's why I picked the BCS.  Not because of the BCS specifically, but I like the idea of one championship bowl, as phony as it could be, with still lots of meaningful bowls behind it.  Particularly the early part of that era, I liked how for the most part you still had the powers believing you won the game by running the ball, with a fullback.  But you had some PITA offenses with Randy Walker at Northwestern, Joe Tiller at Purdue, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Rich Rod at West Virginia, that you had more diversity than you had before or after that period.  I also think it was the apex of program building, because we had moved on from the roster clustering towards a couple programs that existed in the 70s and to a lesser extent 80s, but hadn't entered the transfer portal/NIL era.

It's certainly not the era I'm most nostalgic for, but I think it's the era, not for the BCS specifically by any means, that had it the most right

1984

I'd freeze the alignment of having the SWC, Big 8, and Big East + ND.  In lieu of having big-name independents, FSU being in the ACC and Miami in the Big East split up the FL powers nicely. 

Is SMU's death penalty the reason the SWC became so weak? 
Would ND have been enough to keep a strong eastern conference from being poached?
Was 1990 the worst Heisman vote ever?

Texas hit a lull and then Arkansas left. 

When your conference drops from 9 to 8 and you need Texas and A&M locked in to be looking “good” it’s a tough road. 

Yeah I debated the SWC thing.

I like it in theory, and I get why fans from Texas are on board.  Then when you look at the teams involved, I wasn't sure.  I do like the nostalgic aspect of it, but if we were going to lock it in, I'd prefer the Big XII

Yeah I debated the SWC thing.

I like it in theory, and I get why fans from Texas are on board.  Then when you look at the teams involved, I wasn't sure.  I do like the nostalgic aspect of it, but if we were going to lock it in, I'd prefer the Big XII

nope, Big 8 & SWC for me
back when NU/OU was a thing
12 team conferences with CCGs weren't ideal

Much simpler than that.  Television revenues.  Neither the SWC nor the Big 8 could survive on their own.  Even after the merger the B12 was still behind the B1G and, later, the SEC.

Ahh. I was thinking football week, not finances weak. 

Ever since 1984 conference realignment has been about nothing other than money.

I know. But the question was about the league being strong. And I was thinking about a strong football league.