To elaborate on the above point, I would, after reducing the number of teams per conference to allow a championship game to 10 so they could still have one and get the money therefrom, draw it up, at least at this moment, like so if the decision was mine:
BIG EAST:
EASTERN: Boston College, Connecticut, Rutgers, Temple, South Florida, and any of the former 1-AA New England schools that move up from here on,
WESTERN: Penn St., Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati
ACC:
ATLANTIC: Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Maryland,
COASTAL: Clemson, Wake Forest, South Carolina if they'd choose to move over (although they'd still work well enough in the SEC as long as the Clemson game is maintained), Georgia Tech, Miami, Florida St.
SEC: Same basic alignment as before this year, although possibly with Arkansas and South Carolina moving back to where they'd been previously
BIG 10:
EASTERN: Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Indiana, Purdue (with an offer at least made to Notre Dame to join this division, with the guarantee the USC and Navy games would be retained),
WESTERN: Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
The Southwest Conference would be in essence reborn, with Arkansas offered a lot to come back. If they would decline, it would appear as:
NORTHERN: Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech (Arkansas would be in this division as well),
SOUTHERN: TCU, SMU, Houston, Baylor, Rice (and perhaps offer UTEP a chance as well)
CONFERENCE USA: East Carolina, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Miss, Marshall, and as many other of the low level teams as they could manage
BIG 8/12: Colorado, Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas St., Missouri, Iowa St. Should the teams in North and South Dakota and Montana jump fully up to 1-A, they would be offered this first. In lieu of divisions, the top 2 teams would meet for the conference title on a neutral field
MOUNTAIN WEST/WAC: Both conferences would be combined to create:
MOUNTAIN: BYU, Utah, Utah St., UTEP, New Mexico, New Mexico St., Boise St.
PACIFIC: Fresno St., San Jose St., San Diego St., UNLV, Nevada, Hawaii, with anyone else I've forgotten sifted in accordingly by geography
PAC-10: The classic Pac-10, although if they wanted to do divisions, with the winners still meeting:
NORTHERN: Oregon, Oregon St., Washington, Washington St., California,
SOUTHERN: Stanford (although the Axe game would be locked in as perennial), USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St.
Does this appear to be workable if someone acutally did take it up?