All of the talk of a new "Division 4" has obviously left the Group of 5 schools in a tough spot. Assuming the power schools would only split for football and remain Division I for all others (since I don't think they would pay non-revenue sport athletes), the Group of 5 would be best off to work something out with the FCS schools. I know this sounds crazy, but here's my basic outline of how this work for both sides.

-"revamped FBS"- SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 schools could pick 8 more schools to move up that would be competitive at that level (most likely Notre Dame, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, San Diego State and maybe the service academies or UConn, UCF and USF). These schools could have the 4 team playoff and incorporate it so that this division has 16 bowl games (ex: 3 for playoff plus 13 non-playoff games). 32 of the 72 division members would have a postseason, which likely account for all 7+ win teams. This division could move to 13 reg. season games with 9 conference, 1 "revamped FCS" and 3 interdivision games. This division could have 6 conferences with 12 members each. Adding a conference championship game would mean 16 games each season at most, which would be a good endurance test to better determine a national champion.

-"revamped FCS"- The current Group of 5 schools could merge with the FCS (as there is some competitive overlap among them), and create a 32 team playoff that would expand off of the current 24 team setup. First round games could be at the home of a higher seeded team, with later rounds being played at various lower-tier bowl games sites (such as Mobile, Boise, etc.). This division could have conferences with up to 12 members, but no championship game to due to the playoffs. Each team could play only 11 games (including FBS for non-con but no D2/3/NAIA games), with a maximum of 16 if the national championship game is reached. There would be 18 conferences at this level, including FB-only Pioneer League as well as playoff abstainers Ivy League and SWAC, meaning 16 auto bids and 16 at-large bids. Below this is a list of how the current Group of 5 conference plus top FCS conferences such as the MVFC might look, assuming the service academies stay but Cincy, Houston, BYU, UConn, UCF and USF leave.

Teams in italics are schools that would be added due to departures.

The American
Temple
East Carolina
Memphis
Tulsa
SMU
Navy
Tulane
Southern Miss
Army
FIU (to gain FL market)

Mountain West
San Jose State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Nevada
Boise State
Utah State
UNLV
New Mexico
Air Force
Colorado State
Wyoming
UTEP (only for even numbers)

Conference USA
Marshall
Old Dominion
Charlotte
Florida Atlantic
UAB
Middle Tennessee
Western Kentucky
Louisiana Tech
UTSA
Rice
North Texas
Arkansas State (best school in a state in their footprint w/o a current member)

Sun Belt
Appalachian State
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Troy
South Alabama
UL-Monroe
UL-Lafayette
Texas State
New Mexico State
UMass (gets Sun Belt to 10 and is more feasible with Idaho leaving)

MAC loses UMass to Sun Belt to remain at 12 and stays stable as usual.

WAC (returns to football at "FCS" level)
Idaho
Eastern Washington
Sam Houston State
Montana
Montana State
North Dakota State
North Dakota
South Dakota State
South Dakota

Big Sky
Portland State
Idaho State
Sacramento State
UC Davis
Cal Poly
Northern Arizona
Southern Utah
Weber State
Northern Colorado

Southland
Central Arkansas
Stephen F. Austin
SE Louisiana
McNeese State
Abilene Christian
Incarnate Word
Houston Baptist
Nicholls State
Northwestern State
New Orleans

MVFC
Northern Iowa
Missouri State
Illinois State
Southern Illinois
Western Illinois
Youngstown State
Indiana State
Eastern Illinois
Tennessee State (no realistically competitive & available options in current footprint besides EIU)

Ohio Valley
SE Missouri State
Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
TN-Martin
Austin Peay
Tennessee Tech
Jacksonville State
Chattanooga
Samford
East Tennessee State

The OVC adds would lead to Big South football merging with SoCon, and forcing a save for the A-Sun somehow.

Southern Conference
VMI
Mercer
Western Carolina
The Citadel
Furman
Wofford
Liberty
Coastal Carolina
Charleston Southern
Presbyterian
Kennesaw State

All other FCS conferences would remain intact with these moves taking place.


I know all of that is very unlikely, but wouldn't that work out better than some other options?