If we do see realignment in the next few years, I believe most conferences will expand to 16 teams and cause unprecedented chaos in college sports. Unlike Tim Stephen's ideas(they're in another thread), these are made on sound ideas(and the fact I came up with these alignments in about 30 minutes). Enjoy.

First salvo: The SEC

Thirsty for more money, the conference drops Kentucky and Vanderbilt and proceeds to raid the ACC and Big 12 for 6 members to go to 16: Duke, Florida State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M. This leads to the SEC, Comcast and CBS to create the SEC Channel, which launches to huge success.

Second attack: The Big Ten

The league wastes no time in scooping up Kentucky to get to 12, but pressure to answer the SEC in full leads new commisioner Kevin Weinberg to get Missouri to leave the rapidly shrinking Big 12. Maryland leaves the shrinking ACC and Rutgers and Syracuse jump ship from the Big East. The coup de grace however is Notre Dame, who tell NBC that their deal is off and accept an invite to become the 17th member...temporarily. University of Iowa officials are pressed by the Iowa legislature to leave the Big Ten and join Iowa State in what's left of the Big 12. After doing so, the Hawkeyes help the Big 12 rebuild(that's a bit later).

Next move: Pac-10

Angry that 4 of it's colleagues have left the Big 12 for other pastures, Colorado convinces Colorado State to join in an attempt to get into the Pac-10. Hearing this, BYU and Utah also want in on the proposal. Though there is some skepticism among the membership of the league, the proposal is unamiously approved. Two days later, Nevada and UNLV are welcomed into the new Pac-16.

Merger mania: ACC and Big East

Down to 8 and 6 teams respectively, the ACC invites the remaining Big East football schools to their league. But first, those 6 BEF teams agree to an amicable divorce with the Big East basketball schools, who create their own basketball-oriented super league. Vanderbilt and Central Florida are added as well. The ACC soon after adopts a new name, the Eastern-16 Conference(headquartered in Providence, RI)

Forced to rebuild: Big 12

Even with a steal in the form of the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Big 12 feels a need to add more teams. Added are Air Force, New Mexico and Texas Christian from the Mountain West and Houston, Memphis, UTEP, Tulane and Tulsa from Conference USA.

WAC-kier days: WAC

With no where else to go to, San Diego State and Wyoming close up the Mountain West and join this conference. Montana, Montana State and Portland State are added from the Big Sky of the FCS, Texas State upgrades from the Southland, SMU and Rice join from Conference USA, North Texas joins from the Sun Belt and Louisiana Tech(despite some initial doubt) replaces the Mean Green in the Sun Belt.

What's old is new: Sun Belt

The last reminants of Conference USA, UAB, East Carolina and Southern Mississippi join in this league, who also adds FCS upgrades in Appalachian State, Charlotte, Georgia Southern and South Alabama, plus Louisiana Tech from the WAC.

Reinforcements: Mid-American

Oddly enough, this smaller version of the Big Ten required the least amount of changes. Marshall returns from Conference USA, Temple becomes an all-sports member and both Army and Navy give up football independence to move-in.

The Super-8 boots out everyone else:

Finally in the ultimate twist, these 8 conferences unite to force out every other school from the NCAA, forcing all to seek NAIA membership. (This does not include the Ivy League, who sues to remain in the NCAA. But when the SCOTUS rules against the Ivies, the schools opt to go the independent route.)

The Alignments:

SEC
Eastern Division: Alabama, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Western Division: Arkansas, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M

Big Ten+6
Eastern Division: Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Syracuse
Western Division: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Wisconsin

Pacific-16
Eastern Division: Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, Colorado, Colorado State, Nevada, UNLV, Utah
Western Division: California, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, Washington, Washington State

Eastern-16
Northern Division: Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
Southern Division: Central Florida, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami(FL), North Carolina State, South Florida, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest

Big 16
Northern Division: Air Force, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Tulsa
Southern Division: Baylor, Houston, Memphis, New Mexico, UTEP, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Tulane

WAC
Eastern Division: Montana, Montana State, New Mexico State, North Texas, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas State, Wyoming
Western Division: Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai'i, Idaho, Portland State, San Diego State, San Jose State, Utah State

Mid-American
Eastern Division: Akron, Army, Buffalo, Kent State, Marshall, Navy, Ohio, Temple
Western Division: Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami(OH), Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan

Sun Belt
Eastern Division: UAB, Appalachian State, Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Georgia Southern, Troy
Western Division: Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, South Alabama, Western Kentucky

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Do you ahhhhh......realign?

I think conceptually 16 member conferences is very hard to work through. No big conference is going to expand to 16 if they are risking creating a natural 6/10 or 8/8 split down the road. That is something for the CUSAs of the world --- not the SECs.

I think the rules about conference splits would have to be rewritten --- say 8 teams playing together, rather than 6--- for the SEC to even entertain expansion westward. That isn't on the books now, so I would doubt more than 14 at best.

I have big problem with the first Salvo on which all of the others are predicated.

Lets deal with just state populations first.

Why would the SEC dump the flagship of Kentucky (est 2007 pop. 4,241,474?). They are a BB power. If you dump an outlier to open a spot, why not Miss & Miss St. (2,918,785) and/or relative newcomer Arkansas (2,834,797)?

Adding Texas (23,904,380) and North Carolina (9,061,032) makes sense if it is possible, but adding Oklahoma (3,617,316) is not more compelling than Virginia (7,712,091) and Maryland (5,618,344) with their landlocked booby prize of DC (588,292).

To land UT, the SEC would have to invite UT, A&M, Tech, and OKL and retain Arkansas. The UT, A&M, and Tech alumni bases would kill anything less. And UT would have to get probably d**n near a double share to tolerate being "merely equal" to rank and file SEC schools. They won't accept an equal voice and an equal share to say auburn. Possibly the only school UT may see as approaching an equal in the SEC is Florida. They aren't going to be 1 vote out of 12 or 16. I think it would create too much of a chance of Texas breaking off ARK and LSU as a breakaway SWC. Too much risk there.

UNC won't come on their own. Either NC State or Duke would need to come too.

Is that worth doing?

It hits me that if you want to hit 16 a more harmonious expansion would be a Northern expansion raiding the ACC. That won't fracture.

Drop Ark, Miss, Miss. State, and Vandy.

add Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, UNC, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Maryland?

That guts the ACC as a football conference and gives the SEC sole ownership of football TVs south of the eastern B10. Duke and Wake Forrest would immediately nab Vandy, but would the private ACC want USF and UCF? I could see Duke and WF downgrading to the BE? and BC (and maybe Miami) retreating to the BE or indy status. Or maybe the surviving ACC (+ Vandy)merging with the FB BE, or raiding the old BE 5...who knows.

The whole thing is pretty over the top though. I can MAYBE see the SEC dropping 1-3 schools to open slots and I could see them going west for Texas or raiding the ACC, but I can't see a 16 team SEC. It would simply be too unweildy unless the NCAA rewrote their rules to favor 16 team conferences.

I think their current member lineup is fairly solid as they are the most profitable conference going. If UT shakes things up and steals the best of the B12 to get the financial means to lure rival Arkansas away from the SEC, then the SEC has to take action to prevent UT taking LSU too. In that scenario, I think dropping the Mississippi schools and Vandy to create 4 openings (UNC, NC state, Virginia, FSU) makes a lot of financial sense. 12 teams I could see, but not 16.

It is an interesting dilema facing the SEC. UT could potentially destabilize the SEC, but the only scenario that gets UT into the SEC (IMO) --- adding 4 (UT, A&M, OU, & Tech) schools and retaining Arkansas --- could just as easily lead to a breakaway that costs them LSU --- the school they wanted to keep in the first place.