Around 2018-2019, after the new teams could be included in the FBS:

Major Rules Changes

1. Reduce the requirement for having a championship game from 12 to 10 teams in a conference.
2. Have the Mountain West Conference be a BCS conference.


CONFERENCE ALIGNMENT

PAC 10
Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State

BIG 12
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Texas

BIG 10
Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Northwestern, Purdue, Notre Dame

SEC
Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina

ACC
Boston College, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Florida State, Maryland, Wake Forest, Duke, Miami-FL

BIG EAST
Syracuse, Rutgers, South Florida, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, East Carolina, Central Florida, Memphis, Temple

MOUNTAIN WEST
Colorado State, Utah, Air Force, BYU, New Mexico, San Diego State, Wyoming, New TCU, UNLV, Fresno State, Boise State, Hawaii

WAC
Idaho, Nevada, San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho State, Cal Poly, Cal Davis, Montana, Eastern Washington, Montana State, Weber State, Portland State, Sacramento State, Northern Arizona


SUN BELT
Middle Tennessee State, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Troy, LA-Lafayette, LA-Monroe, Troy, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, UAB, South Alabama, Western Kentucky

MAC
Ohio, Kent State, Akron, Toledo, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ball State, Buffalo, Miami, Bowling Green, Youngstown State, Marshall

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
Army, Navy, Villanova, Delaware, Charlotte, UMASS, New Hampshire, Maine, Georgetown, Rhode Island

SOUTHWEST
UTEP, SMU, New Mexico State, Houston, Rice, North Texas, Texas State, Sam Houston, TX – San Antonio, Lamar, Tulsa, Arkansas State

bold = new team

POSTSEASON FORMAT

Bowl Championship Series Bowls:
Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar, Citrus, Cotton

1. Award 7 Automatic Bids – conference champs:

Rose – Big 10 Champ, Pac 10 Champ
Fiesta – Mountain West champ
Sugar – SEC Champ
Cotton – Big 12 Champ
Orange – ACC Champ
Citrus – Big East Champ

2. Award the 5 remaining spots the following ways.

- The highest rated conference champ, if they finish in the Top 25 nationally, in the 5 non BCS conferences (WAC, SWC, Sun Belt, MAC, Northeast), gets an automatic bid.
- The remaining 4 or 5 spots are then determined on a straight ranking system – the highest 4-5 teams that are not conference champs get the at-large bids.

3. Play all the bowls, with all concluding by January 2.

4. After the bowls are completed, re-rank the teams and create an 8 team playoff as follows:

A. Award the six BCS bowl winners automatic bids and seed them 1-6 based on their final ranking.
B. Award the final two spots by awarding the highest rated two teams, provided they come out of the following categories:
1. Lost a BCS game but is still ranked in the Top 5.
2. Won a non BCS bowl and is ranked in the Top 25.
3. Seed them 7-8

PLAYOFF:

1. The quarterfinals and finals are played at campus sites so as to give higher rated teams an advantage.
2. National Championship played at neutral site.

BENEFITS:

1. All the BCS bowls matter, not just one, in determining national title game. Due to at-large possibility in playoff, even non-BCS bowls matter -- this prevents a team getting screwed who didn't get get in the BCS but is still highly ranked.
2. Preserves bowl system.
3. Allows teams to schedule high profile non conference games as their conference record would matter more. Plus, the better teams you beat the higher you'd be ranked.
4. Max number of games teams would play would be 17 for two in national title game -- 12 reg season, conf champ, bowl game, 3 playoff games. Most would still play 12 or 13 as now.

I like your conference re-alignment.

Note that Western Kentucky will be playing Sun-Belt football next year, and South Alabama (a Sun-Belt member) will be playing football in a few years, too so not much is required there...

The biggest strecth is the projections of all the FCS--> FBS move-ups. The Big Sky moving up en masse to merge withe the decimated WAC, and that Northeast Conference (includes a lot of CAA FB schools that seem like they could make the jump, given the resources, but just never seem to have the inclination or can't get enough funding to pull it off).

If a playoff ever happens, I predict that the whining will not stop until the tournament is at 16. There is so much more depth in the "power conferneces" that they will insist on the ability to grab an at-large slot for their runner-up every year.

The NCAA has a rule that for every post-season championship tournament they sanction, at least half the slots in the brackets must be "at large". This is to provide an opportunity for independents and non-champions of conferences that are very deep in talent.

So with a 16-team tourney, you could award Automatic Qualifier (AQ) slots to the 7 (or 8) conference champs you named, then have the remainder (at least 8) be at-large....