What if the some of the major conferences went to 16 teams and two 8-team divisions? 7 games against everyone else in your division, then one crossover game according to finish in the standings (including 1st place in each division for the conference championship game). What might the conference shakeout be? Let's find out...

ACC: Adds UConn, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Penn State
ACC North: BC, UConn, Rutgers, Syracuse, Penn State, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech
ACC South: UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, GA Tech, Miami, Florida State

SEC: Adds Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech
SEC West: Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State
SEC East: Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vandy

Big Ten: Adds Iowa State, Pitt, WVU, Cincy, Louisville, and South Florida. Big Ten Network gets to spread to the Florida market.
Big Ten West: Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue
Big Ten East: Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Pitt, Cincy, Louisville, WVU, South Florida

Big XII: Adds Colo State, BYU, Utah, New Mexico, TCU
Big XII West: Colo State, Colorado, BYU, Utah, TCU, New Mexico
Big XII East: Nebraska, Kansas, K-State, Missouri, Oklahoma, OK State

Mountain West is renamed Southwest Conference:
Southwest West: NM State, UTEP, Houston, SMU, Rice, North Texas
Southwest East: Tulsa, Tulane, LA Tech, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe, Arkansas State

WAC: Adds Wyoming, Air Force, SD State, UNLV to existing Hawaii, Boise State, Idaho, Nevada, SJ State, Fresno State, Utah State

C-USA: Merges with Sun Belt
C-USA: Central Florida, Memphis, East Carolina, Marshall, UAB, So Miss, FAU, FIU, Western Kentucky, Troy, Middle Tennessee

Everything else stays the same. Summary...
ACC: 16
SEC: 16
Big Ten: 16
Big XII: 12
Pac-10: 10
Southwest: 12
WAC: 11
C-USA: 11
MAC: 13
Independents: 3
Total: 120

There are some unresolved issues, such as what to do with Sun Belt's non-football teams (maybe they could keep the Sun Belt name and add non-football schools). Also, there would be a chain reaction after the Big East expands in basketball as well. But, focusing on just I-A football I think these conferences could work. That SEC East and Big Ten East might be the two toughest divisions out there!

Any thoughts?

The schools are neatly arranged - nice job. BUT, if you have only one crossover game why bother to have a conference? Half the students would go through LSU without experiencing a game with Auburn, for instance, and 3/4 at Minnesota would miss a home game for the Little Brown Jug.

By having the conference you get the benefits of having a conference championship game. Some rivalries would unfortunately be split though... perhaps you could have 2 crossovers and still have a championship game on top of that (champion and runner-up would play 10 conference games), that way you would play teams in the other division every 4 years.

I had an alternate version of this where the Big East goes to 12 football members and a championship game. That would look like this:

Big East West: Louisville, Cincy, S Florida, Kentucky, Vandy, Tennessee
Big East East: UConn, Pitt, W Virginia, Syracuse, Rutgers, BC

ACC North: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, UNC, Duke, NC State
ACC South: Wake Forest, Clemson, South Carolina, GA Tech, Florida St, Miami

SEC East: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss State
SEC West: LSU, Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech

Big Ten West: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, N'western, Iowa, Iowa St
Big Ten East: Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Penn State

Everything else the same as above. The problem with this one is that Tennessee and Kentucky would probably never leave the SEC for the Big East, nor would BC go back there. This also depends on a Big East split, which still isn't a given to actually happen.

How about adding Houston and UTEP to the BIG XII. New Mexico st to the WAC.

South Florida switch with Memphis. Florida wants UCF and South Florida together to create another huge rivally.

Add USA and Georgia Southern to CUSA.

UTSA, Lamar, and Texas st to the Southwest conference.

UTEP and Houston could definitely work in the Big XII, and if that's where they went I don't think the Southwest would consider NM State an important addition.

I just can't see Memphis in the Big Ten. Another possibility to throw around would be switching South Florida to the SEC and Kentucky to the Big Ten (to go with Louisville). After looking at that SEC East, Vanderbilt might have to withdraw after pondering the thought of playing Tenn, S Fla, Fla, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and So Carolina every year. Then you could replace Vanderbilt in the SEC East w/Central Florida and Vandy to C-USA.

I could see USA and Georgia Southern in the C-USA provided they are willing to move up. Same thing with UT-SA, Lamar, and Texas State. Are any of them serious about moving up once the moratorium expires?

UTSA has made it very clear to move up to FBS.
Texas st is talking about it.
Billy Tubbs said FBS must be the goal.
So the answer is yes.

I posted this as a guest called thisshouldhappen for real in the dream confs thread back in 05

Big East Conference

East Division:
Boston College
Connecticut
Hofstra (From 1-AA Colonial)
Massachusetts (From 1-AA Colonial/Atlantic 10)
Providence (New Football Program)
Rutgers
St. John’s (New Football Program)
Seton Hall (New Football Program)

West Division:
Marshall (From C-USA)
Penn State (From Big Ten)
Pittsburgh
St. Joseph’s (New Football Program/From A-10)
Syracuse
Temple (From MAC/A-10)
Villanova (From 1-AA Colonial)
West Virginia

Atlantic Coast Conference

Central Atlantic Division:
Delaware (From 1-AA Colonial)
Georgetown (From 1-AA Patriot/Big East)
Maryland
Old Dominion (From 1-AA Colonial)
Richmond (From 1-AA Colonial/A-10)
Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth (New Football Program/From Colonial)
Virginia Tech

Carolinas Division:
Clemson
Duke
East Carolina (From C-USA)
North Carolina
North Carolina-Charlotte (New Football Program/From A-10)
North Carolina State
South Carolina (From SEC)
Wake Forest

Big Ten Conference

East Division:
Cincinnati (From Big East)
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame (From Independent/Big East)
Ohio State
Purdue
Xavier (New Football Program/From A-10)

West Division:
Illinois
Iowa
Iowa State (From Big 12)
Minnesota
Missouri (From Big 12)
Northwestern
Saint Louis (New Football Program/From A-10)
Wisconsin

Big 12 Conference

North Division:
Arkansas (From SEC)
Colorado
Colorado State (From Mountain West)
Kansas
Kansas State
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State

South Division:
Baylor
Louisiana State (From SEC)
Southern Methodist (From C-USA)
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Christian (From Mountain West)
Texas Tech
Tulane (From C-USA)

Pac-10 Conference

North Division:
Brigham Young (From Mountain West)
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
Utah (From Mountain West)
Washington
Washington State

South Division:
Arizona
Arizona State
California-Los Angeles
Fresno State (From WAC)
Hawaii (From WAC)
Nevada-Las Vegas (From Mountain West)
San Diego State (From Mountain West)
Southern California

Southeastern Conference

East Division:
Central Florida (From C-USA)
Florida
Florida State (From ACC)
Georgia
Georgia Tech (From ACC)
Miami (From ACC)
South Florida (From Big East)
Tennessee

West Division:
Alabama
Auburn
Kentucky
Louisville (From Big East)
Memphis (From C-USA)
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Vanderbilt

I am a regionalist, and I see this happening in 50-75 years (I'll be an old man I hope by then)

The NCAA allows conferences with 15 or more schools sponsoring Bowl Subdivision football to have a two-round football playoff with a maximum of four teams.

Most conferences go to three divisions, which allows for one wildcard in a football playoff.

SEC:

West - LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas
Central - Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Louisville
East - Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia Tech

ACC:

North - Boston College, Connecticut, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Temple
Central - NC State, Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, West Virginia, Clemson
South - Florida State, Miami-FL, Georgia Tech, Central Florida, South Florida

Big 16:

West - Missouri, Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraksa
Central - Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State
East - Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers, Syracuse

Pac 16:

North - Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Idaho
South - California, UCLA, Stanford, Southern California, Nevada
East - Utah, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, Arizona, Arizona State

Southwest (former Big 12 merges with Conference USA):

North - Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Missouri State*
South - Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, Houston
East - Tulane, Louisiana Tech, TCU, SMU, Memphis

Western Athletic (merges with Mountain West):

Pacific - San Jose State, Fresno State, UC Davis*, Sacramento State*, Hawaii, Portland State*
South - Air Force, New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP, UNLV
North - Utah State, Boise State, Montana*, Wyoming, North Dakota State*

Sun Belt:

West - Arkansas State, North Texas, Texas State, UTSA
South - South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss
North - MTSU, Western Kentucky, Troy, UAB
East - Florida Atlantic, Florida International, East Carolina, Georgia State

Mid-American:

West - Western Michigan, Central Michgian, Ball State, Northern Illinios, Southern Illinois*
Central - Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Miami-OH, Ohio
East - Kent, Akron, Buffalo, Marshall, Temple

FBS Independents (Primary Conference):

Army (Patriot League), Charlotte (Atlantic 16), Kennesaw State (Atlantic Sun), Massachusetts (Atlantic 16), Navy (Patriot League), Notre Dame (Big East)