Sorry if this isn't quite the place for it, but whatever. With all this talk of teams jumping from conference to conference, I wonder why the D-1 teams don't look at this from a top-down perspective and try to organize something a little more sensible. That's what I've done below.
There are 66 "power" conference teams currently (12 each in the Pac-12, Big-10, SEC, and ACC); 10 in the Big-12; and 8 in the Big East.
There are another 53 teams in the "mid-major" or whatever conferences (C-USA, Independents, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and the WAC).
I propose eight conferences of 11 teams apiece. This largely leaves the power conferences in place (to balance the conferences, Colorado would return to the Big-12; Penn State, Boston College, and Kentucky would move to the Big East. Let's pretend the conference names are just that and forget that nobody would ever want to leave the Big-10).
The other two conferences would be an amalgam of the mid-major conferences. Many would be forced to reform as FCS schools, but since this is a BCS thing, they'd just have to take what they're given. Perhaps a promotion/relegation system could be in place for 2/4 spots a year in those two conferences.
Teams would play a yearly round-robin schedule of 10 games; conference championship games would be eliminated and instead you'd have rotating "BCS Play-In" games against the winner of another conference - the conference would be predetermined and rotate each year; although perhaps traditional bowl matchups (Big-10 vs. Pac-12) could be skipped. The winner of each game would go directly in to the BCS - see below
Those 4 teams would make for a sensible, and natural playoff system - a schedule of 2 out-of-conference games; 9 conference games; 1 intraconference playoff game; and 1 or 2 playoff games isn't too many games [some teams already play 14-game seasons].
If you don't want a playoff, you can use the BCS formula to add 2 or 4 other teams to the mix and presto, you've got a 13 game schedule; an ultra-exciting intra-conf. playoff game; and no real need for teams to jump around from conference to conference. It also establishes a bright-line mark for who can and cannot play for the championship.
Anyhow, either way, I hope some group decides to take control of college football and offer a coherent plan rather than the bottom-up method of conferences. Ultimately I think there will either be reform of the type that I describe, or the Pac-12/SEC may break out of the NCAA altogether and run their own football and forgo the nonmembers in their entirety.


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