I know this has practically become cliche to speculate this by now, but wouldn't you have to figure that if we eventually get a Big Ten and SEC that are functioning as the NFC and AFC for the NFL, we would get divisions? And at that point, why not make the divisions geographically coherent? All the money is staying within the conference. It might still be a silver lining outcome in 10 years or so that we actually wind up mostly playing teams like Iowa and Wisconsin again. Just an idea if we later added, say, North Carolina and FSU or something.
Midwest
Illinois
Iowa
Nebraska
Wisconsin
North
Michigan
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
South
Indiana
Maryland
North Carolina
Florida State
East
Michigan State
Penn State
Purdue
Rutgers
West
Oregon
Washington
USC
UCLA
Is it perfectly balanced? Of course not. However, you could still have protected rivalries for those that need them (e.g., Indiana/Purdue or Wisconsin/Minnesota). And I think it would be a lot better than what we are all dreading, JMO.
- The Midwest probably serves as an Illini fan's unrealistic dream here, but it makes too much sense.
- The North is pretty coherent, with OSU/Michigan paired with two schools that are significantly below them. I figure any "odd ball" team should be one with a protected rivalry, such as Minnesota having Wisconsin and Northwestern (unfortunately!) probably having Illinois. In other words, their placement in an "imperfect" division is counterbalanced by being a team that has a protected rivalry (I do not envision all teams having one).
- You'd have the old ACC teams back together in the South. See previous "odd ball" comment except substitute Indiana (Purdue) in for this example..
- The East at least includes some geographic "on paper" rivalries like PSU/MSU Rutgers/PSU. Purdue obviously serves as the "oddball" here, but again - they have that protected rivalry with Indiana to help mitigate that.
- The West speaks for itself with the Pac-12 schools.