[Editor's Note: Added to front page for discussion purposes. It's interesting, if nothing else.--C&F]

Texas-Texas A&M. dead.

Mizzou-Kansas. dead.

Pitt-West Va. dead.

Florida-Miami. dead.

Pitt-Penn St. dead.

Utah-BYU. dead.

Nebraska-Oklahoma. dead.

As a Clemson fan, I want to play Georgia, Auburn & Tennessee but with a 14-team conference & a 9-game conference schedule (plus Sakerlina), there's no room. We've had to cancel a series w/ Ole Miss & Oklahoma St b/c of this. We almost cancelled our 1st game vs Georgia since 2004 before both schools agreed on a $3 million buyout to play it next year & 2014. This will be the last time the 2 schools every play in the regular season IMO. We've played 57 times & are 74 miles apart.

There's a bunch of other examples. Here's my solution:

With 12, 14 & 16 team conferences, everyone can't play everyone. 10 games against 'BCS' competition is the max teams can do to make sure they have 7 home games. I would have more fun as a fan watching my school play the same 10 teams us fans consider our biggest rivals. So I propose a move to simple 8-team conferences.

A team plays the other 7 teams in its conference. They also play their 3 biggest rivals OOC annually for 10 games. This puts more of an emphasis on regional rivalries. Play the teams us fans care about. Then they can schedule their 2 cupcakes at home to make $.

In basketball, teams play each team in their conference 2x & their OOC rivals 2x for 14 conference games & 20 annual games. Then add in up to 10 cupcakes, early season tournaments & ACC-B1G challenges.

*The Mississippi, Washington & BEast teams have to fill in some rivalry games from the Metro & Mtn West conferences.

**Notre Dame plays a full 12 team schedule instead of 10 w/ Stan, USC, Mich, Mich St & Navy OOC.

Here's the Google Map for the new conferences.

Let's take a look at the SEC 1st - bold = conf member, next row = annual OOC Rival, miles away from each other & times played:

1932's Founding Fathers except for Vandy (private) & Kentucky (not in the south). Keeping it west of the Appalachians like they always intended. Allows Florida to play Miami, Georgia to play Clemson & Auburn to play Ga Tech & Clemson. Tenn still gets to play Kentucky & Vandy, plus Clemson, 74 miles away. The Mississippi's are in the heart of this SEC so not many regional rivals to choose from - they get Memphis & go out to Texas. Sakerlina still gets to play Florida, Georgia & now Bama. Arkansas keeps LSU & Bama.

Sakerlina rejoins the ACC. ACC drops the dead weight (er, 5 private schools) & Pitt so it's focused on the south/mid-Atlantic. Now all 4 North Carolina schools get to play the other 3 annually. Clemson, FSU & Ga Tech can play other teams in the south. Virginia has a 4 hour drive to Happy Valley. Original member Maryland has to change conferences but keeps UNC, NCST & UVA on the annual schedule. Most importantly to Tobacco Road - all the basketball schools get to play each other 2x, including Duke-UNC.

Here's the Eastern Conference JoePa always wanted. Penn St comes home & everyone else follows suit. Except for UConn in New England these 8 schools are very close together. Ohio St does leave the B1G but keeps Michigan, Mich St & Purdue on schedule. I don't know how much Columbus, OH cares about going past Illinois to play Midwestern teams. This is a lot closer playing all its' 5 border states PA, WV, KY, MI & IN. Kentucky plays 3 OOC schools 2.5 hours away +L'ville. Old BEast members Cuse, BC, L'ville & Cincy factor heavily into other teams OOC schedules. + NC & VA ACC teams.

Like the SEC, the B1G sheds some teams away from its footprint & doesn't bring anyone new in. Ohio St & Northwestern each have 3 games w/ their original conferences. This emphasizes a B1G vs Big VIII Midwest rivalry. Except for Michigan (only B1G schools in EST) everyone else goes Midwest w/ their OOC schedules vs Mizzou, Kansas, K-St, Iowa St & Nebraska. They're all in central time zone & haven't played as much as you'd think. Indiana gets a piece of some strong basketball teams: Kentucky, Mizzou & Kansas.

Big VIII is back & with 1 change - Arkansas instead of Colorado. Mizzou, Kansas, K-St, Nebraska & Iowa St have their OOC filled w/ B1G Illinoi, Indiana, Wisc, Minn & Iowa. The Oklahoma schools player their old Big XII South division rivals - the 3 public Texas schools. Arkansas plays it's biggest rival Texas A&M & keeps the big 2 SEC teams on its' schedule - Bama/LSU.

The 8 strongest private schools are here in a new conference. 5 from the ACC + the token private schools from SEC & B1G + ND. NWern keeps in state Illinois & the Michigan schools & Vandy keeps it's closest SEC rivals - Tenn, Kentucky & Bama. Cuse & BC have a northeastern focus w/ Rutgers, UConn & Penn St. Wake & Duke get to play UNC & NCST. Miami can play Florida again & the other big city in the south Ga Tech in Atlanta (Braves-Marlins, Hawks-Heat anyone?).

ND keeps a national footprint against elite academic, like-minded schools. Stanford & USC in Cali, regional games vs Mich, Mich-St &Northwestern in Chicago. Head south to Nashville. Annual game in NC. Northeast vs Cuse (in NYC?) & vs other Catholics, BC in Boston. Catholics vs Convicts in Miami. Keeps annual game vs Navy. Only traditional rival they lose is in-state Purdue.

The Southwest Conference is also back from the dead (RIP 1996). Texas gets to play the other 2 big state schools, both Oklahoma schools & goes west w/ Colorado, Utah & Arizona. BYU finally lands in a good conference. SWC & PAC have a lot of matchups here. I sent all the western schools to LA, Bay Area & PacNW. These opponents could rotate since there's a lot to choose from.

This is the original PAC 8. OOC is almost entirely vs Arizona, Ariz St, Utah, BYU & Colorado. Private Standford & USC play private ND & BYU. Boise St gets a stronger schedule w/ 3 PAC teams. There wasn't much left for Washington schools so they get an every other year trip to Hawaii & could play AF or UNLV. Wash St is pretty terrible, makes it easier for them in the middle of nowhere.

& the rest of the conferences...

7/8 of these teams have been added to the BEast since 2005. Most of them came from the Metro (CUSA) before that. If a team not from the above 8 conferences is going to have a big season it'll either be Boise St or a team from the Metro. Most of these are commuter colleges in big cities not known for their academics. Except for Baylor & TCU which didn't fit in the SWC or Private conferences. Memphis, Baylor & TCU take on Ole Miss & Miss St annually. Cincy & L'ville play current BEast teams OOC.

These teams weren't good enough to get a BEast invite, except for SMU. They're a big loser here, along w/ Temple. They do get to play 4 games in Texas annually plus an occasional game against Texas/A&M/Tech. All of these teams are in the Central time zone except for ECU, which is a long way from Birmingham.

MWC rejoices w/ Boise St & SDST staying put. UTEP comes back finally & gets to play in Houston or Dallas annually. Air Force goes Ind. but plays everyone OOC except for Boise St. Boise's OOC schedule is a lot stronger w/ Ore St, Wash & Wash St. Rest of the schools play a lot of WAC.

This may be the only way the WAC stays alive & Idaho still doesn't get an invite! The only team here that hasn't been in the WAC is North Texas. SDST/SJST/Fresno St get to play each other for a JV State Championship.

Sun Belt without the Louisiana schools. USA & Ga St jump up from FCS.

ECU might be happier in this divisions. Temple's a big loser in this since they'll be in the BE in 2012.

The MAC minus the 3 eastern Ohio schools & Buffalo. All the Ohio schools play all the Ohio schools in the Buckeye JV State Championship.

Leftover teams. UMass, OD & Charlotte are jumping up from FCS. Idaho is considering dropping down. LAMO & LALA are the 4th & 5th schools IN LA. Business as usual for Army.

Thoughts?