Well I'm a Geography & Planning major, so I made it fit geographically.
I grouped them together not for their strengths now as much as I did for projected geographic strength in the near future. Essentially I went with redoing the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Big East first and then worked from there. The Big Ten should grab either Pittsburgh or West Virgina, I obviously picked Pittsburgh.
I forced the Pac-10 to create the Pac-12, I think Nevada and Boise State fit relatively well. Boise State is a power on the national scene now. They are unique with their blue turf and in my opinion bring something special to the college football scene, I've been on that bandwagon for years and I absolutely love watching them tear it up. Now, blue turf doesn't get you in the Pac-10, beating Pac-10 teams consistently does. Boise State
may have had the ability to win that conference this year. Nevada is a different story; they would benefit from joining the conference more than the conference would immediately benefit from them. They've only been FBS since 1992, but in my opinion have tremendous potential. Keep in mind Arizona and Arizona State didn't join the Pac-10 until 1978, so it's not like this conference has been etched in stone since Moses was walking around.
After the Pac-12 is formed the WAC and MWC would need to rethink their situation. Since there were more than fourteen teams I simply forced two of them to bolt east. The loser in this scenario is the Sun Belt, but that wouldn't matter. The WAC/MWC would have nice television market reach, and the C-USA would have a crucial stake in Florida; only the Sun Belt gets screwed.
This can't happen because the Big East already has too many non-football schools. It'll be tough to add more football teams because it would mean yet more basketball programs too. It's getting crowded in there. They are a basketball conference and they almost like it that way. I think Navy, Central Florida, and East Carolina give them a great geographical setting similar to the ACC--and I think they should look towards that model.
It is nearly impossible to project what would happen two or three moves into the future. All I can say for certain is that the Pac-10 needs to be the Pac-12, and the Big Ten needs to add Pittsburgh.
