I may have done this before, but here is one take on how the Power 5 conferences could/should realign.

Realign may be the wrong word, for for this I have pretty much left the 5 conferences alone with their current roster. I have only actually shifted one single team between the P5. (WEST by God) What I am doing essentially is having each conference expand to 16 teams each by adding to each conference some somewhat geographically compatible schools to them. By that I mean essentially having each conference move into surrounding territory. This is done by: A. Emaculating the American Conference and B. Partially emasculating the Mountain West Conference. Here is the proposed lineup:

Big Ten:

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Nebraska

Michigan

Purdue

Michigan St.

Ohio St.

Penn St.

Maryland

Rutgers

Northwestern

add: West Virginia transfer in from B12, and Connecticut

ACC:

Boston College

Clemson

Duke

North Carolina

Wake Forest

NC ST.

Florida St.

Ga. Tech

Louisville

Miami

Pitt

Syracuse

Virginia

Va. Tech

add: Cincinnati, Memphis

SEC:

Alabama

Arkansas

Auburn

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

LSU

Ole Miss

Mississippi St.

Missouri

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas A&M

Vanderbilt

Add: East Carolina, Tulsa

Pac 12:

Arizona

Arizona St.

USC

UCLA

Stanford

Cal

Oregon

Oregon St.

Washington

Washington St.

Utah

Colorado

add: Hawaii, Boise St. New Mexico, Nevada

Big 12:

Iowa St.

Kansas

Kansas St.

Oklahoma

OK St.

Texas

TCU

Texas Tech

Baylor

add: Houston, SMU, Colorado St., Wyoming, Arkansas St. New Mexico St., Tulane

Here is my reasoning for some of the moves....most of which involve the expansion of the conferences into markets in surrounding states:

West Va.: With Ohio/PA/Maryland surrounding it, and it being basically in the middle of what is now Big Ten country, it seemed a natural shift.

Connecticut: This solidifies the Big Ten in its eastern expansion and allows it to surround the New York City market...now having Rutgers in the nearby west of NYC and UConn in the nearby east....and it gives it a foothold in New England

Cincinnati and Memphis in the ACC. Reunites these "city teams" with former compadres Louisville and Pitt. Plus it gives the ACC an incursion into Big Ten country with Cinci, and provides it with an additional incursion into SEC country with a team in either the #1 or 2 market in Tennessee.

East Carolina and Tulsa in the SEC. Similar reasons to the above. Puts the SEC into neighboring states NC and OK, Tulsa being #2 OK market. And while EC is not in the NC population centers, quite frankly....its football program is probably as strong or stronger than any of the other schools in that state. (and we are dealing with this realignment as a football....not basketball matter)

Hawaii, Boise, New Mexico, Nevada into the Pac 12. Primarily, this is done to fill the 16 slots with the main schools in the western states that fill in the P12 map. Since they have Utah and Colorado in there now....put the teams in from the other most westerly states. (If you wanted to go with UNLV rather than Nevada...that would be OK...UNLV in larger market)

Houston, SMU, Colorado St., Wyoming, Arkansas St. New Mex. St., Tulane. in the Big 12: Again market expansion and consolidation, plus with Houston and SMU it is bringing former affiliated schools back into the fold. I know some of these teams are "smaller programs", but these additions puts this conference into the Houston and New Orleans markets...plus into Ark, NM and Colorado to compete with SEC and P12 schools there. But, yes, it would be an upgrade for a lot of these schools.

Our top is deeper.

Apparently not.

Our middle is better.

Which teams do you consider the "middle" of each conf.?

Come on Gip, you're better than that Bob Stoops "Kentucky sucks, ergo the SEC sucks" logic.

Kentucky/Vandy...and usually Ole Miss and Miss St. They had their once in a generation decent seasons last year.

Va Tech is just rowdier, less pretentious, a little more rural, etc. But that's just what I've heard. I don't actually know.

Not as highly regarded academically.

One year does not make a trend. Go top to bottom across the conferences, the ACC is not currently better.

Virginia would probably stick its nose up at SEC academics. VT is fine. Better cultural fit anyway. At least that's what I've heard.

Yes they should make a 30-50 year decision based on the results of 1 year....

I don't think anyone believes the ACC will be even with the SEC any time soon

Right. Won't be FSU or Clemson. One of the NC schools and/or one of the Virginia schools.

They will pick one off from the ACC.

I like the idea of ECU in the SEC. They are almost the bully of the state as it is.....give them the ability to recruit kids as a SEC school, ECU would own the recruiting in North Carolina and bully up real quick..

Additional note: East Carolina average attendance for the last 5 years fluctuated between 45-50K

NC State averages about 53K

NC's average was 51,500

Wake about 28,000

Duke about 26,000.

So, attendance/competitive wise, ECU is NOT the weak sister in that state of FBS programs, not at all.

Yeah I have a bunch of awesome 4th quarter, 7-point game, screenshots of the teams on the sideline and the front 3 rows that they're showing are all virtually empty. I don't know why Patterson shows the school so much loyalty when they're clearly not reciprocating it. He would be the best hire any school could make, yet no one's been able to.

Then again some guys just do better at the smaller schools. A big chunk of big time coaching is egos management. No one knows whether Patterson is worth a darn or not in that department.