Posted by: @roaminglion

With everything pointing towards "Super Conferences", I decided to try and make a list of what I think would be best if four 16 team conferences were to happen. Best for fans, geography, balance, etc. Big 12 is completely blown up and it's teams scattered elsewhere. I know there's plenty of "that would never happen" or "can't do that", but this is a hypothetical. Also, I'm not considering "money". My basis is that all 4 conferences would agree to disperse wealth evenly for stability (I know, yeah right but whatever) and getting back to rivalries.

So right now there's 64 teams plus Notre Dame in the Power 5 conferences. That means out of 65 teams, one is bumped out. Here's what I think would be the best way to realign them (Only taking ND and teams currently in Power 5 conferences). Each team is listed with who their end of season rival would be:

ACC NORTH:

Boston College / Rutgers
Syracuse / Penn State
Pittsburgh / West Virginia
Maryland /  Virginia

ACC SOUTH:

Virginia Tech / Wake Forest
North Carolina / Duke
Clemson / Georgia Tech
Florida State / Miami

BIG TEN EAST:

Ohio State / Michigan
Michigan State / Notre Dame
Indiana / Purdue
Illinois / Northwestern

BIG TEN WEST:

Wisconsin / Minnesota
Iowa / Iowa State
Missouri / Nebraska
Kansas / Kansas State

SEC EAST:

Florida / Georgia
NC State / South Carolina
Tennessee / Vanderbilt
Kentucky / Louisville

SEC WEST:

Alabama / Auburn
Ole Miss / Mississippi State
LSU / Arkansas
Texas A&M / Baylor

PAC EAST:

Oklahoma / Oklahoma State
Texas Tech / Texas
Colorado / Utah
Arizona / Arizona State

PAC WEST:

Washington / Washington State
Oregon / Oregon State
Stanford / California
USC / UCLA

First off, lets get who I dropped out of the way: TCU. If it were strictly based on athletic department I would have gone with Kansas State, however they aren't much worse than TCU and have 2 things in their favor: Geography due to spots available and their main rival is Kansas. In TCU's case they are a newcomer to the power 5 anyway, plus their main rival has always been SMU. They could join them in the AAU along with Houston, Tulane, etc.

You will see the PAC has received Texas, TTU, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State. Texas Tech made sense for another Texas school with UT because they are further west and have a good athletic department. Their sports also align with the PAC, and they have a rivalry with Oklahoma State as well. Those 4 schools being more "south" schools and warm weather sports focused made sense in the PAC, and the SEC would be too unbalanced competitively with them.

The Big Ten returns to a full on Midwest conference. Many of the north schools of the Big Ten that never made sense sports wise in a southern conference now join a conference better aligned with their mentalities.

SEC doesn't have big changes, except for rivals being brought in for Kentucky (Louisville), Texas A&M (Baylor), and South Carolina (NC State). This also has the benefit of NC State getting out of UNC's and Dukes shadow in Raleigh, they can forge their own identity in the SEC. Texas A&M left the Big 12 to get away from Texas, but does have a history of rivalry with Baylor too (Battle of the Brazos)

Lastly, the ACC... we come home to our eastern rivals. Again, I'd never say we should leave the Big Ten if $$$ was involved for the ACC, that's giving up a lot of dough. However, this is a "Super Conference" hypothetical. You'll see the ACC gains Penn State, WVU, and Maryland. That, IMO, creates a grouping where PSU fans can regularly enjoy fierce geographical rivalries. As a fan, I'd definitly love to see the Lions play Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse every year. Maryland, Rutgers, BC, and Virginia just give it a nice "Northeast" feel. 

Pitt, WVU, Syracuse,  Maryland, Rutgers, BC, and Virginia. 

Sounds very bland and boring. 

@blushoes 

Half the people always say something like this is boring, and the other half complain it would be too hard if we were in a division with Clemson, Ohio State, Florida State, Miami, etc.