re: 2 Super Conferences of 24-Teams

16 teams work for me.

But we need a 12-team playoff.

The proposed 3-6-6 schedule format is going to be brutal.

Give the SEC, B1G, Big 12, and ACC an automatic bid. Then the following highest-ranked teams.

Relegation is the only way you can have super conferences and not destroy every group of 5 program. I honestly think it’s one of the few things that could make it work. Smaller programs would actually have a clear path to a national championship, albeit very unlikely. As of now, your Arkansas States and FAUs literally have NO path to ever win anything more than a worthless .com bowl game.

Don’t be so worried, relegation wouldn’t be an issue for any middle of the pack SEC program like LSU

If we're talking about a football only conference, I went back 30 years to 1992 to gather data from the Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, BCS, and CFP eras.

Every team that won a national championship, played in a national championship game, or participated in a playoff game since 1992:

Alabama
Auburn
Cincinnati
Clemson
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
LSU
Miami
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oregon
Tennessee
Texas
USC
Virginia Tech
Washington

Every additional team that won a non-CFP NY6 Bowl, BCS Bowl, Bowl Alliance Bowl, or Tier 1 Bowl Coalition Bowl since 1992:

Arizona
Baylor
Boise State
Colorado
Georgia Tech
Houston
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Louisville
Oklahoma State
Ole Miss
Oregon State
Penn State
Stanford
Syracuse
TCU
Texas A&M
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Relevant notes and takeaways:

Penn State and Wisconsin have won four major non-championship bowls in this era. Penn State actually finished undefeated in the 1994 season and didn't get to play in the NC game thanks to a conference bowl tie-in that they couldn't escape; which was a key event in bringing about the BCS a few years later.

Boise State, Stanford, and West Virginia all have logged three major bowl wins.

Louisville, Oklahoma State, TCU, UCF, and Utah each have two major bowl wins. Oklahoma State was famously snubbed for the 2011 BCSNG, which helped lead to CFP discussions.

Boise State, TCU, UCF, and Utah all have achieved undefeated seasons, with Boise State and Utah each having two.

Of the 44 teams listed, 25 of them have won a national championship according to the AP, Coaches, BCS, or CFP polls since AP poll debuted in 1936. Of the remaining 19 teams, three have been the runner-up or participated in the playoffs since 1998. Of the 16 remaining teams after that, Iowa State, Oregon State, and Kansas are three teams that appear to be flash-in-the-pan outliers incapable of sustaining any type of success. Of course, this is a bit up for debate. You could possibly add Arizona or Syracuse to that list, despite Syracuse also having a legitimate national championship to their name. But every other team besides Kansas, Oregon State, and Iowa State seem to have the ability to make a run. The point is to show that, for the most part, the teams chosen seem to have some degree of success both historically and recently.

To fill out the remaining four teams, I go reverse chronologically for an AP or Coaches championship, starting in 1991.

BYU
Pittsburgh
Minnesota
UCLA

Only two teams that have ever been awarded the AP or Coaches NC are left out in this method: Maryland (1953) and Army (1945, 1944).

It's worth noting that if any of these choices seem to pale, a huge amount of parity should be injected to the sport if only 48 teams have a path to hardware. The same amount of college recruits would be funneled to mostly these teams, and the slumping teams like Houston and Miami would theoretically benefit the most, as they're located in recruiting hotbeds. Also note that I set my bias aside and didn't decide to include a condition that allowed my own team to make the cut.