re: Maryland back to the ACC and ....

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who else should return to their geographical and/or cultural conference fit?

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I'll play

Go back to what we had in the 70's-80's, as a starting point.

SEC and Big 10.
ACC, the traditional schools (including Maryland).

Penn State goes into a new Big East, with Syracuse, Pitt, Boston College, West Virginia, Rutgers, maybe Virginia Tech.

Take the old Big 8, they lose OU, but keep Nebraska and Missouri. Add Utah and BYU, maybe Boise.
Take the old SWC, they lose Texas, A&M, Arkansas. Put Arizona and Arizona State in.
Mix and match the rest to get balanced conferences out of these 2.

All West Coast teams (Cali, Oregon, Washington schools) into the Pac.

Conference USA- Tulane, Southern Miss, East Carolina, etc. Hell, put Notre Dame there if they won't join the Big 10, with Cincinnati and Louisville if they aren't in the Big East.

Take whatever stragglers are left, sprinkle them in geographically to get conferences at least to 8 (10 preferable). They can be cannon fodder.

That's 8 conferences, all with reasonable travel distances, rivalry games, and at least 1 blue chip team. If we're looking at 16-24 playoff teams, that gives you 8 autobids, with 8 to 16 at-large teams.