I would go with a 5-conference set-up, each with 16 teams. That way, we don't have to bump a lot of the decent western teams, and we could still argue that while 80 teams is a large league, at least it's in the right direction from where it was heading.
Playoffs would be 5 conference champs plus the next best 3 according to either a CFP panel or some kind of BCS ranking like we used to do. Everyone else over .500 can play in good old bowl games, but not the "Top 7," which are reserved for the playoff.
The Power-5 right now has 64 already, but that's leaving out ND and some capable others. I'm also keeping the service academies, just because. The Sun Belt, C-USA, and MAC are getting shut out. I didn't find anyone extraordinary or consistently good/big enough to make the Top-80. Every other team who doesn't make the "big league" can switch to FCS or try to stay afloat in their current system with TV contracts, occasionally playing a "big league" team in nonconference matchup (like when we could play Rice or UTEP).
We can also talk about relegation, but that would cause a lot of nightmare scenarios for schools that can't afford it.
Here's my vote for the 16 teams who make the imaginary cut:
Independents:
ND
BYU
Army
AAC:
Cincy
Houston
Memphis
Navy
SMU
Temple
UCF
USF
MWC:
Boise
Air Force
CSU
Wyoming
San Diego St
And here's how I would organize the conferences (without regard to divisions, which I assume would either be two 8-team divisions in each one, or four 4-team divisions in each one) **edit** flipped Rutgers and BC back to their original conferences... sake of continuity.
New Pac 12:
Air Force
Arizona
Arizona State
Boise St
BYU
Cal
Oregon
Oregon St
San Diego St
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Utah
Washington
Washington St
Wyoming
New Big 10:
Army
Cincinnati
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan St
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Rutgers
Wisconsin
New Big 12:
Arkansas
Baylor
Colorado
Colorado State
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Memphis
Oklahoma
OK State
SMU
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia
New SEC:
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi St
Missouri
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas A&M
UCF
USF
Vanderbilt
New ACC:
Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Georgia Tech
Louisville
Maryland
Miami
Navy
North Carolina
North Carolina St
Pitt
Syracuse
Temple
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
-
Like x 1
-
Agree x 1
Last edited: Apr 15, 2020