with the news that the championship game is coming back, why not add just an 11th team (either Cincinnati or UH) and drop down to an 8-game (or even 7-game) conference schedule? UT can renew the A&M rivalry. KU can renew the Mizzou rivalry. WVU can renew the Pitt rivalry. The rest of the conference can look to add good non-conference games, with Notre Dame and BYU hopefully playing two Big 12 teams per year. I like the idea of having the top 2 teams play in the conference championship game without any regard to divisions, but I hate the idea of a guaranteed rematch every year.
Strike that bit, and the rest might be doable. I like we play 2 P5 programs for OOC games, but every program in the conference is going to have to buy in and do the same. Only one "warm up" game per season is needed, and any member that runs the table will look much stronger to "the committee". That will last until the GOR issues can be resolved and we can get into another conference.
Minimum number of conference games is 8 (which is what the $EC does so they can pad their win totals).
