The article touts a figure of $114 million per team for this. Big 10 gets approx. $55 million now, ACC $25 million. Those conference figure almost sure to drop if this ever happened. Think about the drama associated with EVERY game whether it's to qualify for top 3 (or division champ) in a 12 team playoff or to avoid relegation and a loss of nearly $100 million. East drops to ACC, South drops to SEC, Midwest Big 10, West Pac 10. Big 12 is absorbed into these conferences (WVU East, OSU TCU TTU Baylor to South, Kansas, KSU, Iowa St. to Midwest, OSU to West.
I would change the article to make it 5 division games plus 1 cross over game to each division (8 total games) with only division games mattering for playoffs/relegation. Division champ gets first round bye and hosts second round game. Second place hosts first round game. Third place in playoffs, 4th and 5th stay up, 6th gets relegated.
That gives you the following four "second divisions". Each has 9 teams and plays 8 games :
East second division - VT, UVA, WVU, UNC, Duke, NCState, Wake, GT, Maryland, Rutgers
South second division - Ok State, TCU, TTU, Baylor, South Carolina, Vandy, Ole miss, MSU, Mizzou
Midwest second division - Kansas, K-State, Iowa St. Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue
West second division - Arizona, Arizona St., Utah, Colorado, Cal, Washington, Wash. St., Oregon St., Stanford
The division champion gets promoted to the top division. The four division champions play their own playoff for a bonus pot of TV money.
You could take it even further and make a third and fourth division from other FBS teams. Limit each to 9 teams, maybe even do two teams up, two teams down.
It's all a pipe dream because no school will give up money and power to make this all happen, but oh if it could, such an amazing set of games and drama each week!
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