even though many on here will argue that this is a "new age" and we have to think in terms of markets, media rights, etc.

I contend that even though technology is seemingly making geography seem less relevant; geography should be more relevant. The culture in Texas and the Great Plains is different than the culture of Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. This is where I think the recent expansions by the P5 conferences are in jeopardy of losing their original culture. Adding Utah to the PAC, VT and Miami to the ACC, aTm to the SEC and UNL to the B1G made sense. But the head-scratchers to me were BC, SU, Pitt, UL, ND, UMCP, Rutgers, Mizzou and Colorado to their new respective conferences.

The new model just seems to embrace the "ESPN Culture" and is slowly killing important rivalries and replacing them with filler content that checks the box for media markets.

I posted above that I could embrace an ACC/Big XII merger... but that conference would look like Frankenstein compared to the other 3 P5s. I still like the 8 to 12 max team conferences.