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the two Cali schools to the west - Purdue moves to the East

the entire state of Cali gets the BTN!!!

I think it this point going beyond 16 is contingent on getting ND at 17, then you can pretty much do whatever you want at 18/19/20, and the B1G would likely add something like Washington/Oregon/Stanford to give UCLA/USC travel partners.

ND's TV deal with NBC currently pays it $20M per year, the new B1G deal is rumored to be $100M per year:


https://twitter.com/wilnerhotline/status/1542589074770259968?s=20&t=LwbPmIcgv9-2OXHe__tTsQ

At some point the "ND has money" argument begins to fail - I don't know where that is, but it seems like it at least becomes relevant at 5X with all the new NIL rules.  Plus the B1G just grabbed one of ND's longest rivals in USC, and Stanford could be in play as well.

I don't see any scenario where ND would consider the SEC over the B1G now that USC (and maybe Stanford) would be on board.  Would they want to compete with their academic standards in the SEC as a northern outpost in a southern conference?  Or against many historical rivals with similar academic standards.  There really isn't a good "fit" argument for the SEC after this USC add.

So get Stanford and Navy to get ND?

ND to the East, Stanford or Washington or Oregon to the west

9 in each division - 9 game sched - one crossover, might as well make it permanent - USC vs ND

get to 10 in each div with a 9 game sched and there you have it, Two conferences under one media contract.
Perfect

I don't like this in football because you basically are two separate conferences then.  You would need to go to 4 divisions and rotate, which would work great with 9 conference games.  You play everyone in your division every year, then a sister division that rotates every season.  Something like:

Pacific
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Stanford
Washington

Great Plains
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Minnesota
Illinois

Great Lakes
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
Indiana

Atlantic
Penn State
Notre Dame
Northwestern
Rutgers
Maryland

Pretty good competitive balance across the board there.  The division you play rotates every season, so you play everyone in the conference twice ever six years, and you play everyone in your division every season.

The only rivalry there that got sacrificed was NW/Illinois - I split them because I figure you'd want to maximize Chicagoland access for most fan bases, plus, Notre Dame's two largest markets are reportedly Chicago & NY - thus why a division with Rutgers/NW would make a lot of sense for them.

No protected crossovers, and never a repeat in the CCG (which would be the winner of the two "paired divisions" each year).

I don't like this in football because you basically are two separate conferences then.  You would need to go to 4 divisions and rotate, which would work great with 9 conference games.  

NO!!!
it is two separate conferences!

rotating divisions kills rivalries
playing the same teams annually is what makes a conference
if you really want to play a team from the other div - use the non-con sched
even ND knows this 

I think the whole idea of having only 2 divisions in the Big Ten is dead.  It will either be no divisions with 3 permanent rivals.  Or it will become a 20 team conference with a 5-team PAC division.  For example

PAC division
USC, UCLA, Ore., Wash, ND

@ELA , I'm not sure why you're looking back.

That being said, the only way we can go back is if these super conferences go to 20 programs in 2 ten-team divisions.....we'd have old-school conferences under a larger umbrella.  They COULD even keep their divisions separate (like AL/NL used to be in MLB), with the champs facing off in the CCG (a la the first few Super Bowls - NFL/AFL). 
So it's possible, but probably unlikely.

I'm not looking back, I'm talking something where the conferences are dissolved for football purposes

Also, I know this board has been sour on Kevin Warren since he took over from Big Jim. That opinion should change, considering he just negotiated a gigantic acquisition for the league and did so with no leaking until the deal was done.