So from my list above, which schools would get culled?
The two Arizona schools:
I think you'd want a presence in Arizona and if you are dropping just one, I'm not sure which. My impression is that Zona has more BB success while ASU has more CFB success. ASU is in the Phoenix metro area which is substantially more populous than the Tucson metro area so I guess keep ASU and drop Zona.
The two Bay Area schools:
Realistically one or both of these may be off the table anyway. Assuming they are available you might only want one but would you want Stanford or California?
Colorado, I assume stays.
Utah/BYU:
According to Google there are 6.6M Mormons in the US. If that were a state it would be #18 between Indiana and Maryland.
Utah has 3.3M people which is #30 between Connecticut and Iowa.
Both of those sound worth keeping but there is a whole lot of double counting going on here because a little better than half of the people in Utah are Mormons.
My guess is you'd be better off with BYU because they probably have a lot more fans nationally.
The PacNW, Washington and Oregon:
Washington is the 13th and Oregon the 27th most populous state with 7.7M and 4.2M residents respectively.
I see those both as worth keeping for this hypothetical league if only based on potential.
Kansas:
Kansas is the 35th most populous state with under 3M residents but probably worth keeping.
West Virginia:
West Virginia is the 39th most populous state with about 1.8M residents but they seem to draw a lot of fans across Appalachia so I think they are worth keeping.
UCF:
The good is that Florida is immensely populous with 21.6M people as of 2020 and rapid growth. The bad is that you are fighting the SEC (UF) and the ACC (FSU and Miami) for them as fans. I think they are worth keeping based largely on potential.
Non-big3 TX schools (after UT-A, aTm, and OU):
Based on
@utee94 's response, maybe Baylor is more worthwhile than I thought. This hypothetical league would probably benefit from some connection to Texas but too many Texas schools isn't good and even with utee's input we can't seem to even rank them past the top three, let alone figure out where to draw the line.
After those I suggested some possibilities:
Cincinnati:
The problem here, as I see it, is that Cincinnati has almost zero draw outside the immediate Cincinnati metro area. Moreover, even within that area they are at best #2 behind the Buckeyes.
A New Mexico school:
This may not be worthwhile but bringing in New Mexico's 2.1M population could be.
A Nevada school:
Nevada's 2020 population was #32 at 3.1M and growing rapidly. The Las Vegas media market is #40 in the US. I think UNLV would make sense.
Air Force:
Not sure what their popularity is.
