(03-20-2020 09:10 PM)Sactowndog Wrote:  Both the Pac12 and Big12 have too many schools in low population states.

The following states are all in the bottom 25 in population and no conference should have more than 1 primary school in that state:

Oregon
Oklahoma
Iowa
Kansas

Virginia is the 40th smallest state.

To create a top conference both Academically, Athletically, and Financially if I was USC and Texas I would do the following.

Start with my core schools (Airport meeting) who are mostly AAU schools:

Core East:
Texas (AAU), Colorado (AAU), Kansas (AAU), Texas Tech, TCU

Core West:
USC (AAU), UCLA (AAU), Cal (AAU), Stanford (AAU), Utah

Then I invite my top choices who may have concerns but won’t want to be left behind or may want to join 24 hours to say yes:

East Invites:
Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri (AAU)

West Invites:
Washington (AAU), Oregon (AAU), Arizona (AAU)

If they say no I fill in with others in the following order or choose to stay at 12 or 14:
East: Houston, Oklahoma State, Iowa State
West: Arizona State, UNLV

There's a chance that the SEC would invite OU and KU and tell the rest to have a nice life. OU fans would definitely prefer the SEC over a western conference.

As for core schools, the Cal 4 regard UW as a peer and so will seek out that school's opinion as well. UW would probably bring along UO as one local rival. So that's six. USC would insist on the Arizona schools. So that's eight. Colorado make it nine. So any new conference will have more of a western bent. The idea that Mizzou and Nebby could be dragged westward is suspect, to say the least. If you're Texas you would insist that they'd be given an opportunity to play USC, UCLA and Washington as much as possible, which means that the total number can't go higher than 12. Even if you drop Utah there are still no more than three spots left. Texas Tech might slide in but no way TCU could. Small, private and fan base are mostly in DFW.

So on first look Mizzou, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma would not be part of this conference, as it doesn't do what the SEC or Big Ten can't do for them.