There are too many ACC schools that cannot compete in football.

There are too many Big 12 schools in flyover country with no visibility.

There are more than a handful of Pac 12 schools that are going to have a hard time keeping up, because priorities are different in the west.

But if you put together the best of those conferences and create a 16- or 20-member east/west alliance, you can quickly have a league that would stand on even terms with the Big Ten and within striking distance of the SEC.

Start with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the west.

Start with Florida State, Clemson, Miami and Virginia Tech in the east.

Convince Notre Dame to join the party.

Then fill in the rest with some combination of UNC, NC State, Georgia Tech, UVa, West Virginia and/or maybe Pitt or Louisville in the east, some combination of the remaining Pac 12 schools, maybe one school in Texas (I'd suggest Houston or TCU), maybe Oklahoma State, maybe BYU.

BC, Syracuse, Duke and Wake Forest can go elsewhere. So can Washington State and Oregon State. Do not bother with schools like Boise State or Cincinnati that succeed primarily because they swim in small ponds. Trim the fat, reconfigure and move forward.

What television wants is good programming. Virginia Tech-Oregon is a good show. Virginia Tech-Duke is not. USC-FSU would be epic theater. USC-Wazzoo is mostly irrelevant.