The conferences and their members

Here's where I lie out who is in which conference. 2 conferences will be tied together for tiers 1 & 2. For the most part, I was able to keep traditional conference affiliations and/or rivalries together.

Granted, some teams have to move conferences to make the numbers work. But most of them were logical and easy to accept, at least in my mind. The 3 tough things I had to do to make this work are moving Notre Dame into an actual conference, moving Iowa St. from the Big 12 tier into the Big 10 tier, and moving Penn St. from the Big 10 to the Big East. Just made the most sense geographically, and Penn St. has been team 11 in the Big 10 for years.

The other moves are either reversing recent defections (Miami & BC back to the Big East, for example) or slight geographic tweaks among smaller schools (someone had to go from the MAC to the Small East, so I relatively arbitrarily chose Toledo & Bowling Green; Marshall & Buffalo made sense for geography and recent membership into the conference. These are negotiable if there are historic or other reasons certain teams should stay in the MAC/Big 10 tier.

One final note, the BCS teams moved into non-BCS conferences were because they sucked in 2008, and that's probably where the line would have been drawn among all those teams. In reality, probably the worst BCS teams the year before this (admittedly pipe dream of mine) ever got implemented would be in the 2nd tiers. Regardless, that would all get sorted out in subsequent years based on merit.

First tier in caps, 2nd tier in lower case
Big East/Metro: PENN ST., PITT, WEST VIRGINIA, RUTGERS, UCONN, MIAMI (FL), LOUISVILLE, NOTRE DAME, BOSTON COLLEGE, CINCINNATI, South Florida, Syracuse, Navy, Bowling Green, Army, Temple, Marshall, Central Florida, Buffalo, Toledo

ACC/Sun Belt: FLORIDA ST., GEORGIA TECH, NORTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND, WAKE FOREST, CLEMSON, NC STATE, VIRGINIA, DUKE, VIRGINIA TECH, Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas St., Florida Int'l, Middle Tennessee St., Louisiana-Monroe, North Texas, Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech

SEC/Conf USA: ALABAMA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, OLE MISS, VANDERBILT, LSU, TENNESSEE, AUBURN, SOUTH CAROLINA, KENTUCKY, Arkansas, Mississippi St., Tulsa, East Carolina, Rice, Houston, Southern Miss, Memphis, Alabama-Birmingham, Tulane

Big 10/MAC: OHIO ST., MICHIGAN, IOWA, NORTHWESTERN, MINNESOTA, WISCONSIN, ILLINOIS, PURDUE, MICHIGAN ST., INDIANA, Iowa St., Ball St., W. Michigan, C. Michigan, E. Michigan, Northern Illinois, Miami (OH), Akron, Ohio, Kent St.

Big 12/Mtn. West: TEXAS, OKLAHOMA, TEXAS TECH, MISSOURI, NEBRASKA, OKLAHOMA ST., KANSAS, KANSAS ST., COLORADO, TEXAS A&M, Baylor, Utah, Texas Christian, Brigham Young, Air Force, Colorado St., Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, Texas-El Paso, Southern Methodist

PAC 10/WAC: USC, OREGON, OREGON ST., CAL, ARIZONA, STANFORD, ARIZONA ST., UCLA, WASHINGTON ST., WASHINGTON, Boise St., San Diego St., Nevada, Hawaii, Fresno St., San Jose St., Utah St., New Mexico St., Idaho, Wyoming