Lots of chatter about realignment on the other board.
I think the G5 teams need to just work together to create a comprehensive plan for their benefit. Here's what I think makes sense.
No conferences (or one mega G5 conference if you want to think about it like that). Negotiations for TV rights, bowls, NCAA tournament spots, etc are for the G5 conference in its entirety.
In football, each team plays the following, in this order:
1 D2 team (home)
1 P5 team ( home / away every other year)
6 closest geographically teams (2 home 2 away) - for UTEP this is NMSU, UNM, CSU, AFA and two more (not sure who)
3 games-- 1 each from each of the other time zones (randomly assigned)
1 tie breaker game for bowl eligibility / playoffs
During bowl season, an 4 game playoff, regionally based. Each time zone divided into north / south. Top team from north Pacific time zone plays top team from south Pacific time zone, etc. Then champ each time zone moves on to final four, etc. Screw the BCS.
Remaining teams play bowls as negotiated by the mega conference.
I would also keep basketball as regional as possible. And I would refuse for any G5 schools to play any P5 schools unless G5 gets a guaranteed number of spots in the tourney.
The point of all this is to minimize operating expenses and maximize regional rivalries and overall negotiating power.
I know none of this would happen, but if I was king it would.