16 Team Conference is GOOD!

Why not one more conference expansion post since we're on the topic? My idea works best with a 16 team conference. The Big Ten conference will be renamed to something more fitting, perhaps the Big $ Conference. There will be 16 teams in the conference, separated into two divisions mostly according to existing rivalries, but also geographically. East: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan St., Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn St., Pitt and Purdue West: Cincinnati, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio St., Wisconsin Each team will play seven division games per year. Four additional games allowed (including intra-conference opponents in other division to honor rivalries if desired) per team to bring total number of games played during the "regular season" to 11. The 12th game of the year for each team will be held in the eight largest stadiums in the conference (currently Michigan, Penn St., Ohio St., Nebraska, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Michigan St) a week after Thanksgiving. The matchups will be determined by the divisional finish of each team (1st vs. 1st, 2nd vs 2nd, and so on). The stadium used for each matchup will be decided by the coaches the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with a focus on neutrality (unless the teams already played… then the loser of the previous matchup will have to travel to their opponents stadium for the rematch). The conferences are relatively balanced, though the West may be slightly better than the East. As a Michigan fan, this seems very enticing. We would be able to continue playing our rivalry games and still schedule two scrub MAC teams without seeing a large drop in strength of schedule. This would help in our overall record when it came to the end of year matchup against the other division. I’d love to see Michigan play against Nebraska every year, and wouldn’t mind Cincinnati and Missouri every year as well. Also, we would be able to continue playing Ohio State as our last "regular season" game of the year. Furthermore, we wouldn't have years where we wouldn't be able to play against Minnesota. Best of all, we would be able to choose whether or not we wanted to play against Michigan St. and Notre Dame each year - I would always choose YES!!! Notes: Rutgers, Connecticut, Syracuse, or West Virginia, etc. instead of the teams I used could also be possible. The teams I chose seem to work best IMHO. Wikipedia was used as the source for the majority of the information in this post. Please note that information in Wikipedia is not always accurate. Rivalry information: EAST - (divisional rivals) [conference rivals in other division] {out of conference rivals}: Illinois - (Northwestern and Purdue) [Ohio St. and Missouri] Indiana - (Purdue and Michigan St) {Kentucky} Northwestern - (Illinois, Notre Dame) Purdue – (Notre Dame, Indiana, Illinois) Penn St. – (Pitt, Notre Dame, and Michigan St) [Minnesota and Ohio St.] {West Virginia, Syracuse, Maryland, Temple, and Rutgers} Notre Dame – (Northwestern, Penn St., Pitt, Purdue) [Michigan, Michigan St., and Nebraska] {USC, Navy, Boston College, Stanford, Air Force, Army, and GT} Pitt – (Notre Dame, and Penn St.) [Cincinnati] {Marquette, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia} Michigan St. – (Indiana, Notre Dame, and Penn St.) [Michigan] WEST - (divisional rivals) [conference rivals in other division] {out of conference rivals}: Iowa – (Minnesota and Wisconsin) {Iowa St.} Minnesota – (Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin) [Penn St.] Wisconsin – (Iowa, Minnesota) {Marquette} Michigan – (Minnesota and Ohio St.) [Michigan St. and Notre Dame] Ohio St. – (Michigan) [Illinois, Penn St.] Nebraska – (Missouri) {Oklahoma and Colorado} Missouri – (Nebraska) [Illinois] {Kansas} Cincinnati – (Ohio St.) [Pitt] {Louisville, Kentucky and Miami-OH}