Well, Ft Worth is a draw in its own right. TCU is better than NC State, VT, or Louisville. These 3 would be adds that duplicate other schools in already occupied states, assuming UNC is added. TCU would add a team to the west and allow for a pod/division of TCU, aggy, piggy, sooner, Mizzou, and Texas. L$U could buddy up with its inbred friends instead of bringing that awful corndog smell to Texas. Here is the AI assumption for 24 team leagues: (I disagree)
Here’s a
plausible 24-team endgame if the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 all decide to become fully siloed all-sports leagues.
I’m treating this as a
best-fit scenario, not a prediction. I’m anchoring it on four things:
- Brand value / revenue upside — recent 2025 valuations show the biggest money still sits with football-first brands, while Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas, Texas A&M, Michigan, Georgia, Penn State, Alabama and others remain among the most valuable properties.
- Geography for all sports — once leagues silo all sports, travel matters more than in a football-only thought experiment.
- Political/institutional fit — the Big Ten still has an academic/AAU bias; the SEC still prefers culture-contiguous, football-heavy brands; the Big 12 is the most flexible and opportunistic. Big Ten’s current 18 members, SEC’s current 16, Big 12’s current 16, and ACC’s current membership are all reflected in official conference sources.
- Timing — the ACC settlement reduced future exit costs, making a larger wave in the early 2030s much more plausible than it looked before. ESPN reported the exit fee begins at $165 million and declines annually, while AP reported the settlement stabilized the ACC only in the near term.
My 24-team build
Big Ten adds 6
Notre Dame, Virginia, Stanford, Cal, Duke, Pitt
Why these six:
- Notre Dame is the biggest remaining white whale and already has most-sports ties to the ACC, which makes a full-home move conceivable if independence becomes less valuable.
- Virginia, Stanford, Cal, Duke, Pitt all fit the Big Ten’s institutional profile better than most alternatives. AAU membership strongly overlaps with the Big Ten’s identity, and Virginia, Duke, Pitt, Stanford, Cal and Notre Dame are all AAU schools.
- Stanford + Cal also solve the “west coast island” issue for USC/UCLA/Oregon/Washington in Olympic sports.
- Pitt gives the Big Ten another strong Upper-Appalachian / Mid-Atlantic foothold next to Penn State.
- I left North Carolina out because the political reality around UNC/NC State makes a split harder; North Carolina’s system already requires approval before conference changes, and a 2025 bill was filed to preserve annual UNC–NC State rivalry games.
SEC adds 8
Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Louisville
Why these eight:
- This is the cleanest football-money expansion available. The ACC settlement makes departure more practical over time, and these are the schools that best match the SEC’s combination of TV draw, recruiting geography, and cultural fit.
- Florida State, Clemson, Miami are obvious football-value targets.
- North Carolina + NC State respects the state-level political reality better than trying to peel off UNC alone.
- Georgia Tech gives the SEC Atlanta and a historic former SEC member.
- Virginia Tech + Louisville give the SEC stronger Upper South / Appalachian reach and solidify a contiguous footprint.
Big 12 adds 8
Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest, SMU, Memphis, UConn, Boise State, San Diego State
Why these eight:
- The Big 12’s current footprint already spans 10 states and four time zones, and the league has shown it is willing to trade perfect geography for reach and inventory.
- SMU is a strong TV/recruiting add in Texas and is already in the ACC today.
- Memphis has long been a natural Big 12-style candidate: decent football, strong basketball, solid market.
- UConn adds elite basketball inventory plus Northeast relevance.
- Boise State and San Diego State give the league western anchors and late windows.
- Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest are not the biggest brands, but they are credible all-sports inventory pieces if the ACC is being picked over.
Final 24-team conferences and pods
Big Ten (24)
Current 18 plus:
Notre Dame, Virginia, Stanford, Cal, Duke, Pitt. Current Big Ten membership is 18 schools.
Pod 1 — Pacific
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
Pod 2 — Upper Midwest
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Illinois
Northwestern
Pod 3 — Great Lakes
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Pod 4 — Atlantic
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Virginia
Duke
Pitt
Why this pod setup works:
It keeps the Pacific schools together for all-sports travel, preserves the Big Ten’s Midwest core, keeps Notre Dame in a natural Great Lakes cluster, and gives the eastern wing a compact Atlantic pod. It also minimizes the number of Olympic-sport flights crossing more than two time zones.
SEC (24)
Current 16 plus:
Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Louisville. Current SEC membership is 16 schools including Texas and Oklahoma.
Pod 1 — Texas / Southwest
Texas
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Missouri
LSU
Pod 2 — Deep South
Alabama
Auburn
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Pod 3 — Lower Atlantic
Florida
Florida State
Miami
Georgia
South Carolina
Clemson
Pod 4 — Upper South / Appalachia
North Carolina
NC State
Georgia Tech
Virginia Tech
Louisville
Kentucky
Why this pod setup works:
This is the most culturally coherent of the three leagues. The SEC gets a Florida mega-pod, a Carolina/Virginia/Tennessee/Kentucky cluster, and keeps its western schools grouped tightly. It also respects the likelihood that UNC and NC State would be politically easier to move together than apart.
Big 12 (24)
Current 16 plus:
Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest, SMU, Memphis, UConn, Boise State, San Diego State. Current Big 12 membership is 16 schools.
Pod 1 — West
Arizona
Arizona State
Utah
BYU
Boise State
San Diego State
Pod 2 — Plains
Colorado
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Cincinnati
Pod 3 — Texas / South
Baylor
Houston
TCU
Texas Tech
SMU
Memphis
Pod 4 — East
UCF
West Virginia
UConn
Syracuse
Boston College
Wake Forest
Why this pod setup works:
The Big 12 can never be as clean geographically as the SEC, so the right move is to organize around
regional mini-leagues with one western pod, one plains pod, one Texas-heavy pod, and one eastern pod. That reduces travel without sacrificing the league’s “best available inventory” strategy.
The logic behind each league’s choices
Big Ten logic
The Big Ten is the easiest to model because it has been consistent: it likes major brands, major media markets, and high-end research schools. Its 2024 westward move with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington already showed it is willing to stretch geography for the right institutions, and official conference material has leaned into both the coast-to-coast vision and academic alliance logic.
That is why I think the Big Ten would rather take
Virginia, Stanford, Cal, Duke, Pitt than a football-only monster with weaker institutional fit.
SEC logic
The SEC is still the most straightforward: take the highest-value football inventory available inside a contiguous recruiting footprint. The ACC settlement makes eventual exits more realistic, and the SEC’s best board is concentrated in the South Atlantic.
That is why I think
Florida State, Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Louisville is cleaner than reaching for western or northeastern brands.
Big 12 logic
The Big 12 has already shown it will build a national inventory league rather than a traditional regional league. Official Big 12 material emphasizes the breadth of its footprint, and Commissioner Brett Yormark’s strategy has consistently been additive and opportunistic.
So the Big 12’s 24-team model is less “best football brands” and more “best remaining all-sports package.”
