Since money seems to be the driving force in conference expansion, perhaps it time to consider a business type merger between conferences( the Big East and the Big 12?). Keep each conference separate, but equal, so the two BCS bids can be retained(the BIDS are more important than a championship game). A.board could be created to control the marketing, scheduling,and promotion of the league.

I'm not sure what the NCAA's definition of a conference is, but if this is a possibility, it would allow control of  cross country media markets that would be hard to beat. It would also allow a better access to the BCS than any other conference. With this type of leverage it would be hard for other conferences to compete business-wise. Adding additional teams would further increase  leverage.

Anyone with knowledge of how this would be treated by the NCAA please chirp in.