Hey, I have an idea for a brand new elite conference.
Stick with me, I know this is crazy, but in a time of rampant conference realignment, is it really that far-fetched?
Take:
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington from the Big 10
Cal and Stanford from the ACC
Arizona and Arizona State from the Big 12
Washington State and Oregon State from the Mountain West
Put them all in the SAME conference.
You'd have several elite universities and programs, natural regional rivalries, a huge local high school talent pool from which to recruit, and shorter travel within a single time zone (No MDT for AZ, so effectively PST most the year).
Maybe the conference champion schedules an annual game with the Big 10 champion for more national exposure.
Let's say they play New Year's Day, while most of the country is blanketed in snow.
Host it at the Rose Bowl. Have a parade to showcase the California sunshine with kickoff right as the sun sets over the hills of Pasadena.
I know it would never happen because big money media and current TV contracts, modern re-alignment politics, East Coast time zone bias, and the era of the mega-conference won't allow for something so romantically quaint and sentimental as an entire conference confined to the West Coast.
But it's fun to imagine. It'd be an entire conference of champions.