Expand to 16.
All conf champs get in (but a minimum threshold (not extremely high but have to be ranked top 30 or 40 something)
Change the ranking system to put more weight on OOC games—specifically strength of schedule. And put more weight on road games (could even go so extreme to only include your weakest 6 home games in the rankings.). I think this would result in more meaningful games OOC and it would be easier to see relative strength of conferences.