separate conferences. So then, your CCG is actually the 1st round of the playoffs between 2 conferences. I suppose you can do the same with a 16 team conference. But at 18, you can stop pretending you are in the same conference as people in the other division, since you rarely play them.

Or, you are just the NFL and the SEC is the NFC w divisions and the B10 is the AFC w divisions. I guess that's the more likely scenario. But it doesn't make sense to keep the bad schools around