Here's the bold move I'd like to see...

I think the networks want the top 30-40 teams, but they want a Cinderella story every year because it draws in fans of all the other teams who don't make it, thinking there's a chance. They know if they can get Alabama or Georgia in the title game, they are guaranteed X number of people watching. The problem is if you eliminate all the other teams down to, say, the top 30, you end up having a ceiling of X vs a floor of X. They need some non-dominant teams who can be wiping mats for the others. That's why I don't think they'll ever get rid of every "bad" team in the B1G. The question is how few teams can they get to, in order to reduce the payouts while still maintaining an acceptable volume of users.

For anyone thinking the TV numbers will crash and burn w/o rivalries, let me tell you how it will go. The next two years ratings will go through the roof because of the new-ness of it all. You don't think UO will have a packed stadium for the little osu from back East? After about two years, when the dust has settled, somebody is going to be sitting out in the cold. Every one of the big boys will be hoisting around hundred million dollar+ budgets and the bad schools will just get worse. That's when you might see some disinterest.

I'm not a big Apple fan at all, but I do wonder if their approach is a better approach for a larger number of schools. Get subscriptions, not eyeballs. You just need to catch their interest enough once to get them to purchase. No more worrying about whether Georgia vs UMass (as a hypothetical) will draw enough viewers. You don't care. And again, why relegation MAY work - you have people paying for the season-long "experience" of relegation, not hoping for individual games to be blockbusters.