. . . two or maybe three conferences whose strength lies somewhere between P2 status and what we now think of as G5 status. Once P2 membership stabilizes - whether in the next year or two or several years from now - I think there will remain a group of 30-plus schools that won't make the P2 cut but will be a clear cut above most of the current G5. We can recognize that the Hokies might fit this description but, to avoid emotional arguments, let's set our team aside. However P2 shakes out, there will be some legitimate football programs left out. In the west these will probably include most if not all of Utah, California, Washington State, Oregon State, Colorado, Arizona and BYU (and others). In mid-America, the leftovers will probably include most if not all of Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Houston, Louisville and Cincinnati (and others). In the east, the leftovers will probably include most if not all of West Virginia, Pitt, Georgia Tech, UCF, South Florida, Syracuse, Duke, Wake Forest (and others). I posit that if the Hokies get left out, so will NC State or UVa, if not both. One might assume that some of the schools that consider themselves to be academically elite (Cal, Stanford, Duke et al) might choose to recognize their place in the world and do their own thing in their own way, maybe with the service academies and schools like Tulane or Rice lumped in, and the hope that Vandy and Northwestern may someday follow. But there will still be a good core of the rest that, when supplemented by schools like San Diego State or Colorado State out west, Memphis and SMU in the midwest and schools like ECU or UAB in the east, it should be rather easy to come up with two groups of 12-16 or, more likely, three groups of 8-12 clustered on a regional basis. And it's all the better if these leagues affiliate in the same fashion that I expect the Big Ten and SEC will eventually do. So, if you woke up tomorrow and you found out that your Hokie football schedule looked something like this, I'm not sure there would be a ton of complaints. Wk 1 - Arizona (Non-division) Wk 2 - JMU (non-conference "buy" game) Wk 3 - at Houston (Non-division) Wk 4 - South Florida Wk 5 - at WVU Wk 6 - Syracuse Wk 7 - at Georgia Tech Wk 8 - Pitt Wk 9 - at ECU Wk 10 - UCF Wk 11 - NC State Wk 12 - at UVa (non-conference P2)