I really do think that contraction of the ACC and Big 12 via consolidation is just as likely, if not more likely to be the next move in conference realignment than "everyone joins the SEC and B1G, and those conferences each have 24 teams." The teams doing the consolidating would be getting more money while ESPN/FOX/whoever would be paying less overall because they're not having to cut a bunch of extra $50 million dollar checks to schools with zero or negative value like Boston College, SMU, Wake Forest, Syracuse, etc. for basically nothing in return. Schools like GT, Stanford, Cal, UVA, Duke, etc. will still be able to band together in some form or fashion and sell their basketball/baseball/olympic sports rights at a premium, but it will be more like $8 - $10 million, not $50 million. It makes sense, and even if everyone has to wait until the very end of the line, which they likely won't, 2036 isn't as far off in the future as people act.