I hereby propose for henceforth usage in all internet chatter about BCS realignment and new teams in conferences a rule eliminating the eligibility of certain college teams from being taken seriously as candidates.  I call it the Cardinal Rule. 

Here's how it goes.   The NCAA posts attendance numbers for both Basketball and Football.  The Cardinals posted  21,832 in 2011 as their average attendance for basketball games.  The Cardinal rule is that you can't be considered for a BCS conference if you can't draw more than what the Cardinals drew that year for basketball. I mean, how can you honestly be considered for a BCS conference when your home games make you look like the Florida Marlins.

And according to the NCAA's stats, that eliminates 33 teams from contention.

and in alphabetical order, those teams are....

So the next time someone says, "Wow, Temple's really good!" or "Getting New Mexico and New Mexico State would be like getting Arizona and ASU!" Simply shrug your shoulders, hold your hands wide, and say "Cardinal rule bitch." 

Bonus: Nate Silver wrote a fun little article a month ago called "The Geography of College Football Fans (and realignment chaos)"

It tried, using Google searches and market maps to rank college teams by popularity.  The result of his mathematical calculations showed that Wyoming, Arkansas State, and Troy were all more popular than Louisville.  You know, the teams on the chart above.  You, know, the ones that can't out draw us in basketball, let alone football.  But really, there's only one honest response to such reasoning.  "Cardinal rule bitch"