This is not far off from my east/west proposal. I would do 8 and 8 for a bunch of reasons, and do it in pods.
Western Pod: Boise, Nevada, Fresno, SDSU
Central: Air Force, New Mexico, Houston, SMU
MidWest: Louisville, Cincinnati, WVU, USF
Northeast: Rutgers, UConn, Temple, Navy
Play your own pod every year, play the adjacent pod 3 times, play each of the other pods once.
For hoops, Temple for all sports and Butler for hoops only.
The BCS bid is rock solid in this situation, because we have eliminated all the competition for a bid. We would basically have no shot at ever getting it, but that ship sailed with the collapse of the Big East. The 8 western teams would be their own hoops league, and there would only be 1 trip west each year for the eastern schools, and vice versa.