Two thoughts:
1) I am completely in favor of a 16 team league, even if you have to make the last two members junior members because they aren't worth $8MM each for football or whatever the football league will generate. I think 4 pods is much better than 2 divisions:
NorthEast: UConn, Rutgers, Navy, Temple
South: UCF, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati
Southwest: SMU, Houston, Memphis, New Mexico*
West: Boise, SDSU, Fresno*, Nevada*
The Big East basketball would be a 17 team conference, but then you take New Mexico, Fresno, Nevada, Boise, and SDSU, add St. Mary's, Gonzaga and Long Beach State, and form a basketball/olympic sports league that would be affiliated and have cross scheduling. It would be a pretty good basketball league, and would drive a stake through the MWC and WCC, which could shake BYU loose. Long term, New Mexico will be better than Tulsa. It is the main state school for a decent sized state and is in a reasonably sized metro area.
Realistically, that won't happen, the Big East will have two divisions, and SDSU's basketball program will die when Fisher retires.
2) I think the service academies present challenges as conference affiliates. There is a ceiling which they will never pass.