My first year doing the computer work at NCAAs ('87) I was tasked to total up team scores per conference and divide into the total team scores save D2/D3 as the main method of allocating qualifiers for the next year. And I was asked to give my conclusions. A few years later they switched to a method counting up top 12s and doing the same.
So that year, I totaled them up and noticed that between the Southern and SEC, one generated .4 qualifiers and the other .6. My conclusion that I gave them was to merge the two conferences and take the OW.