Most college conferences today make little sense in terms of geography. Footprints stretch from Miami to Boston, or Waco to Morgantown, or Atlanta to Idaho without a second thought. While Syracuse reaps the financial benefits of that, it's obviously one of the less-than-great parts of what college football's become.
SB Nation's Auburn blog, College and Magnolia (obligatory: EFF PAT DYE), saw these league setups as pretty similar to gerrymandering -- not a stretch when you consider the origin of the long-standing political practice to get the most of out voting districts (for a respective party) by redrawing wacky district lines.