Not a big fan of that East/West split. The East would be much weaker than the West.
West
1 NDSU - Playoffs
2 SDSU - Playoffs
3 UND
4 USD - Playoffs
5 UNI - Playoffs
6 Missouri St - Playoffs
East
1 Youngstown St
2 WIU
3 Indiana st
4 Murray St
5 Illinois St
6 Southern Illinois - Playoffs
Yep. That seems like a very equitable distribution based on competitiveness.
If the conference got this big I would be fine with cutting it down to two protected rivals per school and the rest of the games based on a rotation. Oh, and throw out the East schools not traveling West like they do now.
NDSU - UND & SDSU
UND - NDSU & USD
SDSU - USD & NDSU
USD - SDSU & UND
I'm assuming UNI would want SIU & either ISUr or MSU. The rest of them I don't really care, they can pick who they want as a protected rival.
Maybe expand the set rivals to 3 so the Dakotas annually play each other but that is as far as I would go. The conference would need some parity and balance in the scheduling and all the best teams are in the West. Something would have to give.
ETA: So it sounds like there will be no division, the Dakotas all play each other annually, and E-W limit on trips has been lifted and there will be a rotating schedule. That will work.