thought about this for a moment, and, you know, there is no P5 conference better than the Pac for road trips from Sep - Nov.
just looking at which geographic areas in each FBS conference are best to visit in the fall, ignoring the gameday experience itself, what destinations would be best (within 2 hours'ish of the campus).
I didn't get overly analytical here, but the Pac is, by far, the best roadie destination for non-game-day activities. I put the MWC second, but I'm still in love in the west and have some bias.
Conference USA placed very well.
The only conference I rate behind the XII is the Mac, and I could argue in favor of switching those.
full disclosure -- my Texas travel is limited to about a week total in Dallas and four days in San Antonio.
- Pac: San Fran, LA, Phoenix, Seattle, Boulder, SLC, Oregon coast
- MWC: Vegas, Boise, Co Springs, Alburqueque, Fresno, San Jose, No Utah, hell, even Laramie I'd rather visit than most any place in the XII
- ACC: Florida, Boston, middle & SW Virginia, Atlanta (not as bad as the SEC, as Syracuse and Boston provide destinations to escape the Sept heat)
- CUSA: San Antonio, Charlotte, Florida, New Orleans'ish (So Miss, LA Tech) -- too hot in Sept, but nice late fall destinations
- SEC: Baton Rouge, Gainsville, Nashville, Atlanta (they all suck in Sept, but be nice for later in the season)
- AAC: New Orleans, Florida, DC, Philly, Cinci, Outer Banks of North Carolina
- Sun Belt: New Orleans'ish, El Paso (I actually would like to visit that part of New Mexico and see White Sands and the VLA), Savannah
- B1G: Madison, Chicago, DC
- XII: Dallas?
- MAC: Chicago?
Austin is a great town. Lawrence is a nice college town. No real complaints about Norman & OKC. Ft Worth and the TCU campus area on the river are allsome. After that, we're talking about Manhattan KS, Waco, Morgantown, Lubbock, Stillwater and Ames. It really doesn't get worse than that last 6 for travel destinations.