As it is at the moment we play 4 teams 8 times and 5 teams 4 times. If it went to 3 conferences of 4 we would play 3 teams 8 times and 8 teams 4 times.
I'm not going to predict which teams will be in what conference but I think the 3 conferences of 4 teams would work.
Although we would have 24 inter-conference games (against 3 opponents) we would have 32 outer-conference matches as opposed to 32 inter -conference games and 20 outer conference games which we have currently.