It dawned on me that you can have one mandatory international game for each team each season and also keep the schedule fair by making each "17th game" an interconference clash. Each year, teams play four games from the other conference - now make it five with a rotation where 1s play 1s, 2s play 2s, 3s play 3s and 4s play 4s. This way the home/road split is balanced (because the international game won't be home or away) and the schedule is made slightly harder for the top teams and slightly easier for the weak ones so there is more turnover from season to season.
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