The trouble is we are bound by the ACC agreement. Though I think of the conferences to play five games against, it's the best choice. Good mix of powers and middleweights, Northeast and Southeast.
If the current ACC deal stays in place, I'd try to approach it like this:
Five ACC games. If we want to keep doing the Shamrock Series (I'm pretty meh, myself), try and make it one of our ACC home games.
USC
Stanford
Navy
But I like the idea of ending with Navy on the West Coast. Maybe try to swap that for the bi-annual at Stanford Thanksgiving game that no one really cares about (unlike going to USC, which is cool). Go to Stanford in October instead.
Other four games:
A national power early (a la Georgia, Texas)
One or two Big Ten teams. I'd love to add MSU to our permanent rivals, myself. Also fun to have a road game students can get to. (When I was a student we'd go in droves to Purdue, MSU or Michigan. Was a blast. We don't play as many of those games anymore).
One or two breathers, though I'd vote for MAC schools over randos like UMass or New Mexico. There's more crossover of fan bases, which is fun.
So could look like this
LSU
Akron
@MSU
Syracuse
@NC State
USC
@Stanford
Va Tech
BC
@Maryland
Minnesota
Navy in San Diego
A little rugged there in October with USC-Stanford-VA tech, but manageable. Gets you to the northeast, southeast and west coast, along with that big early Saturday night game at Sparty. Three Midwestern opponents, too. Maybe flip Va Tech with Maryland or Minnesota to give us a chance at a quality win in November. If we want to do a Shamrock game, make it Navy or talk Syracuse or BC into playing us someplace in NY/NJ/Boston.
In the even-numbered years we'd play Stanford at home in October like usual, Navy at home, ideally before a bye week, and end at USC.