Hello Jim,
Thanks for coming back. I got one reply from those i messaged yesterday and that was a negative reply so it looks unlikely that we will get three more teams from conference 3.
We could reduce the competition to 8 teams but this would be unfair on 5 teams, (although a couple are unlikely to be upset at missing out).
The league option isn't really a runner, this is supposed to be a cup competition.
If we could get three non-conference 3 teams to enter to make it to 16, maybe those teams would agree not to set up. Matches against them would effectively be a bye into the next round. That option might work. We would need teams that are happy to forego 500 credits.