re: if 16 are teams are inevitable

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Why would they break up into pods, more than likely they would just do away with cross divisional games and keep the current format

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Because if you do that, you are effectively two conferences, not one. A pod system, wherein the two divisions for round robin play (required by NCAA rules in order to stage a conference championship) are not fixed, but rotate, would allow everyone in the conference to play every other school home and away over a reasonable time period. You could still probably protect UT-Bama and UGA-Auburn if that was desired, without screwing things up too much, but, otherwise, you need to rotate so that there is a sense of cohesion and familiarity.

quote:

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Why would they break up into pods, more than likely they would just do away with cross divisional games and keep the current format.

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You actually get a better schedule with 4 four-team divisions:

3 games against your division opponents

3 games against the three teams in the other division that finished relative to your school's finish

2 games divided among the remaining 9 schools (this is where you can factor in a permanent cross-division rivalry if both schools in that rivalry so choose)

So, assuming a north carolina and a virginia school are the next two:

Division: Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M

Division: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State

Division: Kentucky, Tennessee, (VA school), Vanderbilt

Division: Florida, Georgia, (NC School), South Carolina

Permanent Cross-Division: Auburn/Georgia, Alabama/Tennessee