re: Ou & Tx just issued a joint statement

I don't know where to post this so going to do it here.

One thing that becomes problematic with 16+ teams (I would say even with 14) is scheduling so that each team plays the other teams fairly regularly but also have a clear-cut road to the conference championship game without a mess of tie-breakers.

So here's an out-of-the-box suggestion.

Go with the four team pods that have been speculated but have pods pair up to make divisions. The winner of each division goes to the championship game.

What makes this different than two static divisions is that the pods would rotate which other pod forms a division every two years.

So, say years 1&2, pod A and pod B would form a division as would C&D.
Then in years 3&4 pod A and C would form a division as would B&D.
Then in years 5&6 pod A and D would form a division as would B&C.

Each team in the division would play all of the others.

You retain your yearly regional games by being in the same pod but also have a good rotation among the other 12 teams.

In addition, every team will get to compete directly against every other team for a divisional championship 2 out of every 6 years.


Of course that is only 7 games so you either have to come up with 1 or 2 additional games per team. That could be either a permanent rival or not. It could use an NFL model where you play teams in the other two pods with similar results in the previous year.

Such a setup would be ideal with 20 teams. All of your games would be within your division which means every team in that division plays identical conference schedules. But with the rotation of pods you would get to play every team 2/6 years even though you play non-divisional games.