re: if 16 are teams are inevitable

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his is actually the best division that will cause the fewest heartaches for the ADs when they try to divide up the pods. Sure the SECNorth is a bit weaker, but if UT can ever get back to their historic level, and if VT can sustain their level once Beamer is gone, I don't think it is weak enough for the ADs to reject considering the heartaches they will have with other pod alignments.

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Well Why wouldnt something like this work though:

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LSU
MSU
Ole Miss
aTm

Bama
AU
Vandy
UT

Arky
Mizzou
Uk
VaTech

Georgia
UF
SC
NC

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Where you spoke of Tennessee coming back can the same not be said of Arkansas here

I'll make my pitch for a slightly different pod system:

NW:
Alabama (Tenn)
Auburn (UGA)
Missouri (Arkansas)
MSU (Ole Miss)

SW:
LSU (Florida)
A&M (Va Tech)
Arkansas (Missouri)
Ole Miss (MSU)

NE:
Tennessee (Alabama)
Va Tech (A&M)
NC (USC)
Vanderbilt (KY)

SE:
Florida (LSU)
UGA (Auburn)
USC (NC)
Kentucky (Vandy)

List of things this does right by school:
1) Alabama - winnable division, keeps annual games with Auburn and Tennessee.
2) Auburn - only Bama to beat to win division most years - keeps annual games with UGA and Alabama
3) Missouri - gets out of division rivalry game with Arkansas. They should be able to compete if they recruit Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama.
4) MSU - keeps rivalry with Ole Miss and keeps Alabama on the schedule (Ole Miss, Alabama, and LSU are MSU's historically most played opponents)

5) LSU - mostly only A&M to beat to win their division. Keeps their rivalry game with Ole Miss and their out of division matchup with Florida. Relatively new rivalry games against A&M and Arkansas are good even though losing the annual games against Alabama and MSU sucks
6) Texas A&M - winnable division if they beat LSU. Arkansas and LSU are their most natural rivals in the SEC and they keep them. Lining them up to play Va Tech makes tons of sense culturally.
7) Arkansas - keeps LSU and A&M on the schedule. Gets a logical new out of division opponent in Missouri to replace South Carolina.
8) Ole Miss - maintains both most important games on their schedule (LSU and MSU). Playing A&M doesn't hurt them either - as it might allow them to recruit a little more in Texas than they have been able to in the past.

9) Tennessee - This division is custom made to give UT a chance to be a powerhouse again. They keep their rivalry game with Alabama, their little brother in Vanderbilt, and now have a logical inroad into recruiting both Virginia and North Carolina (neither of which has recently had a dominant football program). They lose their games against Florida and UGA on an annual basis but trade this for opportunity.
10) Va Tech - They get an out of division rival in A&M that makes sense, a neighbor in North Carolina that they should benefit from (recruiting) and become the SEC program of the greater Washington D.C. area.
11) North Carolina - they become the SEC program of North Carolina and get a logical neighbor/rival as a permanent out of division opponent in South Carolina.
12) Vanderbilt - stay in the division with UT, get Kentucky as an out of division rival, and can now recruit North Carolina and Virginia as the best academic program in the best athletic conference in the nation.

13) Florida - get to keep their regular games against UGA, USC, and LSU (losing only Tenn as a permanent opponent). They have to beat UGA most years to win the division.
14) UGA - keeps their regular games against Fla, USC, Auburn and only have to beat Fla many years to win the division. Like Florida, they might like to keep Tennessee on their schedule every year but that's just not possible to arrange in a 16 team SEC.
15) USC - keeps UGA and Florida on their schedule and gets a compelling new out of division opponent in North Carolina. Their ability to recruit Florida, UGA, South Carolina, and North Carolina puts them in a position to compete with anyone.
16) Kentucky - in a fantastic division with traditional SEC teams plus Vandy as an out of division opponent.

yeah, I feel you

But my pod divides up the big six into four different divisions and then plugs in Va Tech and Texas A&M into the two divisions with only one big six member

Plus, it spreads out the four worst football programs (MSU, Ole Miss, KY, and Vandy) into four different divisions (and matches up everyone with an out of division opponent of pretty near equal quality to even out schedule difficulty)

I see no problems with this pod:

UF
UK
MSU
VU

i disagree but.. whether or not you are right Missouri being in one division and Arkansas being in the other matches up to Ole Miss/MSU in the same divisions in my scenario

I liked your pods generally but you can't really have UF/UGA playing each other as fixed opponents without ruining the regular UGA/Auburn and UF/LSU games

That, plus geography is why I think UF and UGA belong in the same division (preferably in teh same place as USC since I think the USC/UGA and USC/UF games are also of significant interest)

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Appalachian
UNC
USC
VaTech
UK

Delta
Vandy
MS State
LSU
Alabama

Ozark
aTm
Mizzou
Arkansas
Tennessee

Gulf
Florida
Georgia
Auburn
Ole Miss

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looking at your proposal I'm left with the impression you don't understand the top few rivalries of interest for each team or the importance of spreading out the strongest and the weakest programs evenly throughout four pods

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looking at your proposal I'm left with the impression you don't understand the top few rivalries of interest for each team or the importance of spreading out the strongest and the weakest programs evenly throughout four pods

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It could include 2 cross divisional rivalries. 9 conference games.

Updated conferences above