The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

So I'm obviously getting ahead of myself here, but as I said on the B1G board, the absolute best scheduling practice for a 16-team conference would be 4 pods of 4 teams, allowing each program to play every other team in the conference - all 15 of them, every 2 years, which means a home-and-home with them all every 4 years (a player's career).
I do not see the pods happening, however, if the Bama-Auburn-Georgia-Tennessee quartet insist on being in a pod.  I predict they would do so if it came to it, despite the Vols sucking and the Tide dominating.  They're all slaves of tradition.
However, the other 12 teams would have the gumption to deny them their pod and allow a more balanced group of pods.
Here's my best shot at it:
1:  Florida, Georgia, Carolina, Kentucky
2:  Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Vanderbilt
3:  Ole Miss, Miss State, Missouri, LSU
4:  Texas, OU, Arkansas, A&M
.
Those are how I believe an independent arbitrator would set them up.  But I think A&M might bitch and moan, which, to me, would create more balance if the Aggies traded spots with Missouri and joined LSU in pod 3.
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What say you?

From Saturday down South:
[img width=500 height=291.998]https://i.imgur.com/qLu5hwM.png[/img]

need to swap A&M and Missouri

No, we don’t want them in the SEC period. But, if the decision has been made to let them in, and I’m not so sure it’s a sure thing, we might as well be in the same pod and play every year. But honestly I’d rather be in the same pod as LSU. I like the out of state rivalry and I personally know many more LSU alums than Texas alums. A&M, LSU, Ark, and one of the Mississippi schools works nicely.  Then we would still play OU UT every 3rd and 4th year. 

How do you think the 12 team playoff would affect this?  I'm sure the SEC will try to place 3-6 teams in there every year.  Which would make it easier, pods or divisions?

I know about Alabama-Tennessee, what other SEC rivalries would look to be preserved?  I'd assume:

Florida-Georgia
Ole Miss-MSU
Auburn-Alabama
Tennessee - Vanderbilt

is LSU-Ole Miss still one that the schools care about?  Any others that are currently protected x-div games?

I like it except the part where LSU gets a bye into the league semi finals every year. I suspect if we have a pod system, that there will be a four team playoff for league championship.

So that pretty much guarantees some rematches in the semis and final, doesn't it?  Potentially all three games could be rematches in some unlucky years?

The biggest missing rivalry would be Alabama-LSU. It would be a tragedy not to play that game every year. I remember when the Texas-Texas A&M and Oklahoma - Nebraska games were staples of college football. Every change imo makes things worse.

Agree, I would choose to save and/or reengage all old traditional college football rivalries, if I were the King of College Football.

So if there were divisions instead of pods and Alabama-LSU became a permanent x-div rivalry (like Alabama - Tennessee is currently), what other x-div rivalries would need to be preserved if the divisions looked like this? I've put each team next to a x-div perma-rival but don't know if the OG SEC ones make any sense other than Alabama-LSU as you pointed out, and this is assuming going to a 9-game conference schedule, but I think most pod suggestions assume the same.

East                        West
Alabama                  LSU
Auburn                    Ole Miss
Georgia                    Miss State
Florida                      Texas A&M
Kentucky                  Arkansas
Vanderbilt                Missouri
Tennessee                Texas
South Carolina          Oklahoma