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
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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?