"special" relationship with Notre Dame. FWIW in the late 1990s when the WAC was the first conference to become a super conference with 16 members, the WAC called them "quads."

Quad 1: Fresno State, Hawai'i, San Diego State, and San Jose State

Quad 2: Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV, and Wyoming

Quad 3: BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and UTEP

Quad 4: Rice, SMU, TCU, and Tulsa

The plan was for Quad 1 to always compete in the Pacific Division and Quad 4 to always compete in the Mountain Division with the other 2 quads rotating between the divisions every 2 years. Sound familiar? I think the plan may have only completed 1 cycle before 8 schools decided to leave the WAC to form the MWC.

So you are probably stuck with either "pods," "quads," or "groups" as the naming convention.

WRT to the possibility of rotating pods/quads violating the bylaws, it won't be a violation. At least I have found nothing in the bylaws that states rotating teams between divisions is a violation. All the bylaws state is what you see in the previous post. A conference just has to form 2 divisions and play a round robin schedule. There is nothing to indicate that the division membership has to be permanent or not. A reason a conference may want permanent divisions is because it is easier for everyone to follow who is in which division. Also, it makes it easier to build more rivalries among the division foes.

[Post edited by VTHokie2000 at 08/18/2021 12:07PM]