4 X 16 is just not possible.

4 X 12/15/18/18 or 4 x 15/15/15/18 is more workable.

At 12, 15, and 18 the conferences can establish 3 divisions. You play 4, 5, or 6 in your divison and you create the division to hearken back to smaller conferneces and more compact geogrpahy.

Your confernece decides how many games you play outside the divisonal round robin. You get three divison winners and you allow for the selection of a wild card.

That creates a 16 school playoff - 12 who got there by winiing their division and 4 as the best school in the conference not to win their divions.

I think this is the way to go to end up with just 4 conferences.

This allows the P12 not to expand. This allows the ACC, SEC, and B10 to expand to 15 or 18 depending on the mix that suites them. That opens 8 spots for the B12 schools, plus any AAC school that better meets the ACC, SEC, or B10 needs.

Texas, OU, Kansas, TT, TCU, and probably West Va are okay if collusion is used to parcel out said schools. I can see a few scenarios where Navy, Tulane, Houston, and Cincy are prefered over ISU, KSU, and OSU. Baylor is DOA and probably Kansas State.

I think this is easier to work than 4 pods, because the 4 pods, guarantee only 3 games, and a number of schools need 4 or 5 such games to feel "whole".