Disagree on the pods not having an impact.
Yes, there will still be occasional early round games like the Mount Airy-Albemarle tilt last year, but if nothing else, the teams from the midwest will no longer be the only ones punished with that. Someone like Cherokee or Hayesville will inevitably end up with one of those nightmare draws.
In addition, a really strong team like an Atkins or Mount Airy (from last year) who finishes third or fourth (respectively) in a very difficult league will have a better shot at reaching the regionals because they'll get a chance to play some of those teams from the west that are much weaker, rather than inevitably having to go back to war against the teams that finished above them in said league.
And to build on that, there will be no foregone conclusions about who makes it to the regional like there have been in past years (particularly in the west). Last year, before the playoffs even started, you knew that Cherokee and Hayesville were going to meet in Greensboro because the other 14 teams in that bracket ranged in talent from mediocre to outright bad. As an example, last year when the preliminary brackets came out, Bishop was slated to be in the west, which would have facilitated a Bishop-Hayesville 3rd round game at Bishop that would have almost definitely ended Hayesville's season before Greensboro and dramatically altered the way the regional matchups shook out (Bishop vs. Cherokee and Prep vs. ????).
Death to the pods!