If any of the powers that be want to steal my idea, feel free, just do it:
Playoffs and the National Championship
To being with, the top eight teams would form a playoff.
As a nod to the BCS conferences, the conference champion from each BCS conference will receive an automatic bid to the playoffs as detailed below. However, in order for the BCS conference to obtain that automatic berth, it must host a championship game, meaning that conference must have twelve member schools. If they do not have a conference championship, the best they can hope for is an at large berth in the playoffs.
At large teams must be chosen from the following: BCS conference championship runners-up, winners of the minor conference’s championships or an independent team. A minor conference is any conference that does not host a championship game or is currently not a BCS conference. I'm looking at you Big South. (Note: I refuse to call them Big-10 or Big-12 ... they cannot count, and they need to admit that now.) The at large teams must be the highest ranked, qualifying teams. This can and will allow for multiple teams from the same conference. Unless you get an automatic bid, I want only the best in the nation.
If those BCS conferences can all get up to 12 teams, then the playoffs would run like this: The ACC champion and the Big East champion would face each other in the Orange Bowl. The SEC champion would face an at large team in the Sugar Bowl. The Big South champion would face an at large team in the Fiesta Bowl. And the Big North would face the Pac 12 champion in the Rose Bowl. All games would be played on New Years. These would be the only games on New Years, and no other bowls except for playoff games would be played after New Year’s Day. I'm sick of the Pointless Bowl between two nothing schools being played on January 3; no more of that.
The winners of the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl would face each other in the next round, and the winners of the Fiesta Bowl and Rose Bowl would face each other in the next round. This round would take place approximately two weeks later on either a Thursday or Monday to accommodate the NFL playoffs.
The championship game would be played the Saturday before the NFL Pro Bowl.
Conference Rivalries and the Bowl System a/k/a Bowl Head to Head Challenge (BH2H)
All the remaining bowls will be broken down into conference rivalries. The idea is to build a lot of television, press, and fan interest focused around creating rivalries between conferences similar to how the Rose Bowl creates an intense Big 10 and Pac 10 rivalry. Additionally, the conference rivalry bowls could be marketed as a bundle both to fans and to broadcast companies seeking the rights.
The conference rivals are ACC and Big East, Big North and Pac-12, and Big South and SEC. The minor conferences can negotiate for their rivalries, but ostensibly Mountain West and WAC would probably be one and Conference USA and either Sun Belt or MAC. One of the minor conferences will probably get devoured by the BCS conferences attempting to reach twelve schools, leaving ten conferences rather than eleven.
The second through four schools from each BCS conference (first through third for the minor conferences) would play each other in the Conference Head-to-Head Challenge. If the second place team from a conference got an at-large playoff bid, then the whole conference slides down one (i.e. third through fifth). If a conference cannot fill its full head-to-head challenge slate, then an at-large team may be chosen from either another conference or an independent school. The at large team is chosen by the conference failing to fill its own slate, not the bowl itself.
The games would be played in the weeks heading up to New Years. The second place games would be played on December 29 through 31. The third place game would be played December 26 through 28. The fourth place games would be placed December 24 through 26.
Each rivalry will have a pot of money to split comprised of the money posted by the participating bowls and the broadcast rights. The winner of the second place game gets 3/12s of the pot, the winner of the third place game gets 2/12s of the pot, and the winner of the fourth place game gets 1/12 of the pot. The conference winning the head to head matchup splits the other 6/12s of the pot among all of its member schools not playing in the playoff system, including those participating in the head-to-head challenge. If an at large team plays in the head to head challenge, it still does not qualify for the head to head winnings split by the winning conference.
Unfortunately, this drops the bowl system down to only 22 games involving only 38 teams, which is down from the 35 bowl games and 70 qualifying schools currently on the slate. (But is this really bad when 70 of 121 schools make the post season as it is? And how does such a high percentage of teams qualify if only Division 1-A wins count? How are 57% of schools .500 or better? Are bowls now counting Division 1-AA wins too? (Note: again, I refuse to acknowledge the FBS and FCS breakdowns.))
This could be alleviated by up-ing some of the Conference Head-to-Head games to four games, and requiring conferences to split the pot for ties. Moving to five games runs into the problem of diluting the system with too many at-large teams watering down the rivalries that would be created. The fifth place game would be played December 22 through 24.
Or it could be alleviated by leaving in all those minor bowls no one cares about anyway, and leaving them just as meaningless as they currently are, but still creating much more interest in hype is some of the more mid-major bowls. All minor bowls would be required to be played before BH2H challenge starts (December 24 or 22 depending on whether there are 3 or 4 BH2H games).
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