The Conference Champions Playoff System
Centered on conference champions this plan would create a playoff format, yet still return the TRADITIONAL prestige of the bowl games. The Rose Bowl would return to the hands of the Pac10/Big10; the Sugar Bowl to the SEC; the Orange Bowl to the Big12. I don’t know if the ACC had a traditional tie-in with a bowl. This plan would also throw a bone to non-BCS schools. The playoffs would include 8 schools.

The First Five Automatic Bids
Each of the conference champions of the FIVE major conferences would receive an automatic bid, and furthermore be irrefutably linked to four recurring bowl games. Specifically, return the Rose Bowl to its traditional match-up of the Pac10 versus the Big10. The Sugar Bowl would get the SEC champ, the Orange Bowl the Big12 champ, and I don’t know, the (insert name here) Bowl to get the ACC champ.

This would make winning the conference championship each teams primary annual concern. For Pac10 fans like me, every year would always still be about getting to the Rose Bowl.

Two Small Conference Bids
Two of the remaining three spots would be granted to small conference champions (determined by their BCS ranking). Perhaps just as the Big12, ACC, and SEC now have an extra game at the end of the season to determine a champ, the SIX small conferences can have an extra game between the four highest BCS rated teams to determine the two entrants to the playoffs.

The Last Bid
The final “wild card” spot would be awarded to the best remaining team not already in the field (as determined by BCS ranking)—for example, Notre Dame, a third small conference champ, or the best 2nd place finishing team from a major conference.

You could a make rule that a conference champ could not play the 2nd place team from its own conference.

It would look something like this:
Rose Bowl: Pac10 Champ V’s Big10 Champ
(Insert Name here) Bowl: ACC Champ V’s At-large Small Conference Champ
Sugar Bowl: SEC Champ V’s At-large Small Conference Champ
Orange Bowl: Big 12 Champ V’s Wild Card*

*Wild Card: Highest BCS ranked team not already in field.

Semifinals: Gator and Peach bowls
Final: Fiesta Bowl

Certainly, most seasons it would look like the Rose Bowl would be the toughest game, but that’s okay, the Rose Bowl is supposed to be the grand daddy of them all! As to the other match-ups for the major champions, there opponent could be based upon relative seeding, that is, the highest rated BCS champ would play the lowest rated BCS opponent.

What this year could look like:
The 5 major champs:
Pac10: USC
Big10: Penn St
ACC: Virginia Tech
SEC: Georgia
Big12: Texas

The Small Conference Champs:
CUSA: UTEP (47)
Mountain West: TCU (37)
WAC: Fresno St (7)
MidAmerican: Toledo (28)
SunBelt: Middle Tennesse St. (94)
Big Easy: West Virginia (20)
[For the rankings I used teamrankings.com]

Hence, Fresno St would play TCU for one spot, and W Virginia would play Toledo for the other.

The Last Spot would go to: Alabama (since it is the highest BCS rated team not in the field).

The Playoffs would then set up like this:
Rose Bowl: 1. USC v’s 10. Penn St.
Sugar Bowl: 4. Georgia v’s Fresno St.

Whatever Bowl: 3. Virginia Tech v’s Alabama
Orange Bowl: 2. Texas v’s W. Virginia

First, realign the 2nd round matches according to seeding.Georgia can’t play Alabama (same division, so either Texas or VaTech must, VaTech is the lower seed).

Possible match-ups for last year:
Rose Bowl: USC v’s Wisconsin
Cotton Bowl: Miami v’s Utah

Sugar Bowl: Auburn v’s Boise St.
Orange Bowl: Oklahoma v’s Cal

Everyone has a chance! So, what do you guys think?

yours is cool, here is mine

i prefer the 16 team playoff only because it would allow the guaranteed access of all 11 d1a football conferences

then the last 5 would be for wild cards and independents

1st round bowl options:
las vegas
alamo
holiday
peach
sun
liberty
gator
houston

2nd round bowl options:
capital one citrus
cotton
outback
fiesta

semifinal bowl options
orange
sugar

championship bowl options
rose

the team would be ranked 1-16 with the higher ranked team getting to go to the bowl closest to their home.

would be alot of fun:)

SNUG

My plan is not that far from yours. Take the 5 big conference champs. Then take the next 3 highest BCS rated teams. I would make a rule that a conference could only have a max of 2 teams of the 8. I truly think that is what we will see before we all are dead.

All of the minor bowls can stay in place. I don't think that their ratings would suffer.

PSD

Good idea, Snug. The 5 power conferences have separated themselves from the rest to the point that your plan makes eminent sense.

How about a play-in?

Rose Big 10-Pac 10
Fiesta-Big 12
Sugar-SEC
Orange-ACC

top 4 teams who are champs of the other conferences plus 2 wildcards play in for the other 3 slots.

3 of the other 6 champs get in. With a little expansion, one conference (most likely WAC) dissappears and Sun Belt teams should go back to I-AA. That leaves 4 slots and 4 conferences.

Yeah, any tweaking with the remaining spots is fine. So long as the conference championship means something, and the rose bowl becomes interesting again.

You could give the 5 champs automatic berths, and create any other scenario about how the other 3 to 11 positions are filled. I like the play-in idea, so that another six teams (besides the champs) get to play their way in. That'd make the bowl round with the champs more interesting.

ACC Seahawk, I like your plan except for that the traditional rose bowl isn't ressurected. I'd like to see a playoff system mixed with some of the old tradition.

The major bowls (Orange, Sugar, Rose,and Fiesta) should be played on NYD where they traditionally belong. That day should be the end to the season. I am a traditionalist. However one championship game one week later with the two highest ranked teams out of the traditional NYD bowl games sounds great also.
The plan is acceptable with access for all D1 conferences dependent on rankings. Just get rid of the second tier and garbage bowls on NYD. Bring back tradition and top tier play on on NYD.

In addition to the my prior post if all the major conferences would go to 12 teams and a conference champion, most of the playoff system would be set in place prior to the bowl season. With NYD bowl birth's on the line the championship games would have even more meaning behind them. There would be more interest nationally and probably more TV revenue tied to the championship games. The lower tier bowls won't suffer with the champions playing on NYD in the major bowls. They are catch all bowls anyway and make good filler for the holiday season leading into NYD.

Need another addition to the posts above for tradition. I forgot the Cotton Bowl as a Major NYD traditional bowl. This bowl needs to needs to revamped and repolish itself since its demise with the SWC demise however if added to the traditioanal list on NYD where it belongs, then there would be 10 slots (more than enough) from which to choose the best two teams for a national championship game a week later. I forgot that the Fiesta bowl has actually bumped the Cotton bowl from the big four. Texas is back in the mix with a major bowl again.

The major traditional bowls could actually start on NYE. If I remember correctly the Sugar Bowl has been played on NYE at times. (Correct me if I am wrong).

Summary:

Conferences with 12 teams crown a champion.
Champions come from the BE, ACC, SEC, B-10, B-12,
P-10, and MWC.
At large teams filled by ND (who in reality is a BCS team but must meet certain requirements), merged Cusa/WAC leftovers, 1A independents, and the Sunbelt.

Teams must meet ranking qualifications and no more than 2 teams from each confernce are aceepted to allow for elite conferences that have exceptional years in the rankings.

Champions and highest ranked teams move on to their affiliated Bowls as proposed by Snug and others. Five major bowls with one played NYE, and 4 played NYD produce the 2 finalist's for a CHAMPIONSHIP GAME one week later.

This system produces a CHAMPION using the weekly polls throughout the season, puts more emphasis on the conference championship games, keeps the bowl traditionalists happy, keeps the BCS people happy, gives all the 1A conferences a shot, keeps government intervention out, and still leaves margin for error for traditional complainers to complain about. ;D ;D ;D ;D 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) :D :D :D :D ;) ;) ;) ;)