I had a lot of free time today.

I would purpose a 16 team field. That way the "who's in/who's out" argument will be relatively mild. Automatic bids go to the conference winners of the six BCS conferences. So, in this case...

Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Ohio State
Oklahoma
USC
LSU

... would all be in. Let the conferences keep their championship games if they want. From there, select teams from an at-large pool. You can accomplish this with a selection committee like the Basketball tournament, the BCS formula, the polls, or some sort of combination of all of them.

To keep it open to mid-majors (and Independents like Notre Dame), I would instill a top 15 rule. If you finish the season ranked in the top 15 in a majority of the polls (so, 2 out of 3), you gain automatic entry. Otherwise, your fate is left up to the committee. So, we would be looking at something like this...

Georgia
Kansas
Florida
Arizona State
Missouri
Boston College
Illinois
Hawaii

... would all be locks based on the poll rule. That leaves us with two open slots, and that brings us to the selection committee. Attention must be paid to the polls while selecting, and an attempt should be made to adhere to them as stringently as possible. If I was the committee (which I am in this case), I would select these two at large teams...

Clemson
Texas

Tennessee is left out because of its 4 losses and multiple blowout losses. Wisconsin is left out because of the weak Big Ten and their close calls to bad teams. This gives us our field of 16. Now, the committee must seed these teams. This is left completely up them. No adherence must be paid to anything now that we have the field of 16 (except the avoidance of rematches in the first round). The team with the higher seed will host the opening round game. I would seed them something like this....

1. Ohio State
16. Clemson

8. Florida
9. Arizona State

4. Virginia Tech
13. Illinois

5. Oklahoma
12. Boston College

6. Kansas
11. West Virginia

3. Georgia
14. Texas

7. USC
10. Missouri

2. LSU
15. Hawaii

The winners of these games will then move on to face each other in one of the four "big" bowls. This way, we get to keep the big bowls happy in all of this. The team with the highest overall seed left after the first round will have the bowl they are associated with pick first, and then it will continue with the team with the next highest seed having their bowl pick, and so on. In this case, it would be Ohio State, and that bowl would be the Rose Bowl. So, after making some quick predictions on these games...

Rose Bowl
1. Ohio State
8. Florida

Fiesta Bowl
4. Virginia Tech
5. Oklahoma

Orange Bowl
3. Georgia
11. West Virginia

Sugar Bowl
2. LSU
7. USC

The Sugar Bowl would select the LSU game after the Rose Bowl picks the Ohio State game, leaving the Orange Bowl to select the most geographically obvious choice, and the Fiesta Bowl would still end up with one of the teams it is associated with (Oklahoma). Everyone gets what they want, and a sweet weekend of four incredible games awaits.

After this round, the two semi-final games are played at two of the big bowls. These two will rotate yearly, so everyone gets a shot. The national championship game will then be played wherever the NCAA chooses, on a neutral field. It doesn't have to be a bowl.

You can keep all of the second-tier bowls, and they will serve as a type of NIT. Obviously some of the really bad ones will have to go because of the dilution of teams, but I don't think anyone is going to lose any sleep over the end of the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

So anyways, I think when you take a look at the games we would be treated to throughout the month of December and compare them to the games we actually have to suffer through this December, it becomes pretty clear just how badly a playoff system is needed in College Football.

Yeah, but what happens when you're team 17? It's the same problem as the BCS. If you want in, don't lose. It's as simple as that.

The issue is much less severe with team 17 than it is with team 3 or 4, though. It's not even comparable, really.

I agree with having a playoff, but 16 teams would be too much, IMO. That will degrade the regular season, the unique part of college football since it's rather short (basically 12-game season), a lot. 8 teams should be sufficient.

Don't you think that limiting it to 8 would lead to the same issues we have now with regards to who is in and out?

Not really. Take the major conference champions as you have

Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Ohio State
Oklahoma
USC
LSU

Then add Georgia and Hawaii, and that should be enough. Missouri lost not once, but twice to OU, so nobody would complain that they're not getting the third chance; Kansas didn't beat anyone; Florida lost to both LSU and Georgia; Illinois has three losses; etc. Basically the complaint will be quite minimal after those 8 teams are included. You're going to have a cutoff at some point, and I don't want a team like Clemson to have a chance at the national championship.

Hawaii and Colt Brennan would then proceed to beat everyone and win the National Championship!

That could work, x. I guess the idea of 16 teams is more selfish than practical (I just want more great games).

If we took the eight team system, we could also use the bowl system I described earlier.

Rose Bowl
1. Ohio State
8. Hawaii

Sugar Bowl
2. LSU
7. West Virginia

Fiesta Bowl
3. Oklahoma
6. Virginia Tech

Orange Bowl
4. Georgia
5. USC

I think the seeding would work something like that.

If you wanted to open it up further, you could take the top 12 teams and give the top four seeds a first round bye.

everything ive ever heard about a possible playoff always mentioned the top 8 teams...


but then we have the whole "how do you get the top 8"....so yet again it would come down to polls and votes....

i would be perfectly happy if #1 played #4 and then #2 played #3 and then the 2 winners play for the championship at this point....anything is better than a 2 loss team playing a team that played a VERY weak schedule

The BCS could still be used to determine who the top 8 teams would be. I like the BCS structure in terms of coming up with a point calculation but I wish they had kept the bonus point component for beating teams ranked in the BCS. They could also add bonus points for going undefeated, undefeated at home, undefeated on the road and losing points for the opposite of those things. Most people would probably get annoyed at all the numbers but I think it'd be interesting.

I would love a 16 team playoff like the NCAA tourney. I disagree about degrading the regular season because it doesn't hurt the regular season in college baskeball does it? 90% of the time a top 5 school wins it.

It's amazing that one of the most popular sports in NA is essentially the only one that doesn't have a playoff...

Yeah I know it is.