Here's my model for a playoff, with this year's teams factored in...

[GaYellowDawg]

10 team playoff. Essentially an 8 team playoff with two play-in games. No reason to expand to a 16 team playoff as I can't ever see a 16 seed winning the national championship. Automatic bids go to the champions of conferences to win the last 3 national championships and the other 7 or more bids are at-large. Automatic bids are exempted from play-in games. No conference is allowed more than two of the top 6 slots but a third may be assigned a play-in spot. No two teams from the same conference play each other in play-in games. Higher seeds get home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Seeds are assigned independently of automatic bids; in other words, if you'd had a 2-loss SEC champ coming in this year, it would get an automatic bid but would not be seeded #1. It would, however, be exempt from a play-in game.

Automatic bids:

Alabama (SEC has won the last 3 national championships)

At-large:
Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, Florida, Boise State, Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Iowa

Play-in participants:
Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Iowa

Assign seeds as follows:

1 Alabama
2 Texas
3 Cincinnati
4 TCU
5 Florida
6 Boise State
7 Oregon
8 Ohio State
9 Georgia Tech
10 Iowa

Play in (wild-card) round:
#10 Iowa at #7 Oregon
#9 Georgia Tech at #8 Ohio State

Under normal circumstances, it would have been #10 vs #8 and #7 vs #9 but as per the rules, the two Big 10 teams don't play each other in the play-in game. Let's say Oregon and Georgia Tech win and get 7 and 8 seeds, respectively (sorry, Big 10 fans, this is just how I think it'd play out). Re-seed the teams after the games. Then the matchups are:

#8 Georgia Tech at #1 Alabama
#7 Oregon at #2 Texas
#6 Boise State at #3 Cincinnati
#5 Florida at #4 TCU

You can't tell me THIS wouldn't be one hell of an exciting playoff! Higher seed retains home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Final game to be held at a neutral site (cities could bid on this or perhaps it could be rotated between the four big bowl sites).

This model makes regular season games VERY important for seeding and the resultant home field advantage. Use the BCS system to seed the teams, except when a third conference team is kicked down to a play-in game; re-seeding could come after the play-in games. By this, I mean something like what happened last year with Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech all deserving to be in. One of those teams would have had to go to a play-in game, but would have received a high seed the following week if they won it.

Having the automatic bid(s) going only to the conferences winning the last 3 national championships rewards recent success in the conferences; in this case, everyone but the SEC has to get an at-large bid. Want your conference to have an automatic bid? Want your conference champ to have an exemption from the play-in games? Earn it. Think about it: let's say that TCU wins out. Then the Mountain West Conference champ gets an automatic bid and exemption from play-in games for at least two more years. That is parity. And notice: the two "BCS busters" got a bye under my system, and one of them even got home field advantage.

[madinmaryland]

1. Georgia Tech beats Ohio State?

:wtf:

I like the premise though, I might would go with 16 teams. Automatic bids for the "BCS" conference champions (6 or 7) and then the balance being at-large positions.

Either way, it would be a lot of fun and excitement.

[GaYellowDawg]

4. Yep. Definitely.

Ohio State gave up 27 points and 342 yards of offense to Navy, who still runs Paul Johnson's offense. You don't think Georgia Tech wouldn't ring up 450+ yards on them with the same offense and much better talent? Ohio State barely escaped Navy at home. Georgia Tech would run all over them, at least on offense. I could easily see that game going something like 45-35 Georgia Tech's way. And I am biased like hell against Georgia Tech.

Oh yeah, and I don't think that all of the conference champions deserve automatic bids. What if Clemson had pulled out a game over Georgia Tech? What if Nebraska had beaten Texas? I don't think that warrants an automatic bid, for two reasons: 1) you're letting just one game in some cases allow an otherwise undeserving team into the playoffs; 2) the upset victim will get an at-large bid, and a midmajor team that otherwise would have gotten the bid gets screwed. A conference should be deserving of its automatic bid. Automatic bids should have to be earned.

[JonLP24]

5. I like option teams in the NCAA

They present a lot of challenges for defenses to defend. So many ways to go and they have to be ready for it. If you notice in the Bowl pick-'em thread I got both Navy and GT as winners and I really, really wanted to pick Iowa.

[Condem]

2. 16 teams, GaYellow.

I could see a low seeded team make it's way through. It's worked out well in the Championship Division.

[GaYellowDawg]

3. I disagree.

I could see a #16 seed upsetting the #1 team, maybe, but definitely not making it through more than one game. Matchups between #16 and #1 over the past few years would have been as follows:

2009: West Virginia at Alabama
2008: BYU at Oklahoma
2007: Tennessee at Ohio State
2006: Rutgers at Ohio State
2005: UCLA at Texas
2004: Wisconsin at USC
2003: Tennessee at LSU
2002: West Virginia at Miami

I know some of those look like prominent names, but take 2003 for instance: you're talking about an LSU team that beat Georgia twice - and Georgia pummeled UT 41-14 that year. These wouldn't be good matchups. The difference between the #1 college football team and the #16 team means that most years it wouldn't even be competitive. In 1-AA/FCS, a #16 seed has never won the title, nor has one ever even advanced to the title game. Including the #11-#16 teams is a waste, if you ask me.

[JonLP24]

6. I really don't like the idea of going 16 teams

That takes away one factor of what makes Div 1 College Football great where every game matters so much more. I think 8 is a good number and I like your system as well.

[Condem]

7. Has a #11-#15 team ever made the final in the FCS?

Or semis, for that matter?

[GaYellowDawg]

8. I don't know.

But I wouldn't add #15-16 for the sake of #11-#14, if you know what I mean. And FCS is a different animal from FBS. I think that most years, there's generally a sharp dropoff after the top 10 teams in FBS. And a playoff wouldn't preclude bowls, although the payoffs would almost certainly be a lot smaller. Bowls would be like the NIT is in basketball - a nice consolation prize, and I don't find anything wrong with that.

[Condem]

9. Let's pull up the final 16 teams in the BCS, Ga.

Let me look for it, here. My point. A team like LSU could get hot. Everybody plays the same amount of games. No byes. No arguments.

[GaYellowDawg]

10. Here are your #11-#16 teams:

11 Virginia Tech. They got destroyed by Alabama and beaten by Georgia Tech. Not deserving.

12 LSU. Clearly a level below Florida and Alabama in head to head matches. Also lost to Ole Miss. Almost lost to mediocre Georgia and Arkansas teams. Not deserving. And I saw them play Georgia live. That is not a team that's going to beat Alabama, ever.

13 Penn State. Lost to Iowa and Ohio State convincingly. Not deserving.

14 BYU. Beaten by Florida State, a middling ACC team. Hammered by TCU. Barely scraped by New Mexico. Not deserving.

15 Miami. Hammered by Virginia Tech. Lost to Clemson. Lost to a pedestrian North Carolina team. Almost upset by Wake Forest. Not deserving.

16 West Virginia. Lost convincingly to Auburn, a thoroughly mediocre SEC team. Hammered by a 7-5 USF team.

Depth becomes a factor in playoffs. None of these teams would run through the other 10. It's pointless to include them.

[Condem]

11. But all won their last games. No?

Red HOT heading into the play-offs. WVU beat Pitt then Rutgers. VT destroyed rival Vrginia. PSU-Michigan State. I could see the Nits making a run. If LSU gets hot...