Pie in the sky

I am a bowl traditionalist. I believe that bowls helped make college football what it is today. As such, I believe it would be a travesty to completely do away with them. Further, speaking from D1-AA experience, it sucks to go 7-4 and have no post season. On this basis, I propose the following changes to college football to appease those who demand a play-off and improve on the greatest sport known to man:

1) Require conference pairings for non-conference play with a minimum of two inter-conference games each season. For instance, the Big 12 must pair with the SEC and Big 10 to where the teams from each conference play each other in a to-be-determined manner on consecutive Saturdays in September. In 2008, Oklahoma as the 2007 champ would have played LSU as the 2007 SEC champ and Ohio State as the 2007 Big 10 champ, Missouri would have played Tennessee and Illinois, and so on. These pairings would be done in advance in much the same way that schedules are made years in advance. Additionally, the conferences would already have an alternate team (either D1-AA or independent) lined up to play the last place team from the prior year when the conferences have a different number of teams (like with the Big 12 versus Big 10). The home versus away could be ironed out by the conferences two years a head of time and then it is just a matter of the schools having one year for the teams to plan travel arrangements once they are aware of each season's final standings. The conference pairings could then rotate from conference to conference every two years, for instance the Pac-10 might pair with the Big 12 and WAC for two seasons, and then the Big 10 and Mountain West for two seasons. This would help validate any conference supremacy arguments that are currently just speculative.

2) Create an 8 team play-off within the current bowl system. Immediately following all conference championship games, the top eight teams from the current BCS equation are seeded against each in order of rank (i.e. 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc.). Automatic bids are gone, however, no more than 2 teams from a conference are allowed. Therefore, if Texas Tech were the third team from the Big 12, but ranked #7, it would be bumped for the #9 team (assuming it is not the third from another conference). This would end any antitrust disputes that might come from the non-BCS conferences. The first round would be played in the middle of December at the home field of the higher seeded team. Concurrently, other bowl games would go on as scheduled- so you can still watch the Las Vegas Bowl the weekend after the first round of the BCS Play-off. The winners of the first round play-off would then play the second round on New Years day in a traditional big bowl including the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Cotton (I'm from Texas), which would rotate from second round play-off games to consolation bowls for the losers of the first round. Again, this is all concurrent with all other bowls currently scheduled- its not like you could make the Insight.com bowl any less relevant to John Q Public. Next the final game would be around January 10th at one of the traditional big bowls (whichever is up for the championship game that year). This system would still cause all regular season games to be relevant, it would heighten interest and fairness in the post season. Is there any difference in watching a consulation round Sugar bowl with Florida versus Texas as opposed to any of the other non-championship bowl games. I'd still love to watch the game. While at the same time, you are "allowing the championship to be decided on the field."

Tweaks to my ideas are welcomed, but I defy you to come up with a better system.