FanNation - The Republic of Sport

a simple +1 would be fine for me
use 2 of the bcs bowls (on rotation each year) matchup 1v4 and 2v3 according to the bcs rankings then have the 2 winners face each other. the previous year's winning team (ie pac10/big10 would be the rose bowl) will decide what location the final game will be played

adding in^ you would still have the other 2 bcs bowls, they just wouldnt be in the national championship picture

My first choice would be to work within the BCS like above with a 4-team playoff. The bowls which host the semifinals are decided upon concurrently with the teams which will participate in them. The championship site should continue rotating to equalize money among the BCS Bowl Sites.

Teams are chosen to the Football Final Four (FFF) in the following manner:
a) Top 2 teams are guarenteed spots
b) the pool of BCS conf. champions in the top 5 are chosen from next
c) at-larges fill any remaining spots; if necessary

FFF Teams are paired in the following manner:
a) Rose Bowl hosts Big Ten & Pac-10 contestants iff both are in the Final Four
b) Higher seeded BCS conf. champs host their bowl (SEC w/Sugar, etc.)
c) remaining teams paired top down (lower ranked team vs. upper ranked) avoiding rematches

The BCS maintains it's current bowl schedule (maybe move the championship game later in the week) and a 5th bowl may be added to maintain the number of BCS teams at 10.

Another option to consider is granting a bye (automatic selection to the BCS game) to the 1 or 2 (not more, not less) undefeated BCS conf. teams. This is a hard and fast rule that awards regular season #1 teams. In those cases of course (to keep the current bowl schedule), additional teams (#11, #12) can be invited to fill the vacated spots in the BCS Bowls.

To the constraints posted here:

1) 4-teams has minimal effect on the sanctity of the regular season. Applied retroactively never more than 1 team per year earns a spot without winning its conference. (perhaps this limit should be mandated)

2) I'm not sure what this means but the bowls and playoffs work hand in hand. The bowls aren't devalued and the Rose Bowl maintains its traditional matchup, losing at most 1 replaceable participant.

3) Fans will have a month in advance to plan their bowl vacation trip. In any playoff fans may gamble for a National Championship ticket but each team is GUARENTEED a Bowl game. There is no fly to Columbus, Ohio, lose, and begin the off-season.

4) This sounds crazy but I'll give it a shot. Teams play a 9-game regular season including all (max. 8) in conference games. Teams are then seeded. The top 64 teams (the best in each conference) go to eight (most likely sponsored) 8-team tournaments, selecting equitable members from each conference.

These tournaments are played swiss style so each team plays 3 games, completing the 12 game requirement. Teams outside the top 64 are selected to groups of 8 or 6 and play 3-game swiss tournaments or round-robins to complete their 12 game limit.

Bids to the 32 bowls (most likely less in this scenario) begin with the normal constraints. The 8 winners of the 8 tournaments play in a 7-game playoff (most likely using bowl sites). The winner is crowned National Champion and the entire football season is used as a playoff.

Rivalry games like UF-FSU or UConn-UMass can be those teams' extra (9th) regular season game.

1) Conference champion of each of the 11 D-1 conferences must be decided by last Sat of Nov.
2) Let teams/Conferences decide to play 10-12 game regular season.
3) Conference champion of each of the 11 conferences invited. Top 5 ranked teams taking into account strength of schedule, regardless of conference and with no limit to number of teams per conference, added to make 16 teams. Seed teams 1-16 based on final season rankings (allows higher seeds easier games first round, while including all conferences and giving "cinderalla" appeal).
4) First round played at home field (or close-by NFL stadium) of highest seed first weekend of Dec. Losers eligible for non-playoff bowl games.
5) Second round played at home field (NFL stadium) of winner of 1st round (#16 seed could have home field if beats #1 seed in first round). This game played the 3rd weekend of Dec, or a few days before Christmas to take into account final exams.
6) Take 4 BCS bowls, add next 2 best (such as Cotton and Peach). Alternate seasons, as indicated below.
6) Semi-final game played on 1/1 at 2 bowls.
7) Championship game played 1 week later at other bowl. The 3 bowls that did not participate in playoffs could still have a bowl based on conference affiiliation or the top 6 ranked teams from round 1 and non-playoff teams. Alternatively, they only participate every other year.

Odds overwhelmingly will dictate that semi-final teams will come from top 8 seeded teams. Thus, semi losers will only travel once and championship teams will only travel twice. If you are a team seeded 9-16 and win your first game, you get home field the 2nd round, and even if you make the semi or championship game (highly unlikely) you will travel 2-3 times.

This formula involves all conferences, does not limit conference participation, will definitively decide an undisputed champion, and will generate a heck of a lot more interest and money (for every conference and team) than the current system. It also keeps the bowl system in tact, and takes into account final exams and travel.

The current BCS system is a mess (perhaps 2 or 3 non-controversial champions over last 10 years). Also, the current BCS encourages scheduling weak OOC games to up your win total. Furthermore, BCS leaves nearly 1/2 of college football teams out in the cold.

The "plus 1" system is flawed too. For those 2-3 times the undisputed #1 played the #2, the winner would then have to play the undisputed #3 or #4 team. What if the #1 then lost? This could create a mess too.