A Solution for a College Football Playoff

I'll spare you from the reasons why we need a college football playoff. Any reasonable person can tell you the current bowl system does not work. Instead, I'll get straight to the solution on how a college playoff could work.

There are currently 11 conferences in the FBS. If we count the Independents, there are 12. They include:

SEC
ACC
Big 12
Big 10
PAC 10
Big East
C-USA
MAC
Mountain West
WAC
Sunbelt
Independents

The first step is to make every conference play a conference championship game. This would mean aligning every conference so that there are two divisions (east/west, coastal/atlantic, north/south, etc.).

Each game played during the regular season is important so that your team can have a chance to play in their respective conference championship game. The conference champion goes to the playoff.

The playoff would consist of 12 teams (representing the conferences including the independents). The top 4 teams would get a bye. This can be determined based on regular season polls. For 2008, this may mean that byes would be awarded to the following conferences:

SEC
Big 12
ACC
Big 10

The other 8 teams will be paired in games pitting one another based on ranking (again, based on regular season polls). Keep in mind, all of these teams won their conference championship game. This may look something like the following:

Utah vs. Boise State (winner plays Florida)
USC vs. Troy(Winner plays VT)
Buffalo vs. Tulsa (Winner plays Penn State)
Navy vs. Cincinatti(Winner plays Oklahoma)

We are now essentially down to an 8 team playoff, but have accomplished a playoff bracket with all 12 conferences (Independents included).

The draw to this model is maintaining the importance of the regular season while moving forward and letting the Champion be decided on the field.

Regardless of method, there is an obvious need for a playoff. As harsh as it may sound, the "powers that be" who have settle for the bowl system will eventually die off. Only then will we ever have any luck at moving to a playoff system. The current old school way of thinking no longer makes sense in today's college football landscape.