Last year I suggested a playoff… This year time to take that tweak and see what might have happened.

16 team playoff (4 games)
Shorten the season back to the 11 games they had as a standard. Teams may not play FCS teams to pad the schedule with easy opponents. You can keep the conferences how they are or change them in some way but it is probably more likely to occur if you leave it alone. You require every conference to play a championship game and you also force the independents (namely the Irish) to join a conference or not be invited. You then take the conference champion from each conference to give you 11 teams in the playoffs. That leaves 5 at-large bids. These are going to be like the NCAA March Madness selections. They have to be teams that showed incredible presence during the season and could very easily be conference champions. This can include teams that tie in a division or lost the championship game but have showed enough presence during the season to earn a spot. Anyone that believes that there would be a controversy disagree. There may be one at the beginning, but like March Madness, it would all die down.
The seeding can be done one of two ways. The fairest would be random, however people would still whine. Therefore you take the oldest way of doing it and seed according to the AP. [Conference champions get seeds 1-8 and the at large teams and other conference champs get seeds 9-16.](edit this year) A maximum of three per conference can participate in the playoff to allow a chance for multiple teams of great caliber to play in it. The first round games are to be played the week following the championship games (which would be the last week of November since the season is a week shorter). These games are to be played in the venue of the higher seeded team (thus assuring that a conference champion plays each game at home). Teams with stadiums seating less than an adequate amount of people (preferably more than 50,000 unless something is set higher upon the two teams playing) must find an adequate neutral site that will be there home venue. The second round will also be played in the previous format.
The third round will be played at neutral sites seating more than the number established above at the closest distance to equal between the competing schools. If an advantage of more than one-fourth of the distance is awarded it must be to the home team. The national championship game will be at a designated stadium that is picked prior to the season. There will be two alternatives in the case that a team that is virtually a home team would be playing that is the lower seed. (i.e. is Georgia Tech was the lower seed and the game was in the Georgia Dome). This will maintain the spirit of fairness to higher seeded teams. However, if the team that is higher seeded were to play in their own backyard then we chalk that one up as luck.
Tickets to each game will be offered through schools beginning at midnight ET on the Sunday before the game. All tickets are to be sold through schools with a minimum of a 65/35 split between home and visitor until wednesday at which time the home team can request that tickets be returned that are unsold by the visitor in the case that they are sold out. The away team can also request more in increments of 500 if they sell out before the home team. The tickets for the final two rounds will be split 50/50 and be sold that way up until kickoff where they can be purchased at the gate if it is not a sell out.
Now to put this all down easily so everyone can understand me i will put this years scenario and how it would work out without making bold predictions.
[All teams will be matched up based on seeds where the highest seed plays the lowest seed and so on. They will also be reseeded with no regard toward conference champions. These seedings will be released before the playoffs begin as they will alter the games after round 1 and again be based on the AP. However, if a matchup of a conference champion and a non-champion meet it will be played at the conference champions home stadium to award the conference champion but keeping the top seed from facing some great at large team](edit 2010)
Teams: (non-conference aligned rankings in parenthesis)
1. Alabama (SEC Champ) (1)
2. Texas (Big 12 Champ) (2)
3. TCU (Mountain West Champ) (3)
4. Cincinnati (Big East Champ) (4)
5. Boise State (WAC Champ) (6)
6. Oregon (Pac 10 Champ) (7)
7. Ohio State (Big 10 Champ) (8)
8. Georgia Tech (ACC Champ) (9)
9. Florida (At Large) (5)
10. Iowa (At Large) (10)
11. Penn State (At Large) (11)
12. Virginia Tech (At Large) (12)
13. LSU (At Large) (13)
14. Central Michigan (MAC Champ) (14)
15. East Carolina (CUSA Champ) (15)
16. Troy (Sun Belt Champ) (16)

Round 1
Troy @ Alabama [Bryant-Denny Stadium]
East Carolina @ Texas [Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium]
Central Michigan @ TCU [Cowboys Stadium] (Amon G Carter has only 44,000 seats)
LSU @ Cincinnati [Paul Brown Stadium] (Nippert seats 36,000]
Virginia Tech @ Boise State [Bronco Stadium] (no stadium is close and suitable unless the game were played out of state… maybe Provo, UT or Washington)
Penn State @ Oregon [Autzen Stadium]
Iowa @ Ohio State [Ohio Stadium]
Florida @ Georgia Tech [Bobby Dodd Stadium or the Georgia Dome]

Predicted winners (Alabama, Texas, TCU, LSU, VT, Oregon, Ohio State, Florida)

Round 2
LSU @ Alabama [Bryant Denny Stadium]
Virginia Tech @ Texas [Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium]
Ohio State @ TCU [Cowboys Stadium]
Florida @ Oregon [Autzen Stadium]

Predicted winners (Alabama, Texas, TCU, Florida)

Round 3
Florida @ Alabama [Georgia Dome]
TCU @ Texas [Cowboys Stadium]

Predicted Winners (Alabama, TCU)

Round 4
TCU @ Alabama [why not Pasadena]

The down side of course is the fact that 5 at large teams get in that would otherwise be on the outside looking in. My worry with the lack of at large teams is you will see pushover out of conference even though it will not really matter except for seeding. If you maintain the at large you will see some out of conference matches. But no one can complain because you know, to guarantee a spot you have to win your conference. I will post 1 maybe 2 other ideas tomorrow addressing some issues (but of course raising others).