So Simple, Only The NCAA Couldn't Do It

Can College Football truly claim a seat on the throne next to the NFL as number two in the Royal Family of sports, without a real National Champion? I know, the NCAA and the major conferences will make having a college football playoff and maintaining the  bowl system seem more difficult than eliminating the national debt, but get serious. Fans, T.V. networks, and Athletic directors can keep the cash cow that is Bowl season, and add in playoff excitement that will rival or dwarf the success of the NCAA basketball tournament. They can do it without taking away from what is already the best regular season of any major sport, and without asking student athletes to spend considerable time away from the classroom. Sound too good to be true? It isn't.
 
Instead of the current talk of conference alliances or expansion, the powers that be should focus on a conference alignment that will lend itself to a natural playoff system. Start by having 8, 10 team conferences that each play a round robin schedule (think Pac-10). The winner of each conference matches up with the winner of a sister conference in a New Years Day Bowl Game. Those winners would then meet in a semi-final round, and eventually a National Championship round. Next, renew the traditional conference bowl relationships for the remaining Bowl eligible teams, and match up 2nd place teams and 3rd place teams all the way down to 6th place teams (provided they have at least 6 wins). This keeps us sports fans from going through college football withdrawals during the holidays, and helps build hype and debate over which conference champion had the toughest road to their New Years Day Bowl game.
 
Hold on to your hats, because this is where the ride takes an unexpected turn. The remaining 40 teams in D1 would be formed into 4 sub-conferences. (Here comes that turn) The top two teams in each sub conference would be matched up against a last placed team from one of the elite conferences in a true sudden death game. The prize for the winner...a chance to remain in or join one of the elite conferences. And for the loser...exiled to one of the sub conferences for the following season, where they will remain until they can unseat one of the elite conferences bottom feeders the following year. No more throwing in the towel during a disappointing regular season. The elite conference teams will fight to stay out of the last place spot, and the unfortunate school who's left in the tenth spot, is likely to turn in the effort of a lifetime to avoid College Football purgatory.
 
For scheduling, teams would have to play two non-conference games against teams from another elite conference, and one from a sub-conference. This eliminates those D2 scrub opponents, and gives everyone 12 regular season games. The conference champs and bowl eligible teams play a 13th game, with those winners playing a 14th contest, leaving two teams to play a 15th game for all of the marbles. That all but eliminates the worry of added strain for traveling student athletes, and ensures that college football gets plenty of sports talk radio attention during the month of January. It also puts traditions such as the AP poll and the Coaches poll in their respective places as great sources for debate, with little or no merit in deciding a National Champ.
 
Champions were meant to be decided on their respective fields of play, not by a computer formula, or a media vote. The Champion crowned at the end of each respective sport's year, wasn't necessarily the best team in the sport that season, but they were the last team standing, and they got to that mountain top by taking the title in a winner take all match-up. Right now, College Football is the only major sport with a mythical National Champ, and if they truly want to rival the NFL, they need to let their athletes do the talking, not their computers.