A Pipe Dream but an idea for a college football playoff

The college football season is poetry, madness and a whirlwind. I am the type that wants to see things settled on the field. Keep winning and you will vie for a championship. Ask the Rockies, they started winning in September and haven't stop to quote Casey Stengel "They way they're playing they might keep going till Christmas." But in college football this is not so. Boise State finished the 2006 season unbeaten and to the chagrin of some larger conferences, earned a berth in a major BCS bowl. They acquitted themselves nicely with a thrilling come from behind win in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.
Now before I outline my plan for a college football playoff. Let me explain why it will never ever happen. Division I football, or the Bowl Subdivision as it is now known is not, repeat NOT controlled by the NCAA. Oh the rules and the administration of the schools are governed by the NCAA but they do not control its gameplay. That is the reason that all the other sports in the NCAA have Division 1, 2 or 3 trophies. The NCAA hands out a trophy to the football winners in Division 1-AA (now called the inane Championship Subdivision) 2 and 3 and they have playoffs. But Division 1-A is controlled by the presidents of the schools who commonly vote in their blocs that their respective leagues are in (eg SEC, Big 10, et al) These leagues have lucrative tie ins to bowl games which pay out tens of millions of dollars to the schools that qualify for these games. These presidents, bowl committees and broadcast network conspire to keep a playoff from happening. The presidents deign to be the bad guy saying that "the kids would miss too much time in school." Nevermind that all of the conference championship and bowl games are played when a majority of these schools are out of school for winter break. Now that I've given you the reason why it will never happen. Let me set up my scenario for a workable NCAA football tourney.

The Setup
We take 16 teams...Winners of the 11 major conferences. The conferences that have championship games still have them. You take the 11 conferences winners and 5 wild cards. That way you have room for that team that finishes second in the Big or Pac 10 and yes Notre Dame can still carp for a spot but only if they finish in the top 5 of rankings. This top 5 is determined by a BCS like poll, so it would behoove teams to play a quality non-conference schedule as well. Keep the polls, and the figuring that goes into the BCS but use it for determining the "final five."

The tourney
The teams are seeded 1-16. Higher seeded teams play at home in the first round. The first three rounds are played on the middle 3 Saturdays in December, The final to be played on the bye week between the NFL's conference championships and the Super Bowl. Where do you play the bowls? You rotate the BCS title game now, why not rotate the games between the four major bowls, with the final being played at a rotating site as well. Dont tell me that people wont travel for it, people travel three weekends following their basketball teams. The quarterfinals can be played at neutral sites close to the venues of both teams. So the little confernences get their champions in the playoff and the big boys cant avoid top teams.

The other bowls.
Keep 'em if teams dont make the tourney, the bowl game is always a nice consolation You have 32 bowls, take the majors ones out and you still have 27 others that teams that just miss can still vie for. So simple yet so much a dream... I will have the World Series preview tomorrow as well as the awards that everyone in the TSN community is talking about...The Phat Dap/Head Slap. Until Next Post Fellow Sports Fans!