The world is converging on the SEC and Big Ten, and once it does, they can take over the playoffs in a way to fix the regular season and give proper rewards to team. Don't like it? Join the SEC or B1G. Sucks for you, Notre Dame.
The tournament still is open to other conferences, and can have provisions for conference champs getting in of any division. However, it will give special rewards to 4 teams - the Big Ten and SEC champs, as well as runner-ups. This is a way to reward them for having to play an extra game as well as provide an incentive to make this game and set up their conferences to get the two best teams in the game.
The Champions get a double-bye and advance to round 3. The runner ups get a single-bye and advance to round 2. 20 other teams make the playoffs, which gives plenty of opportunities to just seed other conference champs as well as plenty of at-large teams. For an example below, we'll assume that every conference champion gets a bid.
Round 1: 10 games These games could happen the week after the conference championship week.
Seeds 5-24 face each other (5 vs. 24, 4 vs. 23, etc..)
Round 2: The SEC and B1G runner-up are added to the mix. Call them the 3 and 4 seeds, but they will be on the opposite side as their conference champ (if B1G is #1, then Big Ten runner up is #3, and vice versa for SEC). This ensures that you could get an all-SEC or all-B1G championship game from these teams.
12 teams will play in this round producing 6 winners. (8/21 vs. 9/20, 13/16 vs. 4, 5/24 vs. 12/17, 7/22 vs. 10/19, 15/14 vs. 3, 6/23 vs. 11/18)
From here we get 6 winners and add in the B1G and SEC champs.
You get a standard 8 team tournament from here.
Putting it in for this year, assuming the favorites win each of the CCGs:
SEC Champion: Georgia #2, Runner up Alabama #4
B1G Champion: Ohio State #1, Runner up Indiana #3
Autobids: #21 James Madison, #24 Kennesaw State, #20 North Texas, #22 Boise, #23 Western Michigan, #5 TTU, #17 Virginia
13 At Large spots remain: #6 Oregon, #7 Ole Miss, #8 A&M, #9 Oklahoma, #10 Notre Dame, #11 BYU, #12 Miami, #13 Texas, #14 Vanderbilt, #15 Utah, #16 USC, #18 Arizona, #19 Michigan
Round 1:
Ohio State Pod:
#8 Texas A&M vs. #21 James Madison
#9 Oklahoma vs. #20 North Texas
#13 Texas vs. #16 USC
BYE: Alabama
#5 Texas Tech vs. #24 Kennesaw State
#12 Miami vs. #17 Virginia
Georgia Pod:
#7 Ole Miss vs. #22 Boise State
#10 Notre Dame vs. #19 Michigan
#14 Vanderbilt vs. #15 Utah
BYE Indiana
#6 Oregon vs. #23 Western Michigan
#11 BYU vs. #18 Arizona
(using FPI to predict winners)
Round 2:
#8 Texas A&M vs. #9 Oklahoma
BYE Ohio State
#16 USC vs. #4 Alabama
#5 Texas Tech vs. #12 Miami
#7 Ole Miss vs. #10 Notre Dame
BYE Georgia
#15 Utah vs. #3 Indiana
#6 Oregon vs. #11 BYU
Round 3:
#1 Ohio State vs. #8 Texas A&M
#4 Alabama vs. #5 Texas Tech
#2 Georgia vs. #10 Notre Dame
#3 Indiana vs. #6 Oregon
Round 4:
#1 Ohio State vs. #5 Texas Tech
#10 Notre Dame vs. #3 Indiana
Finals:
#1 Ohio State vs. #3 Indiana
