A US
college football playoff does not currently exist in the Football Bowl Subdivision, where polls and bowls determine the champion. These polls are heavily biased. A proper playoff would involve all 11
college football conference champions, and a 12th team to round out the field - either the next-best 2nd-place team or an
Independent.
Four games are played in September, four games in October, four games in November.
At the end of the season, ALL college conferences will be obliged to stage a
championship game between their top two teams to determine their conference champion, if the top two teams finish within one game of each other, or if they send the winners of their two divisions to a
championship game anyway. (i.e. 11-1 and 10-2).
If there is a clear winner
after the season is concluded (i.e. a 12-0 team, with the next-best team being 10-2), no championship game is required.
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS (Week of Dec. 1-7)
ROUND ONE
7 of these 11 conference champions, plus the best 2nd-place team (or an
Independent - whatever works) play at the sites of the 4 major bowls during the second week of December. (8th to 14th)
The four winning teams move on.
The schools can then break for exams and holidays.
ROUND TWO
The four major bowl games are the Orange, Sugar, Rose, and Fiesta Bowl. The winners from round 1 meet up with the four top-ranked conference champions in these bowl games.
Four teams move on in the playoff from here.
The TOP 4 conference champions get byes to round 2, which, coincidentally, will be the four major bowl games. The bowl games have historical significance in
college football, and some college conferences have contractual tie-ins which give them huge sums of money.
This is the main reason that college presidents in these conferences are against a playoff. They don't want to give up the money that their schools earn through the bowls. This playoff system does not get rid of them.
ROUND THREE
In round 3, 2 of the sites of those bowl games host the semi-final games.
The following season, the other two sites host the semi-finals.
ROUND 4
The FBS championship will also rotate between the 4 bowls, as it does now.
So there you have it. No bowls get eliminated, which makes the college presidents happy.
The teams that get knocked out of the playoff can also go on to play in other bowls if they so wish.
