College Football National Champ Format?

Now. We would have been in the Sugar in 03 and 07. While USC (03)and Ohio St.(07) would have played, and probably won the Rose as the #1 ranked team, winning those NC's. Granted, we probably win the '11 natty as the #1 team in Sugar. '19 We roll regardless of course.

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when it comes down to it the fatal flaw in both is human bias

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Agreed. I have said before, the CFP is essentially a glorified regression to the old poll system. Only it's worse, because now we have a limited number of voters, and there is little transparency to their ranking rationale. I also doubt any of the ADs on the committee are consuming as much college football as this board alone does every weekend.

The BCS would have worked had they stopped tinkering with the formula, and had a final BCS poll determine the national championship game matchup AFTER all the BCS bowls were played.

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Step 1: eliminate FBS vs FCS games and go to 11 regular season games

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I don't hate this, but a lot of FCS programs rely on that FBS money. I would actually require more FBS teams play FCS schools, but they all have to be in September, and treat them like preseason games; they don't factor into postseason selections. This shouldn't be an issue for true national title contenders.

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Step 2: Consolidate FBS to reduce the number of teams and standardize the size of conferences. ALL FBS teams must join a conference, and each conference will have a conference championship game.

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I like it. College football was better when the conferences were smaller and more regionalized anyway. Of course, I would want some shifting done that will never happen now.

Most programs in the MAC or C-USA would likely be more competitive, and attract more attention, in the FCS. And they could still play FBS teams for money based on my first point.

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Step 3: All conference champions (plus maybe 2 at-larges) make the post-season.

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I'm okay with this. I think the BCS could've lasted longer with a conference champion requirement.

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Step 4: The first round of the "playoffs" is actually what the BCS and New Years bowls were back in the day. All the teams are matched up in these bowls not based on rankings, but based on traditional conference rivalries/historical bowl tie-ins (PAC 12 vs Big 10, SEC vs Big 12, etc).

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Yup. The major bowls would matter again, and there wouldn't necessarily be a linear path to the national championship game. It could create drama again on NYD.

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Step 5: The winners of these bowls are matched up based on rankings, and the games can either be neutral site bowls or at the home team of the higher seeded team.

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I would only re-rank for the top 2 teams to play. The bowls haven't really yielded more than 2 teams above all others in recent years.

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Finally, if we just simply cannot get the Rose Bowl to budge, make it the national championship game on New Years Day.

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The Orange, Sugar, and Cotton probably won't go for that. Just rotate annually between those four (and the Fiesta and Peach if we must) to match up #1 vs #2 after the other bowls are played.

In a perfect world where there is enough top-tier talent to go around, the current system is best. But we don't live in a perfect world, and there isn't enough top-tier talent to go around. You get four or five super teams that more or less take whoever they want, and everyone else gets the leftovers. You also have one region of the country - the South - that produces disproportionately more talent than anywhere else, and also has the greatest level of interest in the sport. The result is what we see now: the same few teams in the playoff every year, with the SEC always being the winner. Other conferences don't have much more than a puncher's chance because they are forced to beat the SEC on the field to win the championship, which they can very rarely do. This is not good for the health of the sport.

Given the way things actually are, I'd prefer a return to the pre-BCS system. This would help to prop up other regions of the country because the best teams would not necessarily end up playing each other at the end of the year. Michigan or Ohio State or USC or Oklahoma could hope to win an NC and never have to play the SEC along the way. The gulf between the SEC and the rest of the country would be somewhat covered up, which would help generate interest in other regions. B1G fans or Pac-12 fans could argue that their team would have beaten Alabama or Georgia if they had played, without ever having to worry about the reality of getting embarrassed on the field.

Did that system always produce the most legitimate champion each year? No, of course not. But it did make every region feel like they had a legitimate shot, and that is good for the game overall.